Ankie Lau is a painter with comprehensive skills and extensive knowledge. Received formal art education in PLA Art College, worked as a full-time painter in the art studio of China Revolutionary Military Museum, and lived in Canada for many years. In the past, Ankie Lau made a series of achievements and was recognized by the society. Because of his graduation creation Zunyi, 1935 attracted wide attention, he was selected as a special commemorative stamp by the state for printing and distribution, and became famous in the art world. He was also invited to design commemorative stamps for important national leaders for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of China for many times. He was praised by Canada for designing Bethune stamps, and was invited to be a visiting scholar in the visual arts system of York University in Canada. His figure paintings have been appreciated and affirmed by masters of Chinese painting such as Ye, Ye, Ye, Ye, and Ye, and many famous oil painters. With solid basic skills, rich life experience and excellent creative ability, Xiang Ping has a variety of abilities. His works span traditional Chinese painting and oil painting, focusing on major themes and life sketches. His expressions are meticulous, freehand and meticulous, involving flowers and birds, figures, landscapes, stamp design and so on. After returning to China, painter Ankie Lau devoted himself to the exploration of ink figure painting and achieved fruitful results. Watching a set of life pictures depicting the customs of Yi girls created by Ankie Lau has changed a lot compared with two years ago. The overall picture feels more calm and rich, the pen and ink are more mature, and the painting style is more flexible. This is inseparable from the author's efforts and hard practice.
Throughout Ankie Lau's ink figure painting, the most striking feature is the landscape brushwork that runs through it. China's painting has experienced more than two thousand years' development, and has formed a mature method in the creation of landscapes, figures and flowers and birds. Each has its own strengths and differences. Looking at Ankie Lau's paintings, especially in the configuration of characters' environment, the brushwork is vivid, revealing the emotion and charm of pen and ink itself. The characters in his paintings either sit in the stone or stand by the flowers, which makes the traditional landscape and flower-and-bird techniques come in handy here. His brushwork of landscape painting is taken from Huang's point painting with "seven inks" as the core and his epiphany painting with "point and stroke" as the core. His brushwork is round and profound, with profound artistic conception and colorful aesthetic feeling. Flower-and-bird performances include the double hook dyeing of Song paintings and the freehand brushwork of Wu Changshuo. What is commendable is that he integrated his thoughts into it, pushed the characters to the screen with the scenery as the background, and contrasted the vividness of the characters with the massiness of the scenery, making the characters more vivid and not thin. In addition, the painting method of landscape painting is integrated into the character modeling. The strokes in the center make the lines thick and powerful, and the rubbing and dyeing of the picture makes people integrate with the scene, emotion and environment, which increases the aesthetic feeling of the picture and improves the difficulty of creation. Bringing the traditional brush and ink painting to the extreme and applying it to your own creation will naturally leave no trace and show extraordinary creativity.
Ankie Lau's ink figure painting emphasizes the brushwork of calligraphy. Pen and pen write, pen and pen send. Chinese painting has a long tradition of paying attention to calligraphy and using pens. As early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the connection between calligraphy and painting became a conscious pursuit. Sheikh's "six methods" are followed by "vivid charm". By talking about "bone-based pen", it is required that the painting pen should have the same "bone strength" as calligraphy to reflect the "vivid charm" of the picture. After the formation of the style of attaching importance to books in the Song Dynasty, calligraphy got rid of the strict laws of the style of books in the Tang Dynasty, which made a good start for painting. Su Shi's Picture of Ancient Wood and Bamboo Stone and Mi Fei's Coral Post have clearly shown their intention to express their inner feelings with cursive brushwork. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu clearly put forward that "calligraphy and painting are of the same origin": "Stone is like flying white wood, and bamboo calligraphy is also connected with the Eight Methods. If anyone can know this, you should know that painting and calligraphy are the same. " The writing in Ankie Lau's paintings is mainly manifested in his grasp of lines. The lines in the picture are not sloppy, but vigorous, extensive and self-revealing. His brushwork tends to be Chinese, long and calligraphic by Dong Qichang and Shi Tao. He used lines with calligraphy strokes to spin colorful words, with lively brushwork, deep strokes on the back of the paper, and natural and smooth lines. While highlighting the function of lines, we should pay attention to our own expression, combining rigidity with softness, and the beauty of innocence. With the structure of the characters, they can swing freely and fly in the air. The quality of lines changes into square radius, length, ups and downs, turns, density and ingenuity. There is a strong sense of coherence and rhythm, which makes the picture full of texture, not dull or impetuous. At the same time, Ankie Lau also showed his unremitting pursuit of the essence of pen and ink, such as using a pen with bone method, separating ink with five colors, penetrating the back of the paper, and combining rigidity with softness.
From the way of expression, we can see a way of expression of ink and wash language. Ankie Lau's ink figure paintings are characterized by exquisite brushwork, elegant modeling, elegant colors and vivid charm, and most of them show fresh and beautiful artistic conception. This style undoubtedly originated from the ink and wash tradition of China literati painting. He absorbed rich nutrients from tradition, and at the same time expressed his literati feelings with pen and ink. Most of Ankie Lau's works choose Yi girls as the theme. Xiang Ping has his own unique understanding of this. In his view, the coloring of Yi costumes has the charm of China ink language, the style and decoration are suitable for Chinese painting lines, the national costumes are very distinctive, and the face is concave and convex. The techniques of the North-South School of Chinese painting can be integrated. Moreover, in the Yi inhabited area of Sichuan, it is rainy and foggy, which makes the picture show vivid charm. Besides, Yi women don't like to laugh very much, and their facial expressions are often thoughtful, which can give people leisure. Ankie Lau hopes to show the stories of characters with instant expressions, capture the moments of emotions and emotions with pictures, and express his feelings with pictures. Ankie Lau, as a scholar's painting's appeal for the meaning of sending affection, sees the truth everywhere in this respect. Therefore, he expressed his true nature.
Chinese painting has always attached importance to inheritance and respected tradition, and Ankie Lau is no exception. In his view, traditional pen and ink are extremely valuable resources. In order to draw the essence from it, he dived into the historical depths of the national spirit with extraordinary acumen and endurance and considerable time and energy to pursue richer ideological resources. From his early contact with Russian romanticism to his return to China, he devoted himself to drawing nutrition from China's traditional painting art, thus realizing a real return. Today, he still uses the traditional and ancient wisdom and strength of our nation to solve the problem of the survival and development of China art in modern society. He has a strong sense of social responsibility and mission. He said: "China should have a mainstream painting school that represents the temperament of a big country." As the representative of ink figure painting in the new period, we have reason to believe that Ankie Lau can go further in the exploration of ink figure painting.