“生命力”是何水法作品中最为突出的特质。他笔下的花鸟不在乎“似与不似”，再现的是生命的情怀和精神力。正如初见他时，无人不被他的率直洒脱所感染，不禁感叹人如其画，画亦如其人，他将流转于传统与当下、艺术与自然之间返璞归真的生命气节落墨笔端，成就了自我的诗化哲学。

 何水法早年临宋人花鸟，先画工笔，1978年考取浙江美术学院中国画专业研究生，后在陆抑非的指导下转向写意花鸟创作。由工入写，坚实的写实功底对何水法的大写意创作大有助益。正如齐白石曾说，“写生而后写意，写意而复写生”。先从描摹对象开始，进而转向写意创作，最后再重新回归到对于物象与造化的认知。何水法的创作以写生为基础，喜用亮色，以色代墨，明艳而不失于浮俗，突破了清简淡远的传统文人画审美。随心而为、随性而作，淡化了对于精准写实的执念，追寻着生命与自然和谐统一，转向了更深层次的水墨趣味与时代精神的互文之中。

本次展览囊括了何水法各时期的重要作品，跨越了其半个多世纪的创作生涯，磅礴巨制与婉约细腻皆可得见。既有半个世纪前刘海粟盛赞、陆抑非题款的牡丹写生作品，也有首次面世的大写意新作。尤其在他近阶段的作品中，对形与意的强调，转移到了更为纯粹的创作与释放中去。他追逐着的节奏感，寻求接近自然本真的状态，完成了对“逸格”的一次次探寻，而画面中所具备的精神性与时代性等特征，又呈现出与当代艺术的价值判断相通的一面。

在一种图式推动另一种图式，一个潮流追赶另一个潮流的当代艺术界，当我们置身于更为开放、广阔的文化场域之中，相比单一标准的艺术创作，应该有着更多的可能与阐释，而对画面雅俗的判断更不应只局限在用色用笔。何水法作品中的自由浪漫，不愿被羁绊、束缚的态度，建构着他所理解的秩序，在这一层意义上他似乎把我们带入到了一个更为纯粹的精神空间——暂且放下对图像和叙事的探讨，置身于单纯的绘画之中，体验精神的自由。“当年万里追花季”的欣喜与收获，穿越时间与空间的能量给他的作品以加持，也成为他艺术与人生的回顾。

是为序。

谢晓婷

苏州博物馆馆长

“Life force” features most prominently in He Shuifa’s works. Instead of the resemblance of appearance, it is the emotional and spiritual power of life that matter in his paintings of flowers and birds, just as nobody would not be impressed by his straightforwardness and easygoing at the first sight. No wonder it is said his drawings and him are in the same style. He Shuifa reflected the essence of life which transfers between the tradition and the present, the art and the nature in his brushwork, achieving his own poetic philosophy.

 In his early years, He Shuifa copied the bird-and-flower painting of Song Dynasty, focusing on the practice of fine brushwork. When he was admitted to Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts as postgraduate majoring in Chinese painting, he started to turn to the creation of bird and flower in freehand brushwork under the guidance of Lu Yifei. The shift of his brushwork greatly benefited from his solid foundation of figurative painting. Just as Qi Baishi once said, “First paint from life, then paint in freehand, and again paint from life”. Starting with the depicting of objects, He Shuifa moved on to the creation in freehand, and finally returned to a deeper understanding of the forms and essence of nature. Grounded in painting from life, He Shuifa’s creation preferred colors to ink, which was bright and brilliant yet less vulgar, breaking through the traditional aesthetic of literati painting stressing on simplicity and understatement. No longer sticking to painting realistically, he painted freely and spontaneously, pursuing the harmony and unity between life and nature, and delving into a deeper interplay of the artistry of ink painting and the spirit of the times.

 This exhibition displays He Shuifa’s important works in both magnificent and delicate styles from various periods of his artistic career spanning over half a century.

The Peony, from around half a century ago, was highly praised by Liu Haisu and inscribed by Lu Yifei. And his recent freehand paintings in grand style will be unveiled this time, which payed more attention to pure creation and expression rather than distinguish figurative painting from freehand painting. In pursuit of a state close to the essence of nature at his own pace, He Shuifa accomplished the exploration of “Leisure” in his paintings over and over again. On the other hand, the spiritual features and characteristics of the times in his works just matched with the value judgment of the contemporary art.

 In the contemporary art world, where one schema stimulates another and one trend chases the next, as we find ourselves in a more open and expansive cultural field, there should be more possibilities and interpretations beyond singular standards of artistic creation, in which way the appreciation of a painting should not be confined solely to the use of color and brushwork. The free-spirited romanticism in He Shuifa’s works, along with his attitude to not being fettered or constrained, constructs the order as he understands it. In this sense, he seems to lead us into a purer spiritual realm—temporarily setting aside discussions of imagery and narrative, immersing ourselves in the simplicity of painting, and experiencing spiritual freedom. The joy and harvest of “Travelling Great Distance for the Blooming Season” fills his works with the energy that transcends time and space, serving as a retrospective of both his life and art career.

So much for the foreword.

Xie Xiaoting

Director of Suzhou Museum