《嶺南春色 》
Kapok blossoms

趙少昂 ——《嶺南春色》 

 

趙少昂生平： 

 

趙少昂（1905 - 1998），名恒，字叔儀，廣東番禺人。自十六歲起便師承嶺南畫派大師高奇峰先生習畫，有出藍之譽，善人物走獸、山水風景；尤以花鳥畫揚名國際，可謂「中國花鳥畫第一人」。中國畫以滲透畫家的情意為基礎，趙少昂先生的畫風富有獨特的個性與一種超逸的美感。這是因為他常於觀察自然，創造性地表現了自然世界中的真趣，把自然灌注生命，使其畫作能以意境取勝，為國畫注入了一種新的生命力，這也是他承傳了先師所提出「折衷中西」的理念的具體表現之一。趙少昂先生不但貫徹了先師的主張，還豐富了嶺南畫派的技法，並創立了嶺南藝苑，把嶺南畫派的精神承傳下去。 

 

《嶺南春色》闡釋： 

 

這幅畫作為《嶺南春色》複本，現收藏於香港文化博物館。畫幅的款識中寫下了「萬紫千紅空爛熳，孤標畢竟勝凡株。壬戌春三月，少昂漫筆。」畫中的木棉花開得紅艷又不媚俗；一隻靈動的喜鵲佇立在木棉樹上，仰望著上方的木棉花，彷彿在為佈滿木棉花的樹高歌。 

 

畫中的木棉樹壯碩的軀幹，頂天立地，英雄壯觀；花色猶如壯士的風骨、嬌豔奪目，生機勃勃。喜鵲是吉祥鳥，有喜事臨門之寓意。站立在木棉樹上的喜鵲，專注地盯著盛開的木棉花，或是在表達一種對幸福的想像與嚮往，使整幅畫作錦上添花、栩栩如生。此外，趙少昂先生的畫功多樣細膩，畫中活用筆墨濃淡的變化，利用濃淡效果來展現樹幹的遠近，並配合剛勁柔弱的用筆技巧，突出了木棉樹幹的質感，同時又顯得樹幹蒼勁有力；而在用色上，橙紅色的木棉花與藍色的喜鵲互相映襯，為畫中花鳥注入了新鮮活力的感覺，卻又不帶半點俗氣。 

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Chao Shao-an — “Kapok Blossoms” 

 

Chao Shao-an’s Bio: 

 

Chao Shao-an (1905-1998), named Heng, was a native of Panyu, Guangdong. Since the age of 16, he studied under Mr. Gao Qifeng, a master of the Lingnan School of painting, and was known for his figures and animals, landscapes, and scenery skills. He can be called “the first person in Chinese flower and bird painting”. Chinese painting is based on the artist’s emotion, and Mr. Chao Shao-an’s style is rich in a unique personality and a sense of transcendent beauty. This is because he is constantly observing nature, creatively expressing the genuine interest of the natural world, and infusing nature with life, so that his paintings can win by their mood, injecting new vitality into Chinese painting, which is also one of the concrete expressions of his inheritance of his predecessor’s philosophy of “eclecticism between East and West”. Mr. Chao Shao-an carried out his predecessor's ideas and enriched the Lingnan school of painting techniques and founded the Lingnan Art Studio to pass on the spirit of the Lingnan school of painting. 

 

The interpretation of “Kapok Blossoms”: 

 

This painting Kapok Blossoms is now in the collection of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. The painting’s inscription reads: “A thousand violets and a thousand blossoms are empty and rotten. Shao-an’s brushstroke in the third month of spring in the year ninth year.” A magpie stands on a kapok tree and looks up at the kapok above, its beak open as if singing for the tree covered with kapok. 

 

The strong trunk of the cottonwood tree in the painting has a heroic and heroic posture; the color of the flowers is like the bones of a warrior and is dazzling, symbolizing vitality and expressing a sense of respect and affection. Magpies are auspicious birds with the symbolic meaning of happy events. The magpie standing on the kapok tree, staring intently at the blooming kapok, is either an expression of imagination and aspiration for happiness, adding a lot of inspiration and vitality to the whole piece. In addition, Mr. Chao Shao-an’s brushwork is versatile in its expression, using variations in ink and brushstrokes to show the distance and proximity of the tree trunks, as well as a solid and soft brushwork technique to highlight the texture of the kapok tree trunks, while at the same time making the trunks look lively and robust. The use of reddish-brown kapok and blue magpies against each other injects a sense of freshness and vitality into the painting without being a bit vulgar.