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Friday, June 1, 2012

Liu Yi. Interview.

Dear Mr. Liu, there are a lot of art lovers in Russia who anxious to know more about you and your painting methods. Thanks to internet, some time ago your works became available for a wide audience. There is no much information though or, it is all in Chinese language.


Liu Yi. SwanEnchantment. 70x100cm. 2007

Mr Liu, what is your personal feeling for watercolor media?
Watercolor painting is not only difficult for water color painters but also for most of the artists who know about it. It is an ingenious form of art with a touch of randomness. It demonstrates painters’ overall skills as well as the competence in controlling over colors. Therefore, I have been fascinated by its charm and profoundness for twenty years.

Liu Yi

What is the significance of water in your painting?
My unique interpretation and mastery of “the language of watercolor” derive from my great and pure love for watercolor painting.
“Water, the softest thing in the world, conquers everything.”
“The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying without striving.”
“A perfect person, blessed with virtues of water, is close to Tao.”
These expressions about water show my reflection on Chinese philosophy — “the harmony of man with nature”. They are exactly what I want to achieve while painting.

Liu Yi

What qualities do make the Artist?
From the perspective of artistic creation, an artist should attach great importance to individualism and possess special skills. It is rewarding to create your own style by finding the best technique to express yourself and by discovering something that meets both your aesthetic and interest. Only when you find subjects in accordance with this style and display them to the full, will you reach a new level.

Liu Yi

Which objects do inspire you the most?
I use wet technique to create my works. Jiang Nan Water Village, Jiang Nan Garden, The Rhythm of Water & Wind, Folk Customs, and Ballet Enchantment, all illustrate my understanding about water to express my imagination and concepts.
I depict Jiang Nan villages on rainy days and picturesque ancient gardens. My love for my hometown is hidden behind these bridges and pavilions. The pictures, further, purify my soul.
I portray the grace and elegance of ballerinas, conveying the eternal charm of this performance.

Liu Yi

Can you describe your creative process?
The art of watercolor painting is a perceptive one, which I merge one color into the other with my perception. Only when I “talk” with water, can I produce a variety of styles and concepts on the paper, like narrative, lyricism or something. It is painstaking or even exhausting for me to create a satisfactory work. However, if I am totally engaged in it, nothing else interests or bothers me any more. It is a real enjoyment to combine different elements – color, rhythm, water and randomness into my creation. The pleasant air penetrates my studio.

Liu Yi

Which qualities of watercolors are the most important in your opinion?
Watercolor painting, with its outer and inner beauty, is more than a lyric poem.
I am seeking morality and harmony in painting. Some elements are designed to blend while others to contrast. Softness and hardness, swiftness and steadiness, lightness and heaviness, calmness and excitement — all of these and more challenge consistency with appropriate charms. I believe they are an expression of Chinese basic assumptions about life itself.

Liu Yi

Perfect Blend of Water & the Sky Moisture penetrates the nature so much so that it makes the landscape and the sky blend into each another.
Sunset Thick cloud and thin mist lyrically converge into stormy waters.
Cold Wave The emergence of cold wave brings hundred of birds to a halt — the intangible air is poetically embedded in the picture.
Fluting in the Distance My perspective on internal coherence between nobleness and holy music is woven into the picture.

Liu Yi

Is the appreciation of the audience important for you?
My paintings involve natural rhythm and inexhaustible charm as well as the emotional and aesthetic implications. Hopefully, they will suit both refined and popular tastes and be appreciated with delight

Liu Yi

Do you finish your works in one session?
I like to finish my works in a hurry. I am very fond of painting on wet paper where softness and thickness are created and balanced in harmony.

Liu yi. Holy Music. 75x108 cm

What paper do you use?
CANSON  –  185/300 gm
SAUNDERS  –  190 gm  300 gm
BOOKINGFORD    300 gm

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for this wonderful interview. I admire and love Mr. Liu's superb watercolors.

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  2. Hi there, would you happen to have the contact information for Liuyi? I would also like to get the chance to interview him. Please email me at rachelgouk@vantageshanghai.com
    Thank you

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  3. Pretentious and incomprehensible twiddle-twaddle ! .

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  4. Amazing "control" you have over your medium,and I agree with you: feeling and experiencing the medium and the theme is part of the art. Thank you for sharing your art with us.

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