For those born in China in the 1960s, it may have taken years to understand fundamental questions about life, living, good, evil, and love; what is art, what is painting, and what are the principles of life? We grew up in an era of limited knowledge, and our teenage years were filled with constant questioning and doubt. It was a long and confusing journey.

I stumbled upon painting by chance. With a youthful enthusiasm, I devoted myself to learning everything about it: folk art, traditional Chinese painting, and Western painting from classical to modern times. It took many years to establish my artistic path. I was willing to risk my life to pursue truth, just as I naturally enjoy Western classical music. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, feeling lost in painting, I returned to the fields of my hometown and found the source of my artistic inspiration: extensive sketching from nature.

I have an innate instinct to emphasize my own personal experience. I won’t trust anything I haven’t personally experienced. I insist that all my understanding must be verified by my heart. It’s impossible to trace when my heart became my standard. In those confusing times, trusting my heart’s guidance required tremendous courage and confidence. I possess the courage required to go against the grain. The support of my family has been instrumental in my perseverance in pursuing my artistic pursuit despite countless hardships. Through countless sincere encounters with nature during my sketching journey, I have been able to distinguish between confused perceptions and misconceptions, and to diligently walk the path of freedom. It is the torches ignited by the lives of several masters in Chinese and international art history that illuminate my path forward.

When sketching, I’m unconditionally guided by my own feelings, relying primarily on my own feelings, unconstrained by experience or principles of painting. In the process, I’ve come to realize that all principles are created by humans, and that following the heart is the only way to go wrong. I paint according to my own feelings, and I yearn to start painting from scratch, sincerely and authentically facing the call of my soul.
During the long-term sketching, I unconsciously began to look for shapes and colors that correspond to my inner self. The shapes and colors in nature are everywhere, and at the same time, I feel that my inner system is slowly taking shape. I no longer paint the objects I see with my eyes, but the natural images I feel in my heart.
Speaking of feeling, it’s a human instinct, more powerful than all our other organs combined. Feelings can predict the unknown and transcend time and space. Art, witchcraft, mythology, and religion are all connected to the human sensory system, possessing an extraordinary power of resonance. The history of painting is nothing more than the history of the manifestation of feeling. Humans’ initial senses were far more powerful than those of today, and painting is an effort to return to them. Today, we can still feel the charm of the primitive, rural, and ancient ecology. Painting will not disappear; it is an indisputable fact that humans need painting to carry their feelings. Feelings possess infinite potential that can be purified and developed, like the energy of the universe, bringing vitality and energy to people.

Humanity must not lose its reverence for nature and its tradition of drawing life’s energy from it. Everything modern man invents is but trifles to nature. A mountain, a river, a deep forest, a piece of land, always holds an inexhaustible sense of mystery, a mystery far greater than humankind’s ability to utilize it. Painting is merely a way for humans to express their reverence for nature. In this interplay with natural sensations, people constantly sense its vastness and ethereal beauty, realizing that humans are an integral part of nature, never separated from it, like fish in water. Apart from nature, there is no place for human imagination and action. This ancient proposition will endure forever, and painting is the best way to narrate this theme.