It is the greatest fun seeing the elders practising their Chinese paintings, and as an art instructor I really have had satisfactory time with them. It is ridiculous to deem that the senior citizens do not have such the creative imaginations that the younger persons have;or their learning capacities are inferior to that of the much younger generation. Many times, I only need to repeat what I have told them,or have taught them once, twice or thrice at most, they would said: ’Ah! Now I totally understand. Thank you teacher!’ Then they would put what they had apprehended, what they had constructed in minds on the sheets of paper with individual interpretations!
The young has a thousand activities ;Chinese painting for them is just being considered as one thing among their activities.They can be still happy without it.Any party,any thing to fill up the day has been enough. I always believe in going hard at everything, whether it is painting or musical instrument, football or basketball. For an adequate object,we have to absolutely exhaust one’s self or to take big chances. Otherwise we cannot get in the pith and morrow of it. To keep in training the faculties is of vital importance to empathize the quintessence of the adequate object with our bodies and souls. However the young generation has so many distractions that they could not explore the territory of Chinese painting in depth. Their skills and cognition regarding this subject only can be defined maybe just as the level of the amateurs’. It is the problem of some of the younger students of mine for their making little progress,even over a long span of eight years.
Sometimes,I like to offer a challenge to the elders as to invigorate their creative thinking ,or to upgrade their depicting techniques. At first,to my surprise,the more complicated the subject matter they worked on, the more they resoluted to exert every effort to deal with it. The painting above with three chickens in it is a work by an elderly gentleman who are over 70s. He loves challenge badly.At the end of every lessons,he would usually say: ‘ Interesting tough work! I have task to do this week.’ He told me that he had to practise repeatedly,and had to throw away many unsuccessful works,and then could have a pleasing one. Looking at three chickens gives a feeling of the artist’s geniality,a geniality made up of discretion and modesty and which is able to transpose the rural savour into pristine freshness.
The other painting two chickens is a work by an elderly lady whose brushwork is much more forceful and energetic,another kind of interpretation . When she is engaged in painting,she would pause and ponder in a great while, and then wields the brush immediately and decisively on the paper. Sometimes she would cover a particular area of an object with repeated brush strokes to darken the shades.The breast of the cock in her painting was drawn with deep yellish-brown,and with dry black strokes over it, which enhanced the visual effect of feathered texture.
It is never too late to learn,if we really learn something with great eagerness. Another elderly old lady always repeats this words: ’I don’t know how to handle the brush. I didn’t have much education for I had to support the living of family when I was eight years old.’ She did not have the chance to learn Chinese painting previously,but now she can grasp this opportunity to learn what she likes. Besides,she is making progress every time. From the group photo,we can see that my elder students are still going strong. They will showcase their works at the displaying area of Sai Wan Ho station in the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway in the coming March.
