Tian Fengyin's hands are very rough. The dry skin is "cut" densely with wrinkles, and the scars that have been over the years have become scabs in the palm of the palm, which is hard. Every time she shakes hands with someone else, she always feels a little embarrassed.
She described her fingers as hard as eagle claws, but the "eagle claws" can also be very agile. With just a few strokes, she outlined the peach blossoms on the edge of Great Wall .
Tian Fengyin sketches in the old dragon head of Shanhaiguan. Photo provided by the interviewee
30, Tianfeng Bank traveled tens of thousands of kilometers to the Great Wall and created more than 600 Great Wall oil paintings. When I was sleepy, I just sniffed in in beacon tower. When I was hungry, I would chew a bite of sesame cake. In order to climb the Great Wall to sketch, she broke two ribs in exchange for a stunning work of snowflakes.
Her Great Wall theme oil paintings have won the love of many domestic and foreign audiences, and have been invited to hold 47 Great Wall theme oil painting exhibitions in 23 countries and United Nations . Not only that, her paintings were also presented to the heads of state and guests as a APEC national gift.
In March this year, she won the 2021 National March 8th Red Flag Bearer . Among the 300 people who received this honor, she is the only painter. "It is my mission to polish the Great Wall, the Chinese business card, and bring it to the world."
March 9, 2022, Tian Fengyin Great Wall Art Museum in Huairou, Beijing, 2021 National March 8th Red Flag Bearer Tian Fengyin. Beijing News reporter Wang Zicheng photographed
"It's so good to draw"
In the impression of Wu Ge Tian Zhenyang, my sister Tian Fengyin started to "draw" before she learned to leave.
Their home is in Yushuidong Village, Huairou District, Beijing. Standing on the hillside behind the village, you can see the undulating mountains in the distance. When they were young, their brothers went up the mountain to do farm work and would take Tian Fengyin with them. The little girl squatted beside the fields, grabbing the branches and drawing the peaks. There was a big river in front of the village. She ran to the river to pick up small colored stones and "scribble" them on the big stones.
1974, Tian Fengyin was six years old. One day, the commune released the open-air movie "Bao Lotus Lantern" for free. She followed her brothers for more than 20 miles and watched the first movie in her life. Sitting on the shoulders of her second brother, she was deeply attracted by the scene on the curtain.
When he got home, Tian Fengyin set his sights on his brothers' paints. She dipped the pen in water to dip the pieces of paint bit by bit, and adjusted it to her favorite color. In the blank space behind the New Year's painting paper, she drew the Three Holy Mothers and Eight Fairies in colorful skirts.
The third brother met and took this painting to help her sign up for the competition. Tian Fengyin no longer remembers what the competition was, she only remembers that she won the prize and won a small iron kettle. At that time, a pound of pork cost 40 cents, and the kettle cost at least one or two yuan. The children in the village have never seen such a baby. They are so cute. They also have a belt that can be carried on their backs. The children in the village squeezed into her house and took turns to watch.
Tian Fengyin felt for the first time, "The painting is so good!"
On March 9, 2022, Tian Fengyin Great Wall Art Museum in Huairou, Beijing, Tian Fengyin told the story of his childhood to the reporter of Beijing News . Beijing News reporter Wang Zicheng took
and this painting also changed her original life trajectory. At that time, children in the village generally went to school until they were nine years old, but because of that painting, the primary school principal found Tian Fengyin's mother, and she came to school early at the age of six.
Tian Fengyin still loves painting. When I was in junior high school, I was in math class once. She was drawing flowers on books and was caught by the teacher. The teacher joked, "I think you want to make a living in this future?" It was a joke, but unexpectedly, Tian Fengyin really opened his own art gallery and even held art exhibitions in 23 countries.
It was also in junior high school that Tian Fengyin met the Great Wall for the first time. During the summer vacation, she went to her aunt's house dozens of kilometers away. My aunt's house is also at the foot of the mountain. My cousin and the children in the village often pull her to climb Dazhenyu Great Wall . After the children went up the mountain to fight pig grass, they weave a straw hat and play the role of the Eighth Route Army in the Great Wall. Sometimes Tian Fengyin would take a small notebook and draw and sketch for the Great Wall.
The holiday is over, but her fate with the Great Wall is quietly buried.
"The villagers at the foot of the Great Wall gave me a second life"
In 1988, Tian Fengyin was admitted to the Department of Fine Arts of Capital Normal University and began regular art studies. When she was in her sophomore year, she first came into contact with oil painting in her class by Teacher Zhao Dalu. The landscapes and image of farmers under the teacher's paintings made her obsessed with them, and the heaviness and color impact of the oil paintings brought her unprecedented shock.
Beginners in oil painting, but there are still some barriers to understanding it. If you don’t draw well, you will be piled up with various colors and you can’t see anything. Tian Fengyin groped in the layers and three-dimensional sense of oil paintings, and gradually improved from still life to copying.
However, oil painting was called "noble art" at that time: a piece of paint costs more than ten yuan, and a set costs more than one hundred yuan. Buying a set is equivalent to half a month's salary for a Beijing employee. In order to save money, the students found wood to be cut into picture frames, washed the flour bag and stretched it out, and then found some white latex, and learned to scrape glue to make canvas by themselves.
The oil painting "Moonlight Peony" created by Tian Fengyin. Photo provided by the interviewee
The family’s financial conditions are not good, and Tian Fengyin is reluctant to let her parents spend money. During the winter and summer vacations, she earned living expenses and oil painting pigments for people; she could not afford to order a pictorial, so she went to the library as soon as she was free.
There, she saw the first photo of arrows and great wall . Without much hesitation, she picked up a few dozen kilograms of oil painting boxes and took the bus. She hiked 8 miles and arrived at Xizhazi Village at the foot of the Jiankou Great Wall.
There is no accommodation in the village, she lives in the home of a peasant woman. Before leaving the next day, the peasant woman saw her a student and ran from afar to draw the Great Wall, so she stuffed four white bread cakes. "At that time, I needed food coupons to buy white flour. The other party gave me the white flour cakes I saved from eating at home and gave me who had only one chance to meet."
The Great Wall of Jiankou is the most majestic Great Wall in Beijing, with an altitude of 1,141 meters and is shaped like a bow and arrow. The most steepest area in the past is called the "ladder" and has a steep slope of nearly 80 degrees. Tian Fengyin pulled the vegetation beside the broken wall and climbed up slowly while stepping on the stone.
crawled for 4 hours, and Tian Fengyin saw the most beautiful Arrow Kwai Great Wall. It is autumn, golden fallen leaves cover the ancient city walls inside and outside, colorful wild flowers dotted among the forests, and the winding Great Wall separates the mountains from the mountains and blends them with the mountains.
Tian Fengyin paints the Great Wall under the brush. Beijing News reporter Wang Zicheng took the picture board with
. Tian Fengyin forgot the time until he couldn't see the canvas clearly, and realized that it was getting late. She didn't dare to go down the mountain in the dark, so she climbed into a beacon tower to keep the cold. The night wind rustled, the unknown birds screamed sharply, and the leaves were blown like iron sheets. She picked up many small stones and thought to herself that if the wolf came, she would smash them with the stones.
Just like that, Tian Fengyin fell asleep in a daze, and when he woke up, he was already lying at the home of the peasant woman who was staying the day before. It turned out that the peasant woman saw that she had not returned late at night, so she informed the captain of the village. The captain led a few young men to go up the mountain to search with flashlights. When she found Tian Fengyin, she had already fainted.
Tian Fengyin said that her second life was given by the villagers of Xizhazi Village at the foot of the Great Wall. "The best reward for the villagers is to draw this Great Wall and promote their hometown."
The only art teacher and her more than 200 students
Tian Fengyin studied in the art teacher class at university, and students will go to middle school to teach after graduation. After graduation, Tian Fengyin also came to a junior high school in Huairou to teach and became the only art teacher in this school.
Here, she saw some children's painting talents. But studying is very expensive, so how could these rural kids learn to draw? The school could not provide funds to support her, so Tian Fengyin set up an art group herself and took time to teach the children for free in the evening and weekends.
Tian Fengyin sketches in He Fangkou Great Wall . Photo provided by the interviewee
The children work hard, and some of them go to learn painting from her almost every day after evening self-study. In this group of children, Tian Fengyin saw her own shadow - when she was a child, her family was poor and could not afford to buy more books. There were illustrations in the textbooks, which were often not big, but this was her most precious thing.She protected all the books with these pictures very well, wrapped them in old newspapers, and always wiped them clean after finishing farm work before touching the books.
At that time, what attracted her the most among these books was the paintings of Xu Beihong . She felt that the horse Mr. Xu painted was very similar to the horse she saw in the village. Slowly, the horse started running on the painting, and she saw a spirit of strength, courage and progress.
But Tian Fengyin felt that what had a greater impact on him was Xu Beihong's own experience. When Chinese art education was in its infancy, he took on the important task of the times when he returned to China after studying abroad and served as the first dean of , and taught him all his life's learning.
Feeling the power from this motivation, Tian Fengyin worked silently.
On March 9, 2022, Tian Fengyin Great Wall Art Museum in Huairou, Beijing, Tian Fengyin is creating oil paintings in the studio. Photo by Wang Zicheng, reporter of Beijing News
In the early 1990s, there was no shop selling sketch paper in Huairou. Tian Fengyin took the shuttle bus to the art store opposite the Chinese Art Museum to buy it. It took a whole day to go back and forth. 100 sketch paper weighs thirty or forty kilograms, plus pencils, gouache, and Chinese painting pigments, it can be 60 or 70 kilograms. She carries a bundle on her shoulders and a bundle in her hand.
Tian Fengyin's efforts were not disappointed. In her art group, more than 200 students were admitted to the art secondary school, and their works frequently stood out in the Huairou Primary and Secondary School Students' Calligraphy and Art Photography Competition.
Persevere and there will be a response. At that time, she didn't know that many years later, she would hold a solo exhibition in Xu Beihong Memorial Hall , and received high praise from Mrs. Xu Beihong Liao Jingwen . Liao Jingwen described her painting style as "consistent with the concept advocated by Mr. Xu Beihong - close to life, close to the times, and praise the main theme of the times."
"Chinese Phoenix by the Seine"
Tian Fengyin's painting allowed her to walk out of the village and out of the country. In 2005, Tian Fengyin received a call from the People's Pictorial. The newspaper told her that Alfred, chairman of the French Artists Association, saw her paintings from the pictorial and invited her through the Chinese Embassy, hoping that Tian Fengyin could hold an exhibition in France.
Tian Fengyin was invited to go, and that was her first time going abroad. Alfred likes her paintings very much. In order to allow her to receive a better art education, he helped Tian Fengyin apply for a scholarship and entered the National Higher Art Institute of Paris to study.
The temperament of "Romantic Capital" has gradually been integrated into Tian Fengyin's creation. Influenced by French Impressionism , her paintings add a bit of beauty to the realistic . While retaining the ancient vicissitudes of the Great Wall, they also incorporate bright and bright colors.
The oil painting "The Thirteen Passes of the Great Wall" series "Jiayu Passes". Photo provided by the interviewee
Since the first time she held an exhibition in France, Tian Fengyin has been traveling abroad with her Great Wall paintings. In order to let foreigners learn more about the Great Wall and the Chinese nation, she will tell them the origin and story of the Great Wall. "The Great Wall has been built for several dynasties and thousands of years, which shows that the Chinese nation is a united and upward family. Our ancestors built the Great Wall with their original intention of defense rather than invasion, so we love peace in our hearts; there are many post stations at the Great Wall Pass to connect trade, which fully reflects that we are a welcoming and etiquette country."
Through the art exhibition, many foreigners have gained a new understanding of the Great Wall and China. Lagarde, then the French Minister of Finance, praised her as an ambassador of friendship between the Chinese people and the French people, and Alfred, who was transferred to the General Inspector of the Ministry of Finance, also praised her as the "second Monet".
The oil painting "Spring Dawn" created by Tian Fengyin. Photo provided by the interviewee
In 2010, Alfred told Tian Fengyin that he wanted to write a biography for her, hoping that all French art youth could learn from her. In May of the same year, he flew to Beijing and encountered the first rain of that spring in Yushuidong Village, Tian Fengyin's hometown. The green green mountains loomed in the drizzle, and Alfred was moved. "Tian, I know why you want to draw, because you were born in a fairyland."
Tian Fengyin took him to climb the Great Wall to see the chestnut flower in his hometown. May and June are the season when chestnut flowers bloom, and the furry flowers hang down like ears of grain. When he was a child, his father often took her to tie up the chestnut flowers scattered all over the floor, roasted them on the windowsill and smoked mosquitoes, just like mosquito coils. Only the small and unsold fruits of the chestnut tree at home will be kept for themselves to eat, but this is still the sweetest memory of her childhood.
Tian Fengyin's oil painting "Chest Flower" series. Beijing News reporter Wang Zicheng Photo
Later, chestnuts from her hometown became Huairou's most famous specialty, and she also took the chestnut flowers she drew to a farther place.
In order to complete this biography, Alfred came to China five times, sometimes only staying in Huairou for one or two nights and rushed back to France to work. "She sings on the beautiful scenery of her hometown, which is the source of inspiration. "A year later, Alfred completed Tian Fengyin's biography "Chinese Phoenix by the Seine".
The classroom and love that is constantly "growing"
The child walking out of the foot of the Great Wall has never forgotten the landscape that raised her.
Since 2000, Tian Fengyin has continued to provide help to the elderly and widowed people in Yushuidong Village and surrounding villages. The annual funding amount of each person has gradually increased from 3,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
These elderly people have watched Tian Fengyin grow up. Neighbors live close to each other and have any problems at home. Since childhood, Tian Fengyin has heard from his mother that there are many children at home and there are not enough cloth tickets, so the neighbors will give old clothes to Tian Fengyin and brother Brothers and sisters.
Every time I go back to the village, Tian Fengyin will visit the elderly and widowed people in the village. Although she is not related by blood, she affectionately calls one of the elderly "big grandma". "big grandma" has no children, and after her husband dies, she can only live alone. Tian Fengyin is particularly concerned about her.
In the summer of 2004, when she returned to the village, Tian Fengyin found that the "big grandma" in her 70s curled up on the earthen kang, moaning in pain. She quickly called the neighbors in the village to carry the elderly into the car and rushed to the hospital. Later, the doctor said that if they came one hour later, the "big grandma" would be in danger of life.
In addition to helping the elderly and widowed people, Tian Fengyin also volunteered to send tutoring into the mountains and doors for decades. She regularly gave the mountains to the mountains. The children give free lectures and lead them to participate in the competition. Some parents do not understand, and their children have not learned good cultural courses well, so why should they be distracted from studying art? At this time, Tian Fengyin will visit them in person to interpret the talents they show to their children.
Tian Fengyin's oil painting "The Rise of the Sea" created by Tian Fengyin. Photo provided by the interviewee
Schools deep in the mountains provide the list of children who can't afford to go to school to Tian Fengyin, and some people come here to see them. Among the extracurricular tutoring classes she offers, one-third of the children attend free classes, and even the supplies they need to draw are provided free of charge by Tian Fengyin. Many of these children have been admitted to art colleges, some have become designers, and some have become art teachers. Following the road that Tian Fengyin has walked.
Tian Fengyin's classroom continues to "grow". In 2020, the epidemic suddenly came, and she opened an online classroom to teach tens of thousands of teenagers and art enthusiasts voluntarily. At the same time, Tian Fengyin thought that young children are also members of the society, and can also spread the simplest and pure positive energy to the society from their unique perspectives.
Because of this, she also organized an online collection of works by children in the country called "One unity, 'art' fight against the epidemic - with love, you will win", and received hundreds of works by children from more than a dozen provinces across the country. Tian Fengyin was very moved, "Each work is not only a simple painting, but also the children's sincere love and determination to overcome the epidemic. A strong youth means a strong country, and if you have love, you will definitely win. "
In February 2020, Tian Fengyin created an oil painting "United to the World" to praise the medical staff in the fight against the epidemic. Photo provided by the interviewee
"A little grass under the Great Wall"
draws oil paintings, climbing the Great Wall, all are physical work, Tian Fengyin persisted for 30 years.
In the winter of one year, she went to the Jiankou Great Wall to sketch, and snowflakes suddenly floated on the originally clear sky.The whole mountain forest calmed down, and the spectacular view in front of us could not be described in words. She drew 5 sketches in one breath, but because it was getting late, she had to stay overnight before going down the mountain.
The snow-covered mountain road was particularly difficult to walk. It was not until the evening that Tian Fengyin stumbled to the village at the foot of the Great Wall. It was not until she was sent to the hospital that she realized that two of her ribs had broken at some point. But after two months of rest, she regained her brush and based on her impression, she created "Snowflakes Floating Inside and Outside the Great Wall".
Tian Fengyin's oil painting "Snowflakes Float in and outside the Great Wall". Photo by Wang Zicheng, reporter of Beijing News
"This work was exchanged for life." Now, it is hung in the Tianfengyin Great Wall Art Museum. Every time she meets an interested audience, Tian Fengyin will take them to a specific position - watch quietly here, "Snowflakes will flutter."
From 2014 to 2017, she set out from the old Longtou of Shanhaiguan, the easternmost part of the Great Wall, sketched all the way, and arrived at the westernmost part of Jiayuguan. During the process, Tian Fengyin drew more than 100 sketches, took countless photos, and finally gathered them into a huge Great Wall oil painting "Chinese Soul" that is 2.3 meters high and 18 meters long.
On April 1, 2017, the moment this work was hung on the wall of the exhibition hall of Tianfengyin Great Wall Art Museum, she cried with excitement.
On March 9, 2022, Tian Fengyin Great Wall Art Museum in Huairou, Beijing, Tian Fengyin stood in front of her huge Great Wall oil painting "The Soul of China". Photo by Wang Zicheng, reporter of Beijing News
This focused love continues. In order to welcome the Beijing Winter Olympics , Tian Fengyin spent two years collecting and designing in Beijing and Hebei. In September last year, she put up all the canvases 24 meters long and 2.62 meters high. When drafting, she locked herself in the studio for two days and one night in order to complete the picture in one go.
From then on, she basically had to work in the studio for fifteen or sixteen hours every day. A few months later, "The Great Wall: The Spirit of China" was born. The picture covers the Great Wall landscapes of the Simatai Great Wall and the Jiankou Great Wall in Beijing, the Old Longtou Great Wall in Shanhaiguan, the Dajingmen , the Jinshanling Great Wall and the Chongli Great Wall in Hebei. In this way, she connected the two Winter Olympics cities together with the image of the Great Wall.
The family supports her career very much, but when it snows, the 95-year-old mother can't hide her concern. She knew that as soon as it snowed, her daughter had to drill up to the Great Wall again, but she also knew that her daughter loved it.
In March this year, Tian Fengyin was awarded the 2021 National March 8th Red Flag Bearer. Among the 300 people who received this honor, she is the only painter. When receiving the good news from his daughter, the old mother was very excited, "This is bringing glory to her hometown."
Tian Fengyin was awarded the National March 8 Red Flag Bearer of 2021. Photo by Wang Zicheng, reporter of Beijing News
Once upon a time, when holding an art exhibition abroad, Tian Fengyin was asked by a reporter from Swedish that she also painted other subjects, why is the only one who brought her abroad to the Great Wall? At that time, she said, "The scenery is everywhere, and only China has the Great Wall. As long as I have the opportunity to hold an art exhibition abroad, I will bring this business card that symbolizes China to the people of the world."
Color flows quietly at the pen. She is quietly creating in the studio, and she is still carving the beautiful mountains and rivers in her heart. "No matter how far my artistic path goes, it will always be a grass under the Great Wall."
Beijing News reporter Guo Yimeng Wang Zicheng Intern Wang Yexuan
Editor Li Binbin Proofreading Zhao Lin Lu Qian
