Painting skills handed down from dad to son

Chinese painting is known for a long history, with mountains and rivers being mainstream topic since the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Such paintings not only depict landscapes, but also reflect painters' inner peace. With brushes, painters show their unique personality and spiritual freedom.

Calligraphy and landscape paintings by Lu Heng are on display at Lu Yanshao Art Gallery through January 9.

Lu Heng, son of Chinese landscape painting master Lu Yanshao (1909-1993), is imperceptibly influenced by what he saw and started to learn about traditional art when he was a child.

"When watching father painting at home, I was always attracted by the brush in his hand. Mountains appear gradually through the rotation of the brush, while rivers flow following the ink," said Lu Heng. "I wondered when I could become as accomplished as my father."

Lu Yanshao praised his son for his gifted, steady, calm and vivid spirit, which benefited Lu Heng while he studied art.

"My father's great art and simple life have inspired me. I was guided to draw doodles by my father, who always encouraged me," said Lu Heng.

Yu Hong / SHINE

Handed down from his father, Lu Heng has a profound understanding of traditional mountain-and-river painting.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he had many opportunities to sketch around China with his father, thinking, exploring and practicing while appreciating the rivers and mountains.

Since then, Lu Heng keeps exploring and goes for innovation on the basis of inheriting his father's style.

Great changes have taken place in mountain-and-river painting in the modern era, from literati painting to traditional mountains and rivers and the influence of Western painting, so is the theory and practice of mountain-and-river painting.

Especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China when academies throughout the country initiated the creation of realism artworks, mountain-and-river painting transitioned from traditional pyramid-like, high-end art to the aesthetic scope of ordinary people, with a group of realistic artists pouring out.

Now, landscape portraits, sacred revolutionary places and real scenes have become the mainstream.

"As a result, gorges and rivers have become the two topics of my mountain-and-river paintings. You can see billowing rivers, standing rocks, a lonely swaying raft and pavilions. You can imagine the scene as the poem says, 'the sky is unlimited for birds to fly at ease, as the ocean is boundless for fish to leap at will,'" said Lu Heng.

In addition to mountain-and-river paintings, he dabbles in painting plum blossom.

To him, the exhibition is a conclusion of his painting and calligraphy, and the inheritance and exploration of his father's art.

"I will always remember what my father told me – inheriting, creating and establishing a style of yourself. I'll keep forging ahead in the field of art," Lu Heng said.

Zhou Yulin / Ti Gong

Lu Heng's Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting Works

Dates: Through January 9, closed on Mondays

Venue: Lu Yanshao Art Gallery

Address: 358 Dongdajie St

东大街358号