In 2016, at the National Art Museum of China, the artist Peng Si, who was born in Hengyang, Hunan Province in 1980, had a lively solo exhibition "New Landscapes - Peng Si Painting Exhibition", which was well received by the crowd. In the same period, around 2016, the price of a single work in the artist's personal record in the art market was around one million yuan. This young artist has been highly recognized in both academia and the market.

However, for Burns, at the age of 36, he realized the lifelong dreams of many artists and handed over the museum After the homework of this subject was exhibited, he started to leave, escaped from Beijing, first went to Guizhou with his backpack on his back, traveled to Sichuan, wandered around with his backpack on his back, counted wherever he went, and began to look for his own path. trip.

Schopenhauer mentioned in the famous book "On the Pain of the World" that a certain amount of anxiety, pain, and troubles are necessary for everyone at any time. A ship cannot keep steady without ballast, and therefore cannot go straight.

When I saw Pence again later, he had a new look. The well-known exploration of the field of classical painting, thus turning to free creation with self-perception as the main body. Breaking away from the focus on the history of painting and turning to nature, Staying in nature, facing the weeds, ridges, and soil in the natural scenery, the hardness, softness and tension that hit the face has gained great shock and motivation< /strong>.

On this occasion, ArtPro talks to the artist Burns, to feel what he experienced from his twenties, thirties to forties, and what he found on the road.

Q: ArtPro Xie Mu
A: Artist Burns

Q: (ArtPro Xie Mu ): Hello, Mr. Peng, you are a graduate of CAFA Printmaking Department. How did you start painting oil paintings?

A: (Artist Peng Si): I graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. My oil painting is purely self-taught.I spent a long time learning how to paint by myself It’s like an oil painting, buy various materials and books, conduct research on materials and techniques, after repeated study and training, after mastering the existing materials, now it’s more about expanding my own painting materials.

Oil painting mainly uses oil, which is the core, I use it repeatedly, safflower oil, poppy oil, linseed oil, linseed oil, polymerized linseed oil , Cold-pressed linseed oil... The time value and drying value of hot-pressed and cold-pressed linseed oil are different. I have done experimental data tests. For example, ripened walnut oil may dry the skin in two days, but it may take 4 to 5 days for unripe walnut oil. I was thinking about how to use oil in the paintings of the Nordic Renaissance and the materials used by the Venetian School of Painting in Italy.I am very clear about oil paintings today.

From the perspective of painting subject matter, what I am most obsessed with is painting faces, with A little neck or a little shoulder, seldom draw the whole body. My first painting was a head portrait of an elderly person painted by Freud. Bach and other works of the London School. During this process, Spiritual figure painting is easy to project myself in, project myself in .

Q: In the previous portrait creations, why were there more male portraits? Especially young males, the avatars of "Little Fresh Meat".

A : I am not influenced by Xiao Xianrou, My character itself does not like trends, I am a little lonely and withdrawn from time to time, which is actually a kind of Self-satisfaction in disguise. When I was young, I often went to the mountains alone with a copybook and a flute to watch the rubbings and play the flute to watch the sunset.

I prefer to draw men, try to draw men not like men, and also Don't want to look like a woman. It may be that I want to express an ambiguous state in my heart, rather than being male or female. I like the elastic things that come out of the collision between the two poles. If I draw a very weak face, but the heart seems to reveal the state of a steel needle, this is the spirituality I emphasize.

Q : For artists, in their thirties It has been recognized by both academics and the market, and it can be said that you have become famous at a young age. How did you go through that period of time?

A: I didn’t do it voluntarily to become famous as a teenager. I wasn’t ready for everything. It was the times that pushed you there. At that time, I had to take the initiative to learn things that made me strong and thick.

I have spent fifteen years studying Chinese traditions and getting closer to Western classics. I feel as if I can draw as well as them. Slowly, It turned out that a sensitive and fragile heart was blocked by a so-called "goodness", imprisoned by too many Eastern and Western classics, not as ostentatious as when I was a teenager, and my self-confidence was always unable to be released. After finishing my solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 2016, I no longer wanted to paint.

Q: If you don’t draw in 2016, what will you do? 
A: Left after 2016. I fled Beijing. I started to travel to Guizhou and Sichuan with my bag on my back. I wandered alone with my bag on my back. I counted where I went, and started to find my own journey. A person will find all kinds of interesting things during his journey, and he is also seeking a kind of healing in nature.

As soon as the spring began in March 2018, I revisited my hometown to Tunxi at the foot of Huangshan Mountain. Fireworks are rainy in March. In Daizhen Park in the early morning, I was the only one walking with an umbrella. Suddenly I saw a pear blossom in the rain. It was round and white, so beautiful. At this moment, there was a kind of beauty in my heart that made my heart sway.

After that, in a mountain stream of Mount Jiuhua, a magnolia flower was swaying in the wind. I was moved by the floating state, and my imprisoned heart was awakened.

In 2019, I lived in Jiangnan, Fujian, and Wuyi Mountain for a year and a half. The resulting hardness, softness and tension shocked me greatly.

O2art will launch a special project "Yaoyao" during the 2022 Gallery Week Beijing. After the debut, many people said that Pence was different.

Q: From "Yao Yao" in 2022 to Has anything changed for Narcissus of Mandelbrot in 2023?

A: "Narcissus" is a narcissistic narcissus god who often appears in Western paintings. Correspondingly, I have invested a lot of concentration in the painting process. Drawing one hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands of strokes for a work is a kind of tempering and energy accumulation for me.< /strong>This deep spiritual experience and personal physical energy are all in the canvas, projected like a mirror image, like Narcissus, All I see in my paintings is myself.

The works of figures and landscapes exhibited this time often Inspired by each other, I especially benefit from multi-line work. These two kinds of creations are swaying, expressive, and writing, and there seems to be a kind of breath flowing between the brushstrokes. The structure of the characters requires a certain degree of accuracy, while the abstract large-scale landscapes rely on the feelings brought to me by my body, breath, and space, and pursue the fluidity of the picture.

At present, my figure paintings also have this kind of fluid strokes and loose feeling , which is not available in my earlier works. The more sensitive ones in figure paintings, such as the compactness and subtlety of eyes or more specific shapes, inspired me to sculpt when cleaning up the picture in large paintings.

Q: What is the final painting state you hope to achieve? 
A: I hope that when I stand in front of this canvas and my brush starts to touch the canvas, this painting will generate itself. , light and the scene will tell me how to paint.As long as I focus enough on each stroke, I believe that my historical perception and future perception will also be presented on the screen. This is Very magical power. This is through my current daily training, I believe that in space, the field will teach me how to draw.

The only thing I can rely on is my body, I’m tired of painting, I want to jump, my body will heat up Yes, my body is hot, so I can draw vigorously. This is true. At this time, some of your factors will come alive, and the memories and accumulations of the past will come back at a certain moment. I constantly rely on my self-nature and constantly confirm my self-nature.This is a process for an artist to constantly discover himself.

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