夜歸（彩墨）

夜已深。三兩歸人舉著火把回家。

我小時候家鄉那兒沒有電，差不多在我國小二年級那時才開始「牽電線」。在這之後的兩年左右，我鄰居他們大家也都「牽」了，那時好像也沒有電表（？），計費是看你家有幾盞電燈，由燈泡數來計費，很神奇吧。

我們有一個住在大堀溪旁的親戚，他們很多年以後才牽電線。在這之前，他們由新坡街上回家，經過我家時，都會去稻草堆那兒「抽」一些乾稻梗做成火把，然後五六個大人、小孩各舉著一支火把回家──是我童年永不褪色的記憶。

此圖，一開始我們試著以火炬為中心畫出一個有光影的圓，後來興味來了，再加幾個「光圈」，使光影層層堆疊，最後剩下上弦月那裡最漆深的黑。

沒有機紐，隨心之所向，畫到哪裡算哪裡，畫畫的快慰就是這樣。

Returning in the Evening/ink and color painting

Night has already fallen. Small groups of people carrying torches are returning home.

Our area had no power during my childhood, and people didn’t begin installing power until around the time I entered second grade. All my neighbors installed power within two years of this. I don’t think there were any power meters in those days, and the way they calculated your power fees was by how many light bulbs your household had. Using number of light bulbs to calculate power charges seems almost miraculous.

We have some relatives living by Daku Creek who didn’t get electricity until many years later. Before that, they would go home via Xinpo Street, and would pull some dry rice stalks from the haystack at our house to serve as torches. Afterwards, the five or six adults and children would go home, each holding a torch in his or her hand. This is one of the indelible memories of my childhood.

When I made this painting, I first painted a circular aura of light around each torch. Afterwards, I thought it would be more interesting to add several haloes, which created overlapping rings of light. I finally added the pitch black around the crescent moon.

This illustrates the pleasure of painting. I paint as I like with complete freedom, and paint as much or as little as I want. ＠

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責任編輯：昌英