There are those who love flowers but never plant flowers,
love birds but do not raise birds. They treasure life, as life is
short, whereas art is forever. Miss Chien Mei-Yu 簡美育is like
this. She would rather paint to show her world of flowers and
birds. For her, it is not an imitation of real flowers and birds but
rather her life’s passion. To carry out this passion, she observes
every detail of nature carefully in order to understand its true
meaning. Her style has evolved in the past twenty years.
Bamboo and Sparrows《竹雀圖》and The Lotus《芙蕖圖》are
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Detail of Bamboo and Sparrows 竹雀圖, color on silk, 2001 |
current works. It has been a long process including both the
development of her style and her efforts to understand nature
which culminated in her recent paintings. It is very difficult to
appreciate the hardship she has endured but you can feel it when
you view these two paintings.
Bamboo and sparrows are not an unusual theme in Chinese
painting. We can find them often in ancient paintings. But it’s
worth pondering how a painter handles the relationship between
them. First, to choose the number, single or plural. It may
sound simple but often implies different ways of presentation. A
single bird connotes solitude, two implies a relationship, while a
flock will show the rich and fluid vigorousness of a flock. The
same is with bamboo. A lone stalk of bamboo shows aloofness, but a lot of bamboo will show its complicated changes. Bamboo
and sparrows mixed under these changes both restricted and
show their fluidity. In the long history of Chinese painting, a
pattern appeared in the 12th century, when Emperor Huizong 宋徽宗of the Song Dynasty painted The Bamboo and the Bird 《竹禽圖》. Another is The Plum and Bamboo Together with
the Birds《梅竹聚禽》in the collection of the National Palace
Museum. Pine, Bamboo and Plum and a Hundred Birds《三友
百禽》of the 15th century basically follow this pattern and show
a rich and brisk nature. Though it is a palace painting, it however
depicts outdoor scenery and a thirst for life outside the palace
walls. Bamboo and Sparrows of Chien Mei-Yu is similar to
Plum and Bamboo Together with the Birds and Pine, Bamboo
and Plum and a Hundred Birds and we may be able to appreciate
her real meaning better by viewing them together.
The painting of Bamboo and Sparrows is longer than two
meters and its traverse layout has a more modern feel, as numerous
birds gather in all kinds of positions. Mei-Yu deliberately
made them all different, to show her ability to describe and to
glorify an ever-changing nature. But in ancient paintings, showing
different birds, bamboo and trees are carefully limited.
However, Bamboo and Sparrows displays the entire bamboo forest
and an entire flock of birds, so that the birds mix into the
bamboo forest. This wide-angle view was Mei-Yu’s microscopic
observation of nature, but she did not sacrifice a detailed
description of nature. This painting takes heart in the bamboo
leaves being interlaced and the birds stay, feed and play in it.
The entire painting is extremely detailed, but the most trouble
taken was in the multi-layer fine-tone color which makes the
details fade into the surrounding background. The effect is
entirely different from Plum and Bamboo Together with the Birds, which emphasizes the birds. As for Pine, Bamboo and
Plum and a Hundred Birds the grasp of detail in the birds manifests
the painter’s ability to be restrained. The birds have to be
examined very carefully though. The clamor and flaunt disappear,
and insipidity and harmony set in.
Introducing this observation to form the relationship of the
bamboo and birds is basically understanding of them. The
painter neither repeats ancient painters’ themes nor refrains from
existing wilderness. Bamboo and Sparrows present not merely a
Detail of Bamboo and Sparrows 竹雀圖, color on silk, 2001 |
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beautiful bamboo forest,. . .
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