我与刘永明先生相识三十多年，他对绘画创作的执着和淡定，给我留下了深刻的印象。永明先生为了自己终身所追求的艺术，勤奋的工作，他不受外界干扰，只画自己想表现的东西，努力地在探索中创作。作为吴冠中先生的学生，他不但汲取老师的创作精神，更结合自己的理解感受，走出了一条全新的创作道路。他选定了这个创作的方向，坚定地走下去，从不为美术界的潮流变化所动，按照自己的审美理念，探索着创作着。吴冠中先生说：「刘永明对艺术的真诚和踏实的作风予我深刻的印象。」「真诚踏实」这是对他最准确的评价。

　　永明先生的画以描绘自然风景为主，看了他的作品给人一种幽美舒畅的感受。驻足在他的画作前，山野风味扑面而来，可以立即带你走进他描绘的景色之中，产生美好的遐想。作品能给观赏者带来这么直接地感受，一定是作者对生活充满了热爱，对所描写的对象有着亲身的体验。他是非常热衷外出写生的，写生是他创作的泉源，石涛是「搜尽奇峰打草稿」，而永明先生却把重点放在山村小景中，小河、石径、丛林、农舍都是他描绘的对象。他从这些小景中，找到了与名山峻岭不同的另一种意境，这样的景致更接近生活，更富有诗意。为了突显大自然的壮美，他把人物和鸡羊等动物画的很小，这些精心的点缀，让画面更充满了生活气息。美术创作其实也有另外的一种方法，外出时为了节省时间，可以将沿途的景色拍摄下来，回到创作室中，按照拍摄的题材自由选择，组成一幅幅作品。这当然是一种快捷的创作方法，但永明先生的画不是这样创作出来的。他的作品中保留着在写生现场捕捉到的充满活力的信息，饱含着大自然的生机。那宁静遥远的山谷、潺潺的小溪流水、微风中摇摆的枝叶、简朴的农村小屋，无不给人以亲切的感受。我觉得这好比是去现场看文艺演出与看电视录像所产生的不同感受吧。现场真实的气氛更能奋起观众的激情，我喜欢他这种能给人以激情的创作方法。

　　永明先生的绘画大多运用西方的描绘技法，这和学习中国传统绘画技法的人有很大区别。中国传统绘画中描写自然风光的山水作品，是运用墨色和皴法来表现山石纹理变化的，我们古代许多杰出的山水画

　　家，在他们的创作实践中，将我国不同地域的山体形态，用墨笔皴擦表现在纸上，于是有了「斧劈皴」、「披麻皴」、「荷叶皴」、「牛毛皴」等多种笔触各异的方法，这是古代留给今人的宝贵遗产。但是笔墨当随时代，近百年来许多画家在古代的技法基础上，演变出了新的表现手法，推动了中国山水画的发展。我认为绘画的表现方法应该适用于其所描写的对象，永明先生正是这样创作的，他用现实的描绘手法和不同的笔墨技法去表现山河树林，对于同是一个地区的风貌，可以用不一样的办法来表现。他少年时生长在北京郊区的山村中，对那里有着深厚的情感，所以他有很多这方面的描绘题材。他描写三月的山景，淡淡的远山、苍茫的树林、刚刚解冻的小河、水边觅草的群羊，采用烘染的笔法，展现出初春雾蒙蒙、清凉幽静的画面。描写深秋的山村，他选取了山中常见的用石块砌成的小径和用石块垒成的石墙为主要场景，他对每一块石头的描绘都是那么的认真，突出了北方地区青石的质感特点，在石墙面和草丛中用暗色的色调擦染，呈现出「霜重色越浓」的深秋景色。这些描写都寄托着画家对生活的热爱，抒发着他真挚的情感。最能说明他技法变化的是两幅著名的作品《万里长城》和《武夷雄峰》。这一南一北两题材，一个是北方大山，一个是闽中名胜，他当然采用两种完全不同的方法来描绘，《万里长城》他没有选取春夏时节的景色，而是以深秋为背景，霜后的红叶早已飘落，耐寒的松柏屹力在山坡上，绵延的古长城静静的盘踞在眼望不尽的山中，他用浓淡不同的色块，素描写实的笔法，绘出了北方深秋初冬时山区的苍茫之气，远山和长城透视严谨，突显了雄伟肃穆的主题。《武夷雄峰》则完全是另一种风格，他以武夷山主峰为画面主体，在描绘武夷山的岩石纹理时，用了几乎是临摹实景的方法，一丝不苟的将笔、墨、色、染融在一起，把山石的质感气势完全收入到画作中来，山间的流水和环绕的云雾，充满了感动的生气。山下树叶枝头的淡绿和清蓝的江水，告诉我们武夷山的春天到了。这是一幅成功的作品，无论色彩、构图、技法都是非常完美的。永明先生将中西画法融洽的结合在一起，为探索中国绘画的发展，付出了艰辛的努力。在他的作品中我们可以看出，长期以来，他不断尝试将中国画中的传统写意画法和写实画法互相结合。如他在画树木的枝干时，用传统水墨的浓淡和墨线中的飞白产生虚实效果，与写实的构图紧密结合，在色彩的衬托下，呈现出一种特有的意境。他在画树梢的叶子时，更是采用传统的写意画法，将颜色或擦或点，似有似无，突显了风吹枝叶的动感，他对传统笔墨的尝试运用，既是对中西方画法结合的发展，也是他个人风格的突显。

　　绘画中色彩的运用是一门很重要的学问，永明先生是从学习西方画法开始的，所以他懂色彩学，而且运用的得心应手。他的作品中有时用色柔和明亮，有时对比鲜明。传统的中国画所用的颜色，只有不多的几种矿物色和植物色，如果用来表现大自然的写实风光是远远不够的，所以中国的山水画在色彩方面，与国外的风景画相比显得不够丰富。西方颜色则不同，有很多种色调，特别是中间色很多，但是这些颜色的搭配，确实大有讲究。秋天的景色是最美的，秋风带来了不同树木的变化，漫山遍野，这个题材是从古到今多少画家最喜欢画的。但它色彩的多样也是不容易表现的，特别是四川九寨沟的秋天景色，更是画家都想描绘的。永明先生有一幅《秋来江水绿》，就是以此为题材，整幅作品色彩交融，红色、黄色、蓝色、黑色，互相衬托，加以中间色的过渡，既柔和又鲜明，充分表现了画家运用色彩的才能，复杂而不零落，鲜丽而不流俗，是一幅十分美丽的作品。他描写郊野山村的作品，用色也是柔美的，一幅作品只要定下了主调，他会全力用可表现的色彩去丰富它，有时用强烈的对比，有时大量使用中间色。让重重的山峰更深远，层层的树木更厚重，多云的天空更明快，看了他的这些描写田园风光的作品，我们会深深地感到大自然的美丽。这也使我联想到欧洲十六、七世纪那些描写田园风光的油画，画法是那么严谨，题材是那么纯朴，一样的自然，一样的宁静。

　　永明先生偶尔也画些写意花鸟。我们知道近代以来，任伯年、吴昌硕、齐白石等人在花鸟画方面已产生了巨大影响，当代不少学习花鸟画的，或多或少都留有他们的痕迹。还有李苦禅、潘天寿、王雪涛等人也是弟子众多，写意花鸟画领域几乎被这些风格占领。可是永明先生的写意花鸟却能别具一格，笔墨设色没有一点他人的影子。他构图清新，用色淡雅，显得空灵秀丽，饱含中国写意画的韵味。这对于从小就学习西方画法的人来说，是多么的不容易。他画花鸟作品对于画风景来说，可能是一种艺术调剂，但我觉得更像是为我们演奏了一曲美妙的轻音乐。

　　中国绘画走什么路，是坚守传统还是完全学习西方，这是一个老问题了。徐悲鸿、林风眠和吴冠中等前辈们已走出了一条中西结合的路，我想这应该是一条必然的路。许多人都在朝这个方向探索着，永明先生就是从这条路走出来的，并且继续走着。「心清无欲游于艺，彩墨唯求日日新」，我写了这样两句，祝他创作出更好的作品，走出一条更宽广的路。

（荣宝斋艺术总监 雷振芳）

　　RongBaoZhai, Executive Creative Director

　　Lei  Zhen-Fang

　　Mr. Liu Yong-Ming and I have been friends for over three decades, during which his devotion to art has impressed me profoundly. Mr. Liu has dedicated his life to pursuing fine art undisturbed and unaffected by others. Through diligence and perseverance, he has been and continues to be determined to paint only what inspires him. As a student of Master Wu Guan-Zhong, not only does Mr. Liu fully absorb his teacher's creative styles and techniques, he also synthesizes his learning into new artistic vocabularies that helps express his feelings through his paintings. He has found a unique path to develop creativity and has embraced this path with confidence and pride, despite constant surges of new trends. "His truthfulness and earnestness impressed me the most," once said Master Wu. To me, "truthfulness and earnestness" are the best-fitted descriptions of Mr. Liu.

　　Mr. Liu Yong-Ming specializes in landscape painting. His works charm his audience with serenity and elegance. His paintings are often so vivid that simply by viewing his work, the audience could conjure up a fragrance or breeze and instantly be transported to the middle of his world. For any work to have such enchanting magic, its creator must be passionate for life, in love with his surroundings and enamored by everything he comes across. Mr. Liu loves to sketch outdoors because wilderness sparks his creativity. Master Shi Tao is famous for "exploring grand mountains of wonders for his creative sources". Mr. Liu Yong- Ming, on the other hand, prefers the poetic moments of small hill villages and the liveliness in slow streams, stone paths, woods, and farmhouses. From modest sceneries, he has found a very different interpretation of majestic mountains, which is more subtle and intimate. To further accentuate the grandeur of nature in his works, he often purposefully reduces the scale of humans and farm animals, like chickens and goats.Such intricate arrangements make the overall presentation even more dynamic and breathtaking. While others take snapshots of sceneries and paint them later in a comfortable workshop to save time, Mr. Liu always works at the actual locations, enabling him to breath in and capture all the livelihood of that moment, poetically translating them with his brush stroke onto rolls of parchment. His work is full of energy and life itself. Through sketches of tranquil valleys between remote mountains, murmuring creeks, swaying branches, and rustic farmhouses, Mr. Liu blankets his audience with warmth and closeness. Compared to other artists, Mr. Liu's style can be thought of more as a live theatrical performance, rather than a pre- recorded television program. It has life, it has spirit, and it has soul. His close-to-real-life artwork always sparks passion, and it is this ability to ignite energy that I find most fascinating.

　　Mr. Liu Yong-Ming substantially incorporates techniques from Western fine art in his paintings. This gives him a unique style from other artists of traditional Chinese ink painting. In traditional Chinese ink painting, particularly in landscape painting, artists use different hues of black ink and brush strokes to present the texture of mountains, hills and rocks. Many outstanding landscape painters in ancient China make different attempts to express forms, volume, and texture of different mountains in a series of ink tones and brush strokes; thus, different techniques, such as axe-cut stroke, hemp-fiber stroke, lotus leaf stroke and ox-tail stoke, have been born. These are a valuable heritage from our ancestors, but as time advances, new techniques inevitably come to life. In the recent century, many artists have developed new techniques from fundamentals of ancient techniques and have once again pushed the development of Chinese landscape ink painting into a new epoch. I believe painting techniques should adapt to the depicted subject and this is exactly how Mr. Liu Yong-Ming creates his painting style. He uses different ink painting techniques to capture shades of mountains, rivers, trees, and woods in a very realistic fashion. Mr. Liu has the ability to present the same landscape differently. He grew up in a small mountain village in the suburbs of Beijing, which exposed him to plenty natural sceneries. When he paints March mountains, Mr. Liu creates smudging techniques to depict fading mountain, hazy woods, defrosting streams and gazing goats to signal the cool and tranquil atmosphere of early spring. While painting the same village in Fall, he chooses most commonly seen stone paths and stone walls as the forefront setting. He deliberately depicts details of each stone and pebble to accentuate the colors of the northern village. Mr. Liu purposefully selects dark gradations between stone walls and shrubs to express heavy frosts and darkening colors of autumn. Mr. Liu's work reflects his deep love for life and truthful feelings. The two paintings best representing his versatile techniques would be "The Great Wall" and "Wuyi Mountain", one of the northern mountains and the other of the southern mystic land. He portrays them in two completely different ways. For "The Great Wall", instead of the more lively spring or summer, he chooses a theme of deep autumn in which red leaves have long fallen after the frost has arrived, while pine trees still stand proudly in the bitter chill, just like the ancient Great Wall towering quietly over a cascade of mountains. He uses color blocks in varied hues and a style of real-life sketches to portray the depth and solitude of deep autumn and early winter. The perspective leading the views from the hills to the Great Wall was strictly planned, accentuating the majesty of the subject. Mr. Liu characterizes "Wuyi Mountain" in a completely different style. Its main theme focuses on the main body of Wuyi Mountain, and the patterns and texture of the mountain rocks have been illustrated through real-life simulations. Mr. Liu has carefully fused brush strokes, dark hues and colors into one coherent tone to faithfully depict the texture and grandeur of this southern mountain. The running streams, overcast clouds and mists are filled with dynamic flows and expressions, while gentle green leaves and fresh blue water tell the sign of Spring's arrival. This is a very successful work with a perfect union of colors, composition, and techniques. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming blends the Chinese and Western painting techniques in hope to further advance Chinese painting development. His attempt is bold and filled with great difficulties. He combines the impressionist feel of Chinese painting with realistic expressions. For example, he uses different hues of backwash, line drawing, and intentional white-outs to create contrasts of solids and voids, representing trunks of trees, while integrating a carefully planned composition. A unique atmosphere is created when complimented by colors. Another clear example is when Mr. Liu draws leaves hanging on the tips of tree branches with the traditional Chinese freehand (xieyi) style. Rubbed or dabbed colors suggest the dynamics of the waving leaves in the breeze. Mr. Liu's use of traditional ink painting techniques signifies his devotion to the Eastern and Western development, and it also accentuates his unique personal style.

　　Colors play a significant role in the art of painting. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming starts his career in painting from the Western style, hence, he holds a strong sense towards colors and uses them with high versatility. Some of his works present soft and gentle tones while others have sharp contrast. In traditional Chinese painting, only a few mineral and plant pigments are available, and the lack of range proves insufficient to present the full spectrum of colors in real-life paintings. That is why color depictions in Chinese paintings are not as rich as the Western landscape paintings. In Western paintings, many colors are utilized, especially the wide spectrum of intermediate colors. Color coordination on the other hand is yet another major study.Many people find sights of autumn enchanting; chilling breezes of autumn turning trees, grass, and mountains into graded and varied looks. This has always been a highly popular subject among the contemporary painters and masters in the past, but not everyone has succeeded in their use of colors. One particular landscape, the autumn in Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou, has been attempted by many artists. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming also has a work on this subject, entitled "Green Water in Autumn". Intriguing blends of red, yellow, blue, and black complement one another with skillfully used intermediate colors to tone down hard contrasts, making the picture soft yet vibrant. Mr. Liu's mastery of color enables his paintings to embrace complex schemes without chaos, to shine brightly with elegance and to perfectly deliver the natural beauty of the environments. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming's works on subjects of suburb hills are also quite intriguing. The overall impressions are generally tender, but once he sets a base tone for his painting, he uses colors to the maxi- mum possibilities; sometimes with strong contrasts and sometimes with massive use of intermediate colors. His talented color integration skills give the mountains more depth, the trees more volume, and the cloudy skies more cheerful lightness. His idyllic paintings bring people into the mesmerizing beauty of nature. Just like those structurally strict European pastoral oil paintings of the 16th and 17th, Mr. Liu's art is as pure and serene as nature.

　　Mr. Liu Yong-Ming also has a collection of flowers and birds, a more casual subject. We know that several influential artists such as Ren Bo-Nian, Wu Chang-Shuo and Qi Bai-Shi, have established a profound impact in contemporary Chinese painting. We can see traces of their styles in the works of younger generation painters. There are also Li Ku-Chan, Pan Tian-Shou and Wang Xue-Tao, whose numerous pupils have made their styles prevalent in the contemporary paintings of flowers and birds. Mr. Liu Yong-Ming, on the other hand, has gone a completely different path. His special style and colors of "flowers and birds" paintings are unique in his own way without influence from any prevalent styles. His flowers and birds paintings personify the poetic expressions of Chinese painting through his use of gentle elegant colors, unique composition, and spiritual quality. This is indeed an incredible achievement for a person whose foundation training was Western painting. Mr. Liu may consider his "flowers and birds" paintings of smaller scale and of a more casual nature as compared to his more grandiose landscape paintings, but I think looking at the "flowers and birds" painting created by Mr. Liu is just like listening to a symphony of beautiful tunes.

　　One may ask which way the contemporary artists should take. Should they guard the traditional Chinesepainting or follow the more modern Western influenced style of painting? This has always been an aged old question. Many of the predecessors, like XuBei-Hong, Lin Feng-Mian and Wu Guan-Zhong, have provided a wide road for combining the two styles, and I think this is a destined path. While many people are still exploring this possibility, Mr. Liu Yong Ming has long walked and excelled in this direction. He now paves a path of his own. With dedication to Mr. Liu Yong-Ming and in celebration of his brilliant achievement, I wish him continuous success on his ever-expanding journey through his brilliant creativity.