His portrayal of gray and blue cities brings warmth to Shanghai audiences, and Jiangxi painters come to Shanghai to hold exhibitions
The Waterway West East - Song Yuelin Watercolor and Ink Painting Works Tour will be held at the Liu Haisu Art Museum for 15 days starting from September 22nd. The exhibition comprehensively presents over 66 watercolor and ink painting works created by painter Song Yuelin in recent years, from the concrete realism of early "Old Well Woman" to the concrete expression of "Green Table", and then to the Fengchang series "Birthday II", "Gathering II", "Rhythm", showcasing the strong Eastern sentiment in watercolor.
Exhibition site
Song Yuelin was born in 1959 in Jilin City, with ancestral roots in Xiangtan, Hunan. In 1998, he studied at the Advanced Watercolor Painting Training Class of the China Academy of Fine Arts. He is currently a member of the China Artists Association, the China Calligraphers Association, and a national first-class artist. Song Yuelin not only focuses on watercolor but also excels in ink painting. He has long been involved in the creation of water-soluble materials such as watercolor, ink, and acrylic, striving to use "water" as the road, integrate the creative techniques and aesthetic styles of Eastern and Western painting, and form his unique creative appearance.
![His portrayal of gray and blue cities brings warmth to Shanghai audiences, and Jiangxi painters come to Shanghai to hold exhibitions](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/2b7caf5420d13def760a047140c5cd55.jpg)
In Song Yuelin's view, as a Chinese painter, it is necessary to incorporate more Chinese elements into watercolor, an imported product. He believes that Western painting pursues the effect of light and shadow, while Chinese painting has a complete abstract system, and incorporating Chinese elements into watercolor painting is also a major path. He extracted the most culturally valuable freehand spirit from Eastern ink painting and integrated it into the context of another material composition, achieving the freedom of innovation. In his creative practice, he mainly had three stages: early "Old Well Woman" was a concrete and realistic work; The second stage is concrete expression, represented by the painting "Green Table" during my study in the advanced research class of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts; In recent years, traditional transparent watercolors have been incorporated with ink elements to showcase Eastern sentiments, such as "Birthday II", "Gathering II", "Rhythm", and so on.
Exhibition site
Shang Hui, the academic host of the exhibition and director of the Art Theory Committee of the China Artists Association, introduced that Song Yuelin's works are characterized by their ability to depict cities, but not by depicting high-rise buildings. Instead, they depict the crowds in the city and the relaxed state of people in their leisure time at night. "Nowadays, many paintings focus on depicting a certain street scene or a certain group of people in the city, and rarely touch people's inner world. The use of cultural landscapes to present the psychological state of urban people is a particularly prominent part of Song Yuelin's works."
![His portrayal of gray and blue cities brings warmth to Shanghai audiences, and Jiangxi painters come to Shanghai to hold exhibitions](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/242272364072f854769a208ed60342cd.jpg)
In terms of artistic language, Song Yuelin also has his own exploration. In the early days, it was pure transparent watercolor; The second stage is watercolor with water powder, acrylic and water-soluble pigments; The third stage mainly involves the addition of Chinese ink wash. The transparency of watercolor and the opacity of watercolor powder blend together to create a special milky effect. Shang Hui believes that the gray and blue colors depicted by Song Yuelin are particularly beautiful, and using this color to depict the city is also appropriate. "His paintings may make Shanghai audiences feel familiar. Shanghai painters such as Yu Xiaofu, Huang Azhong, and Zhou Changjiang all have abstract and semi abstract elements in their works, and they also like to combine watercolor and ink. This exploration coincides, perhaps because artists all come from the Yangtze River and are influenced by water culture. This is an exhibition that is particularly connected to Shanghai's cultural context. I believe that the people in the city depicted by him can resonate with Shanghai audiences."
The exhibition is hosted by the Watercolor Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association, the Jiangxi Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Communist Party of China Jiujiang Municipal Committee, and the Jiujiang Municipal People's Government.