Northeastern Culture·Colorful Art World·Gao Qipei, a unique finger painter

Northeastern culture·Colorful art world·Gao Qipei, a finger painter who has pioneered his own path. In the history of Northeastern painting art, the three most commendable painters are Yelubei, the king of Dan in Liaodong, Wang Tingyun of the Jin Dynasty, and Gao Qipei of the Qing Dynasty.

.

Yelubei was a representative painter of the northern grassland school of painting in the Liao Dynasty. His paintings mainly showed the hunting and nomadic customs of the Khitan people, and his works have a strong flavor of grassland life.

He is good at painting horses and Khitan figures. The horses he paints are fat and fat. Most of the figures are aristocratic leaders in Khitan costumes, holding bows and arrows, leading yellow (dogs) and blue-armed (eagles).

The work's brushwork is round and thin, and the figures and horses are strong and vigorous. It has reached a high artistic level in depicting the characters' personality and expressions, showing the painter's strong realistic skills.

The "Picture of Shooting and Riding".

Fifteen works including "Hunting and Riding Pictures", "Snow Riding Pictures" and "Thousand-Antlered Deer Pictures" were included in the secret collection of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Wang Tingyun was a famous calligrapher and painter in the Jin Dynasty and the nephew of Mi Fu, a famous painter in the Song Dynasty.

His calligraphy was first imitated by his uncle Mi Fu, and later he imitated Huang Tingjian and the two kings, acquiring his charm and spirit.

The works in his later years are especially free and unrestrained, full of atmosphere, unique style and unique.

Together with Zhao Feng and Zhao Bingwen, they are both famous for their calligraphy.

His calligraphy is deep, majestic and fast, and he traveled north and south with the elders of the Southern Song Dynasty.

He is good at painting landscapes, ancient trees, bamboos and rocks, and is especially good at ink bamboo. Landscapes are exquisite, and ink bamboo is almost a secret from heaven.

His works include "Withered Bamboo and Trees", "Autumn Evening in the Mountains and Forests", etc. The artistic style has many similarities with the literati landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, and represents the artistic level of the landscape paintings of the Jin Dynasty.

Commentators say that it is superior to the ancients and not inferior to Mi Yuanzhang (Mi Fu).

Gao Qipei (1660-1734), courtesy name Wei Zhi, nicknamed Qieyuan, Qiedaoren, also known as Nancun, was a native of Tieling, Liaoning Province.

Originally under the banner of Xiangbai Banner of the Han Army, it was later changed to the banner of Xianghuang Banner.

His father, Gao Tianjue, died in the Three Feuds Rebellion in the early Qing Dynasty. Thanks to his father's influence, Gao Qipei was awarded the title of magistrate of Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. Later, he moved to Sichuan to serve as an envoy and became the right minister of the Ministry of Punishment.

In the eighth year of Yongzheng reign (1730), he entered the Ruyi Pavilion of the Old Summer Palace and worked as a royal painter for the palace for three years.

He died in the twelfth year of Yongzheng's reign (1734) and was given the posthumous title of "Keqin".

Gao Qipei was a famous and influential painter in the Qing Dynasty. He was the first person in the history of Chinese painting to paint with his fingers.

His pioneering finger-painting method changed the traditional brush-painting technique and created a new path in the development of Chinese painting art. It was unique and opened up a new field.

Gao Qipei began to imitate painting when he was eight years old. He studied painting very diligently and hard, and the drawings he accumulated in more than ten years filled two bamboo baskets.

His finger painting was developed on the basis of long-term painting with brushes.

He copied a large number of works by masters of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and studied their creative artistic conception and painting techniques to integrate them.

When he was nearly seventy years old, he still insisted on copying the ancients. This practice of copying enabled him to continuously absorb artistic nutrients and essence from traditional Chinese paintings.

When Gao Qipei was about 20 years old, he had already made considerable achievements in painting. However, he knew that he had not broken away from the stereotypes of his predecessors and "wanted to become his own family." Therefore, he improved his painting techniques and painting tools.

He carried out bold exploration, deliberately sought for innovation, and summarized and created the finger painting method.

Regarding the technique of finger painting, there is a detailed explanation in his nephew Gao Bing's "Finger Painting Theory".

For example, when it comes to the use of nails, "nails should not be long, because long nails will hinder the fingers. It is also not suitable to be bald, because baldness will not help the fingers."

According to the needs of the subject of the picture, either fingers, nails, or nails are used together. There are certain procedures and rules. Sometimes two fingers, three fingers, or five fingers are used together.

For example, when painting a huge piece of dead willow, dip your two fingers in ink and quickly sweep it across the paper, making it light or heavy, thick or light, just let it happen naturally.

When painting small paintings of dead willows and new willows, special nails are used. "It's as fast as wind, it's as thin as hair, it's as strong as steel, and it's as sharp as needles."

For example, when painting very small figures, flowers and birds, use the ring finger or little finger alternately; when painting large paintings, use two fingers together; when painting hooks, clouds, and flowing water, use three fingers together.

Because he often paints with his fingers, Gao Qipei's fingers were polished with flesh cones. The artist skillfully used the flesh cones to paint the characters' eyebrows, and achieved a magical and natural artistic effect.

The painter uses the mutual cooperation between fingers and nails, fingers and nails, and nails to artistically reproduce the mountains, rivers, trees, birds, beasts, insects, fish and human figures in his works.

The themes of Gao Qipei's finger paintings mostly originate from nature, from the observation and real feelings of real life. He paints all kinds of characters, landscapes, flowers and birds, and animals, and the charm of each painting changes and is completely different, and has its own unique style.

It is the result of his insistence on the realistic creation path of "learning from nature" during his long artistic career.

His landscape paintings "are all made after experiencing the real landscape of mountains and rivers in his life, so the hills and valleys are all the same." His paintings of animals are also very distinctive. "The faces of dragons and tigers are also very different."

Zhong Kui was one of Gao Qipei's favorite figures to paint. He created no less than 200 portraits of Zhong Kui in his lifetime. They were either literary or military portraits, ranging from happy, angry, majestic, strong and old, to immortals and Buddhas, to ghosts and monsters, in various poses.

In terms of expression techniques, "there are differences between hooks and splashes of ink. There are those who use wide robes and fine armor, there are only a few writers, there are hooks and splashes of ink, and there are those who splash ink. There are no clues to the magical changes."

His works can have both form and spirit, integrating things and me into one heart, so that "sentimental and heartless things can fully capture their spirit."

This is inseparable from his multi-faceted artistic accomplishment and hard work. It is also the artistic realm he has pursued through long-term exploration and practice.

Gao Qipei's painting artistic style shows different changes in various periods.