四季圖：冬（彩墨）

我曾看過師長們把傳統中國畫顏料施灑在紙上，然後拿到太陽底下去曝曬。沒有多久，幾乎所有的色彩都褪差不多了。看來這些傳統國畫顏料是靠不住的，不經久。怪不得現今吾人看到齊白石的那些花卉，墨跡猶存，可是幾乎看不到那些葉片的本色了。

基本上來講，墨是千年不褪的，可是使用的顏料如果不是礦物質的就容易褪色，頗令人煩惱。現在最進步的顏料據說是由原油中提煉出來的，聽說也能耐千年而不褪呢。

對於用色，我人並無任何禁忌，什麼顏料都用上，就怕不能耐久。

Four Seasons Pictures IV Winter/ink and color painting

I used to see my teachers apply traditional Chinese pigments to paper, and then dry the paper out under the sun.Before long, almost all the colors had faded into uniformity. That’s when I realized that the pigments used in traditionalChinese paintings are very unreliable. No wonder there when we look at flowers painted by Qi Baiyan, although theink lines still remain, the original colors of the leaves are almost invisible.

Although ink basically does not fade even after a thousand years, pigments that do not contain mineral matterreadily fade, which has long been a thorny problem for art-lovers. Nowadays, however, contemporary pigments are said to be made from petroleum products, and I hear that they can also last for a thousand years without fading.

I don’t have any taboos as far as pigments are concerned. I will use any type of pigments, and only hope that theyare enduring.@

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責任編輯：昌英