我去花店買一束洋百合花，朱黃色的花瓣，上綴紅色斑點，很漂亮。我問店內小姐：「百合花長多高？生態如何？」她搖頭說不知道。──不如我自己去種花的花圃實地去看看，拿寫生簿去畫它一畫，還比較更明瞭。

歷來，所有的前輩畫家都主張寫生，強調寫生的重要，要同學們拿紙筆去戶外親自觀察寫生，把看到的畫下來，才不致於閉門造車。

李可染就很重視寫生，他說：「有些畫家終生俯案摹古，『畫於南窗之下』，從不肯走出畫室，其實走出來看看也比關在畫室要好得多，若能再進一步寫生，那就更好了。看看，只能得一個模糊的印象。只有走出去寫生，才能深入認識客觀世界，才算是師造化。」

偉哉斯言！

（畫裡的兩隻夜鷺，台灣話叫「暗光鳥」，是很常見的留鳥。）

I once bought some lilies at a florist's shop, and the reddish-yellow petals, which were adorned with red spots, were very pretty. I asked a young lady working in the shop, "How tall does this lily grow? What is its ecology?" She shook her head and told me she didn't know. It would have been better if I had gone to a nursery where the flowers were grown, and drawn them in my sketchbook—this would have given me a better understanding of these flowers.

Almost all painters of the older generation emphasized the importance of sketching from life. They often told us students to bring paper and brush outdoors to observe and sketch natural objects. They had us paint what we saw, which insured that we didn't get out of touch from reality.

Li Ko-jan, who greatly valued sketching from life, once said: "Some painters spend their lives looking at their desks and copying ancient models; they are divorced from reality, and unwilling to leave their studios. Getting out to look at the world is much, much better than staying shut up in one's studio. It's even better if one can also sketch from life. Viewing something leaves us with only a vague impression. Getting out and sketching things is the only way to really deeply grasp the objective world, and is the only way to really create things."

These are words to live by!

(This painting contains two night herons, which are commonly seen resident birds in Taiwan.) ＠

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責任編輯：昌英