Described as a human artist, a true colorist and an oil painter with a taste for Paris, Lin Minggang has been devoted to painting and sketching for the past few decades. Moreover, as vice-president of the Hong Kong International Art Association and a member of France's "La Maison des Artists", Lin is now active in the art worlds of both Asia and Europe.
Born in the year of 1952 in China's Fujian Province, Lin has possessed a great love for art from a very young age. Moreover, his main mentor has always been Qian Shaowu, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, as well as a famous sculptor, calligrapher and painter. Indeed, it was Qian who first initiated Lin in the field of painting. Lin is now especially devoted to oil paintings, yet he was originally addicted to his teacher's pencil sketches, as Qian recalls:
"When Ming Gang first began to learn painting, he loved my pencil sketches and wanted to learn them from me. So I mainly focused on teaching him that. The difference between him and other students was that, before he came to me, he hadn't received any regular training in painting. Therefore, no concept of a routine painting method existed in his mind. When he painted, he paid the most attention to the personality of a person, especially their innermost self. In fact, at that time, he was really sensitive to those points."
Seeking a better environment to study and practice his painting, Lin went to Hong Kong in 1978, where he attended the Hong Kong Fine Art Academy School and graduated in 1984. During this period, Lin gradually turned to oil painting and finally gave it his full focus. He also fell in love with impressionism, and even today, his passion for this style has yet to diminish, with comments from Qian:
"He's immersed in impressionist landscape painting. In terms of the natural, beautiful, but simple landscapes of France, he's gained a really good understanding of them. The essence of impressionism, I believe, is the accurate appreciation of nature and sensitivity towards it, along with the detailed realization of changes of color, light and shade. He's learnt well from this aspect of impressionism. Probably, at first, he just picked up the artistic skills of impressionist painting. However, the most crucial thing is that he fell in love with nature through this study of impressionism. As a result, he's now determined to devote his lifetime to impressionism, and that is most commendable."
In the year of 1990, Lin went to Paris and settled down there. He carried on his study in the Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux-arts de Paris and spent one full year in Musee Louvre to copy from the great masters.
So far, Lin has already issued many of his oil paintings, alongside some portrait drawings. Since 1989, he's also put on several individual exhibits in both Hong Kong and Paris, while his works are collected by both locally and internationally, by aficionados, organizations, and museums.
Described as a human artist, a true colorist, and an oil painter with a taste for Paris, Lin paints in a very elegant manner, and gracefully expresses emotion through his landscapes.
"I'm recently perplexed by what to paint and how to paint it, so I'm always in a state of anxiety and worry. I intend to paint or write something, but more often than not, I can’t figure out where to start and how to make the whole thing satisfactory. I force myself to calm down, to concentrate on painting a picture or writing something. However, in most cases, this can't be achieved."
Instead, after all his anxious reasoning, Lin finds that his ideas often appear by accident.
"At the beginning, I never think about having philosophical thoughts towards certain things or presenting my works with any particular great skill or technique. To this end, I seldom start my painting with the image already clear in my mind. I came up with most of my recent works following enlightenment, which accidentally resulted from something completely unconnected. Of course, thinking about life and nature in my daily life is also essential and necessary. Moreover, before the completion of a work, I would definitely pay attention to the artistic skills applied in the painting."
Despite being an ardent admirer of impressionism, Lin nevertheless presents us his own particular style, which is unpretentious, refreshing and natural.
(CRI November 18, 2005)
