与史秉有教授的合影

　　上世纪六十年代初，我在中央美术学院读研究生学业时受俞致贞先生之命，担任了冯倩的家庭美术教师，在教学中冯倩给我的印象是聪明好学，我离开北京虽近五十年了但专业上我们一直来往，她还参加了我创办的山西省工笔花鸟画会画展和画册出版等各种学术活动。近日喜闻她要出版个人画集并要我写序言，我乐拙笔数语为其祝贺。

　　鉴于众所周知的原因，二十世纪中叶耽误了国内许多青年人读书深造的机会，尽管如此，还是有一批热血青年敢作敢干在事业上获得了成功，冯倩就是其中一位。在中国花鸟画领域中她自学成才，其父重视教育，几个子女的学习都请名家指导，冯倩也有幸得到俞致贞先生悉心的栽培。俞先生是20世纪中国画坛非常有影响力最著名的女画家之一。其绘画作品造诣颇深，人品在画界无人不敬佩。冯倩在作画与做人方面，能处处以俞致贞先生为楷模。为了继承民族绘画遗产，她四处投师访友不耻下问，到各地博物馆参观名画，上下求索研究技法，她厚古而不薄今。她多次从北京来山西参加工笔花鸟画展时，对参展的每张画不但认真看而且作了笔记，到我的作品前对画中的仙鹤看了好几遍，最后还到我家对画面技法提出了种种问题，让我对她治学严谨精神深为感动。她虽然家住北京，但却经常赴荷泽、洛阳等牡丹圣地对花写照。

　　冯倩研习工笔花鸟画已达40余年，她以工笔为主兼画写意以传承黄筌、赵佶院体艺术特色为宗旨，但是中国工笔花鸟画历代作者之多，艺术水平之高，现代学子对前人绘画遗产中的精华研究不够，本画集用民族艺术的准则评价还是显得稚嫩。但是冯倩在继承遗产中的空白法则，勾染技法与大胆地借鉴现代画家陈之佛积色法去表现枝干等方面值得肯定，继承不是一日之功，发展也不是一蹴而就，是要有宁静致远的治学精神，是要经过一代代画家的艺术实践。要保持民族绘画特色，要让人民评说，要让历史肯定。我们永远的课题是向上研究民族绘画优秀技法，向下深入生活发掘美的源泉，左顾右盼广泛借鉴其他学科为我所用之营养，让民族艺术发扬光大。

史秉有

山西大学美术学院教授

山西省工笔花鸟画会会长

Preface

　　In the early 1960s, I was a graduate student at the Central Institute of Fine Arts. Entrusted by Prof. Yu Zhizhen, I was FengQian’s private tutor of painting. While tutoring Feng, I found her to be intelligent and studious. Though I left Beijing for Taiyuan，Shanxi Province nearly 50 years ago, we have maintained close professional contacts during this long period of time. She has always been an active participant in a variety of activities, such as organizing art exhibitions, publishing art albums, and holding academic forums sponsored by the Shanxi Association of Traditional Chinese Meticulous Brushwork of Flower-and-Bird, of which I am the founder. Upon  learning that she planned to publish her personal art collections, I am honored and pleased to take this occasion to extend my congratulations on this new album of hers.
　　Given the well-known historical reasons, many young people on the mainland in the mid-twentieth century were deprived of opportunities for further academic study.  Nevertheless, plenty of passionate young people, who dared to think, dared to act, have ultimately made great success in their careers. FengQian is one of these talented young people. Her father not only attached great attention to education but also engaged masters to tutor his children. Through self-study, and fortunately under the careful instructions of Prof. Yu Zhizhen, FengQian eventually became a very accomplished painter in the field of flower-and-bird painting. Prof. Yu Zhizhen was one of those famous and very influential woman painters in the 20th century, whose attainments in painting as well as her moral character are greatly admired in the art circle. FengQian admired Professor Yu Zhizhen so profoundly that she took Prof. Yu as a model both in painting and in daily behavior. In her pursuit of carrying on the heritage of Chinese Traditional painting, FengQian often went to seek instructions from Master artists, collected suggestions from her friends, and never felt beneath her to learn from her subordinates. She often went to study closely the paintings in museums, seeking for and researching into the skills and techniques of fine art, incorporating the techniques of the past as well as the present. Repeatedly commuting between Beijing and Shanxi, FengQian actively participated in almost all the exhibitions of meticulous brushwork of flower-and-bird held in Shanxi. She did not only observe closely each painting exhibited but also took down detailed notes.  Once after she spent a long time studying carefully the crane in one of my paintings she came to my studio and kindly offered me her critique of it. I was deeply impressed by both Feng’s comments and her rigorous scholarly spirit towards art. In accordance with this spirit, FengQian often went far away from Beijing to places well-known for growing peony flowers such as Heze, Shangdong Province, and Luoyang, Henan Province, so as to directly draw from nature.
　　FengQian has studied meticulous brushwork of flower-and-bird for more than 40 years. She specialized mainly in meticulous brushwork and also partly in freehand brushwork for the purpose of inheriting the artistic characteristics of ancient masters such as Huang Quan, Zhao Ji. The past dynasties saw a great number of high artistic level painters of meticulous brushwork of flower-and-bird; however, modern painters have not had an adequate study of the essence of the heritage stored up in previous paintings. But it is really worth mentioning that FengQian has not only faithfully followed the ancient rule of leaving blank, hook dyeing techniques, but also boldly learned from the modern artist Chen Zhifo’s law of adding color layer upon layer in drawing tree branches. Carrying forward these traditions cannot happen overnight, nor can the development of these techniques be done overnight. What is needed most is a spirit of doing scholarly research and persistent practice by painters for generation after generation. If we wish to preserve our national painting features, to expect positive comments from people, to acquire the acceptance of history, we should always bear in mind the prime importance of studying the excellent national painting techniques as well as discovering the source of beauty that runs deep in our lives. Furthermore, we should broaden our views and draw extensively on other disciplines so as to let our national art flourish even more vigorously.

Shi Bingyou,
Professor
School of Fine Arts, University of Shanxi
President of the Shanxi Association of the
Meticulous Brushwork of Flower-and-Bird