暗光鸟（工笔）

我去花店买一束洋百合花，朱黄色的花瓣，上缀红色斑点，很漂亮。我问店内小姐：“百合花长多高？生态如何？”她摇头说不知道。──不如我自己去种花的花圃实地去看看，拿写生簿去画它一画，还比较更明了。

历来，所有的前辈画家都主张写生，强调写生的重要，要同学们拿纸笔去户外亲自观察写生，把看到的画下来，才不致于闭门造车。

李可染就很重视写生，他说：“有些画家终生俯案摹古，‘画于南窗之下’，从不肯走出画室，其实走出来看看也比关在画室要好得多，若能再进一步写生，那就更好了。看看，只能得一个模糊的印象。只有走出去写生，才能深入认识客观世界，才算是师造化。”

伟哉斯言！

（画里的两只夜鹭，台湾话叫“暗光鸟”，是很常见的留鸟。）

Night Heron/fine brush painting

I once bought some lilies at a florist’s shop, and the reddish-yellow petals, which were adorned with red spots, were very pretty. I asked a young lady working in the shop, “How tall does this lily grow? What is its ecology?” She shook her head and told me she didn’t know. It would have been better if I had gone to a nursery where the flowers were grown, and drawn them in my sketchbook—this would have given me a better understanding of these flowers.

Almost all painters of the older generation emphasized the importance of sketching from life. They often told us students to bring paper and brush outdoors to observe and sketch natural objects. They had us paint what we saw, which insured that we didn’t get out of touch from reality.

Li Ko-jan, who greatly valued sketching from life, once said: “Some painters spend their lives looking at their desks and copying ancient models; they are divorced from reality, and unwilling to leave their studios. Getting out to look at the world is much, much better than staying shut up in one’s studio. It’s even better if one can also sketch from life. Viewing something leaves us with only a vague impression. Getting out and sketching things is the only way to really deeply grasp the objective world, and is the only way to really create things.”

These are words to live by!

(This painting contains two night herons, which are commonly seen resident birds in Taiwan.) ＠

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责任编辑：昌英