孙瑶瑶《塔莎奶奶的美好生活组画》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Tasha’s Life Compilation布面油画 Oil on canvas70x50cm，2021
English Version 'I've said this many times—it's the purest and most authentic thing stored in my mind. Not only can I recall the appearance of every house in the village as if it were yesterday, but I can also find cracks in a wall from my childhood that never actually existed.' —— Gabriel García Márquez “Return to the seed” Sun Yaoyao, a graduate from the Huangmei Opera School in Anhui, has led an ordinary life for over forty years, juggling family responsibilities and teaching. One leisurely afternoon in Toronto, while accompanying her child, she picked up a paintbrush and began expressing her life's journey on canvas. Despite no formal art school training, her paintings exude a natural charm, as if her canvas is an untouched artistic haven. When observing Sun Yaoyao's artwork, one might contemplate the intrinsic value of painting. In an age dominated by the transformative influence of AI, questions arise regarding the justification for the existence of painting. What if painting were to lose its meaning altogether? However, let us entertain the notion that painting still holds a future. As long as we are alive, our physical bodies endure, prompting us to ponder whether we should remain true to our bodily experiences. Confronting these inquiries inevitably brings to mind Gabriel Garcia Marquez's late-life essay Return to the seed. In this reflective piece, Marquez delves into the interconnectedness of writing with its source, emphasizing the significance of confronting reality with authenticity and perception. As Marquez once again embarks on the journey back of Return to the seed, traversing the dusty paths of Aracataca, retracing to the origins and the core from this 'poetic source', he bears the most astonishing literary fruit. Similar to Marquez's return to the seed, Sun Yaoyao, in her painting journey, rediscovers the essence of life and infuses of her body onto the tip of the brush, returning to the physical, returning to the primal, returning to intuition and perception. Back to her growth and dedication, back to her spirituality and sensitivity, back to the seeds buried in her feeling. We sincerely express our gratitude to Mr. Chen Danqing for his essay to the exhibition of Sun Yaoyao.
孙瑶瑶《绣线菊》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Meadowsweet布面油画 Oil on canvas80x60cm，2023
孙瑶瑶《戴耳环的男人体》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Man wearing earrings布面油画 Oil on canvas40x50cm，2022 譬如用色。在一幅戴草帽的女像中，顶部狭窄留白，她忽然给抹了几笔淡紫色。她爱用绿色，但知道给每幅画调出各种绿色的变化。她画男裸体模特坐像，不晓得怎么一来，用了粉色的，纯度极高的苹果绿，又响亮，又好看，人体的肉色则配以各种饱和的中灰度：但她一定不知道什么是“灰度”，幸亏她不知道。 再譬如用笔，当然，她只会“业余”式的涂抹，但笔笔大胆而肯定，在不同方向的涂抹中，她天然明白哪幅画，哪个部分，如何使笔触长短不一，有强，有弱，有厚涂，也有薄敷，于是整幅画有了适当的节奏：但她一定不知道这就是“节奏”，幸亏她不知道。
孙瑶瑶《今今组画》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Jinjin Compilation布面油画 Oil on canvas60x50cm，2023 “业余画家”画脸，五官大致用线勾几下，根本画不准，更谈不上体积，块面，结构，但她从未画坏过一张脸，而且，我能见到那个模特，就是说，她凝视的人物，然后，她毫不犹豫的线条使那张脸“变成”绘画。 有点漫画卡通的意思吗？有的，所有“业余画家”都有卡通倾向。令我嫉妒的是，她在毫不自知的状态中，应和了当今世界绘画的“核心”价值：生涩感，业余感，而且，几乎未完成。以我在欧美后现代展览看到的当代绘画，统统近乎涂鸦——“高雅”的趣味，“正确”的画法（更别提学院老套），从未像今天这样显得陈腐，过时，被遗弃。 Female model wearing earrings
孙瑶瑶《羊群》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Flock of Sheep布面油画 Oil on canvas120x160cm，2023 她的风景画也让我吃醋。简单的构图，但是，有构图。我的意思是说，一切正当好，每个部分涂抹了既不是想象，也不是写实的色彩。显然，这位“业余画家”学不会学院式风景写生，但她知道怎样组织一幅画，让这幅画“好看”。 好看：多么简单的真理。而且她画风景跟画人物一样，自信，肯定，因而有力，没有磨蹭和废笔，笔与色的肌理，浓稠饱满。我猜，孙女士不怕自己的画够不到学院的标准，因为她在享受绘画的愉悦，但她未必知道。包围在油画院的专业画家中，孙女士认定要做到油画的高大上，难上加难，不知道她已享受了绘画顶顶要紧的愉悦。 幸亏她不知道。但我知道。关于绘画，我可能知道太多，因此失去愉悦，失去初学时的简单的快乐，而所有简单的快乐，来自感觉。 最后，我想说：业余画家不易走得长，凭才华亦难行远，因为他（她）毕竟缺乏我们称之为“基础”的磨练。但今天的绘画，基础早已不重要。将自己的感觉，将由感觉带出的愉悦，留在画布上，才是真的价值。 请孙女士勿以我的话当真。没人能教你画得更好。好画家的老师永远只有一个，就是你自己，而自己所能拥有的本钱，就是“感觉”。以上文字也无意挑衅“专业同行”，因为我们早已耗尽“感觉”，只剩“专业”了。 谨此预祝孙女士展览开心。 2024年1月15日
English Version Do you feel anything?Look at the paintings of the 'amateur painter' Sun Yaoyao Text by Chen Danqing It should have been a couple of years ago when Professor Tai from the Academy of Oil Painting sent me a dozen photos of paintings, saying they were done by a student named Sun Yaoyao from the advanced class. Half an hour later, I started imitating these paintings. I liked them, but I couldn't paint them. After imitating it, I felt I could paint like that too. Mrs. Sun used to work as an erhu player in the theater and is now a housewife. She only started learning to paint four years ago and belongs to what we commonly call 'amateur painters'. In the academy, there are always a bunch of these folks mixed in with the students. But is she an 'amateur painter'? Beware! The energy of a beginner, the madness, especially the fierce 'feeling', can't be matched by professional painters. Of course, the premise is talent and ability. What is talent and ability? It's still that word: feeling. In my view, 'amateur painters' just like any 'academy painter' or 'professional painter', whether they paint well or poorly, it all depends on their 'feeling'. I'm afraid when students ask me to look at their paintings (maybe eighteen years old or fifty, maybe a housewife or a Ph.D. student from the Central Academy of Fine Arts): at a glance, I can tell if he (she) has the 'feeling' or not. If not, no amount of talking is useful. I'm even more afraid when he (she) asks me: Teacher, how's my shading in my sketch? Is my color correct? It's over. Another one stuffed with academic dogma. But sometimes, thank God, I meet frighteningly talented amateur painters. In the Academy of Oil Painting, I have been lucky enough to meet two formidable housewives in the past ten years. I've encountered two awe-inspiring housewives, one is You Yong's mother, Ai Qin, and the other, is someone I haven't met yet, Sun Yaoyao.
孙瑶瑶《台阶》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Steps布面油画 Oil on canvas70x50cm，2021 What does it mean to have the 'feeling' for painting? Take color, for example. In a portrait of a woman wearing a straw hat, she left a narrow blank space at the top, then suddenly added a few strokes of light purple. She loves using green, but she knows how to create various changes in green for each painting. When she painted a male nude model sitting, she used a high-purity apple green, bright and beautiful, the flesh tones of the human body are matched with various saturated mid-grayscales: but she must not know what 'grayscale' is, and luckily she doesn't. Another example is the use of brushes. Of course, she only smears in an 'amateur' way, but every stroke is bold and confident. In different directions of smearing, she naturally understands how to vary the length of the strokes, strong and weak, thick and thin, so the whole painting has a proper rhythm. But she must not know what 'rhythm' is, luckily she doesn't. When an 'amateur painter' draws a face, roughly outlining the facial features with lines, fundamentally inaccurate, not to mention volume, mass, and structure. However, she has never ruined a face, and, I can see that model, meaning the person she's gazing at, then, with unwavering lines, she makes that face 'turn into' a painting.
孙瑶瑶《红色小鸟》｜ Sun Yaoyao, Red bird布面油画 Oil on canvas60x50cm，2021 A bit like comic/cartoon style? Yes, all 'amateur painters' tend to have a cartoon tendency. What makes me jealous is that in a state of not realizing it at all, she unconsciously conforms to the 'essence' values of contemporary painting today: a sense of awkwardness, amateurism, and almost unfinished. Based on what I've seen in contemporary painting at post-modern exhibitions in Europe and America, all of it almost looks like graffiti—the taste of 'high art', the 'correct' way of painting (not to mention the old-fashioned academic style) has never been so stale, outdated, and abandoned. Her landscape paintings also make me envious. Simple compositions, but there is a composition. What I mean is that everything is reasonably good, each part is painted with colors that are neither imaginary nor realistic. This 'amateur painter' couldn't learn the academic way of painting landscapes, but she knows how to organize a painting to make it 'good-looking'. Good-looking: what a simple truth. She paints landscapes just like she paints portraits, confident, affirmative, and therefore powerful, with no fumbling or wasted strokes, the texture of the brush and color is rich and full. I guess Ms. Sun isn't afraid that her paintings won't reach the standards of the academy because she's enjoying the pleasure of painting. But she might not know. Surrounded by professional painters in the Academy of Oil Painting, Mrs. Sun thinks that achieving the grandeur of oil painting is increasingly difficult, I don't know if she realizes that she has enjoyed the most important joy of painting—feeling.
孙瑶瑶，生于1973年，现生活工作于合肥。1989年毕业于安徽省黄梅戏学校戏音专业，曾任安徽芜湖艺术剧院演奏员，2021—2022年于中国艺术研究院油画院学习。她在画作中直接且炽热的表达了自己对绘画的执着，将自己对生活的体悟以最纯净的方式置于画布之上。孙瑶瑶近期个展包括：《回到种子里去》（站台中国当代艺术机构，北京，2023）；《从零开始——孙瑶瑶的画》（云上美术馆，北京，2022）。 Sun Yaoyao, born in 1973, currently lives and works in Hefei. In 1989, she graduated from the Huizhou Opera School in Anhui Province with a major in opera music. She served as a performer at the Wuhu Art Theater in Anhui. From 2021 to 2022, she studied at the China Academy of Art, majoring in oil painting. In her artwork, Sun Yao Yao expresses her dedication to painting directly and passionately, presenting her reflections on life in the purest form on the canvas. Sun Yao Yao's recent solo exhibition includes 'Return to the seed' (Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, 2023)；'From Scratch——Yaoyao Sun’s Art' (Above the Cloud Art Gallery, Beijing, 2022).
