初學油畫: LEAP OF FAITH － 俺的習作（４） (圖)

LEAP OF FAITH － OIL ON CANVAS 11" x 14"

該畫取材於DALLAS MORNING NEWS上的一幅照片。照片的標題是Escape claws: No squirrel for this bobcat's breakfast. 照片下的注解是：Despite the long leap, a bobcat missed getting a squirrel breakfast Friday morning on ...a creek that runs behind the street ... where bobcats are known to lurk.(bobcat是一種野生貓，比家貓體積大一倍左右）。我當時看報紙一下就被這張照片吸引住了。這個貓的動作，姿態，神情，恰恰體現了AMERICAN EXPRESSION：LEAP OF FAITH。雖然它沒成功，但我覺得，這就叫 LEAP OF FAITH！正象Elton John's Circle of Life的歌詞：From the day we arrive on the planet，... ,Some say eat or be eaten, Some say live and let live, ... , In the circle of life, It's the wheel of fortune, It's the leap of faith, It's the band of hope, Till we find our place ...

該照片是早上４點多照的，所以前景和背景黑呼呼的，而且也沒什麽背景。我不喜歡。於是，我決定把這支貓和鬆鼠放到白天，陽光燦爛的背景裏。

該畫的其餘部分取自梵高的一幅油畫：Pine Trees and Dandelions in the Asylum Garden. １８９０年４月，梵高在他最長一次BREAKDOWN恢複後，畫了這幅"magnificent landscape, taken once again from the asylum garden - or park, as he had come to call it." 他給他弟弟寫的信中描述這幅畫："I have done two canvases of the fresh grass in the park, one of which is extremely simple ... The trunk of a pine violet-pink and then the grass with white flowers and dandelions, a little rose tree and other trunks in the back ground right at the top of the canvas". 梵高認為他畫的此畫＂EXTREMELY SIMPLE＂，我正好在此畫上加兩個 SUBJECTS，使畫麵複雜點。

我喜歡梵高強勁有力的PINE TREE TRUNKS，春意盎然的DANDELIONS，加上動態的SQUIRREL和BOBCAT，（因為SQUIRREL的速度比BOBCAT快，所以它的形象模糊。）我覺得這兩者合在一起很和諧，表現了一種生機，一種力量。我畫此畫塗改的少了，花的時間也比上一幅少。我似乎有了一點兒就輕駕熟的感覺。

古今中外，多少大師試圖解釋什麽是藝術。在眾多的名言裏，我最喜歡梵高的一段話：Art should be "something peaceful and agreeable, realistic and painted from the heart, something brief, synthetic, simplified and concentrated, full of serenity, and pure harmony, consoling as music." - 我希望按他說的去追求藝術。

[AP24]

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[阿竹]

好一幅生機盎然的畫麵！很有意思的探索，很有啟發又特別的感悟。
追隨自己的內心，從自己的生活和喜歡的作品中尋找靈感是一條好路子。

梵高的東西逮著機會一定要多看原作，他真的是把能量和激情注入作品了，我麵對他有的畫時候直接先是是背皮一陣發麻～

（我想藝術最神奇之一點就是這種感覺的直達。）

分享一點用手機從去年“The real Van Gogh: The artist and his letters” 展覽上摘的他的話：
These canvases will tell you what I can't say in words.
Nature is most certainly “intangible”, yet one must seize it, and with firm hand.
In all of nature, in trees for instance I see expression and soul.


很多年前讀過中文版的梵高書信集好象譯成“親愛的提奧”。 但從這個展覽還還是驚歎於他的博學和思辯的另一麵。

這是展覽相關信息：

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/vangogh/exhibition/

部分他的信：

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/vangogh/exhibition/which-letters-feature-in-the-exhibition,242,MA.html