写生，就像手工活

　　看得近感受就不是很深。我在国外呆了两年，通过风景画，就能唤起很多很深的东西。我在欧洲一家图书馆里，看到一本关于中国的画册，其中有一张很简单的照片，画面上是四川的春天：一片油菜花，一些梯田，在一条泥路上，几个农民背着东西去赶集，远处是一个小镇隐隐约约的影子。我估计这张照片就是那位记者在路上随便拍的。这种场景在国内比比皆是，但是人在另外一种环境里面，对以前司空见惯的场景却会非常激动，会有很难以言说的感觉。

　　从国外回来以后，我立马就去了大巴山，感觉特别清新。

　　现在越来越发现，同样的风景，同样的季节，给人的感受也越来越不一样。

　　现在很多同行都已经不再写生了，但我不管去哪里，国内、美国、欧洲，都会带几个本子，每次回来都多了几本书。只要翻翻这些本子，我就知道我去了哪些地方，哪些地方留住了我。我们的这种写生，就像手工活一样，看上去很过时了：很多同行已经不写生了。也有很多人这个时代还在干这个活：傻。我想，现在这种手工活有了许多替代品，但物以稀为贵，科技越是发达，技术水平越是高级，设备越先进，手工活也就越有价值。

　　PAINTING FROM NATURE IS LIKE HANDIWORK

　　At a close observation, you do not feel deeply. I spent two years abroad and landscapes brought many profound reflections. I saw a pictorial about China in a European library, featuring a simple photo of springtime in Sichuan with its vegetable flowers on terraced fields and some peasants on a dirt road carrying produce to the market against a backdrop of a distant town. I guessed this was the candid camera of some journalist passing, because it was so commonplace in the local scene. Yet viewers in another environment felt excited over this mundane scene, which produces inexhaustible associations.

　　I went to Daba Mountains as soon as I returned home and got a special fresh feeling out of it. I become more and more aware that the same sight in the same season may mean differently.

　　Many of my colleagues no longer paint from nature, but I do wherever I go, other parts of China, America, or Europe. I would carry a few books and fill them all every time. Skipping through these books, I know where I have been and where I have been captivated. Our painting from nature is like handiwork, which looks outdated, because many artists no longer do this. But many people will do this foolish job in this era of ours. This kind of handiwork has been replaced by many industrial substitutes, but in a manufactured world with sophisticated technology, the curiosity will be more and more valuable.