In 1956, Shan Yinggui, already a mother of two children, was admitted to the Color and Ink Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. She finally realized her dream ideal. This was her happiest and most difficult period. In this institution of higher learning that implements Xu Beihong's education system, she received solid basic training in modeling. She learned the modeling techniques of thick realistic brushwork from Mr. Jiang Zhaohe, and learned the line brushwork full of vitality from Mr. Ye Qianyu. She created a New Year painting "Peace and Happiness" with the theme of mother and child in the second grade. In 1958, it was selected into the "World Festival Art Exhibition" and was selected to participate in the "Socialist Plastic Art Exhibition". From this, she emerged in the painting world. Then she created an ink painting called "Contemporary Heroes" that praised the "iron girls" in the mountainous areas who wielded pickaxes to dig mountains and build canals. It was well received at the time. This work, which praises the female spirit of revolutionary heroism, is like a cry, declaring to the world: "Women are not weak!" Isn't this also her inner voice? It was completed during the harvest season of great artistic achievements, when her parents passed away one after another and her husband was labeled as a "rightist". Her life was the most difficult and her mood was the most painful. But her works are permeated with a peaceful, optimistic and bright atmosphere. What spiritual strength supported her weak shoulders to bear such a difficult fate?
She was born in an educated family in Shandong. The democratic and enlightened family environment cultivated her kind and philanthropic mind and established her will to pursue a bright future. As a child, he experienced the eight years of turbulent escape during the Anti-Japanese War, and also experienced the baptism of the Liberation War. Living in the transition between the old and the new society, the pursuit of brightness and progress was the desire of the progressive youth of that era. On the eve of liberation, she participated in revolutionary work. However, she was married too early and before she could enjoy the joy of women's liberation, she was burdened with a heavy family burden. As a person with an independent spirit, she has since embarked on a bumpy road in life. In the struggle against a bad fate, she uses her self-reliance and self-reliance as a woman to not only fight with the outside world, including leaders, but also with traditional views on women. She struggled against the heavy pressure exerted on her, and was reborn in the process of breaking with the traditional feudal female concepts deep in her soul such as weakness, groveling, compromise, swallowing, dependence, and dependence. A woman who has gone through the hardships of childhood, experienced the life of a woman as a wife, a mother, and a daughter-in-law, how to control the rudder of destiny on the road of life, not to drift with the tide, not to be ruined by dangerous shoals and waves, without lofty ambitions, extraordinary How can she overcome many difficulties and create a woman's independent life value with her perseverance? After leaving school, despite all the difficulties and helplessness in life, and under the pressure of heavy life burden and mental burden, she never gave up her pursuit of art.
Chinese ink figure painting, from Xu Beihong to Jiang Zhaohe, formed a realistic system of figure painting that expresses the humanistic atmosphere of the times, and promoted the reform and development of figure painting in the history of Chinese painting. Because of the influence of ideology, the 1950s and 1960s moved toward stereotypes. Shan Yinggui inherited the tradition of realistic ink painting, but took a different approach, taking a path that integrates realistic brushwork and folk woodcut New Year pictures. Perhaps the success of the New Year painting "Peace and Happiness" gave her some inspiration and confidence, or her inner artistic gene contributed to her new artistic pursuit. She was trapped in the countryside since she was a child. Shandong folk paper-cutting, Weifang kites, and Yangjiabu wooden New Year paintings accompanied her through her difficult childhood. They not only brought her childhood joy and beautiful fantasy, but also opened up her artistic spirituality. Although she has a background in Chinese painting, she still can't let go of her "New Year painting complex". If "Peace and Happiness" in the early years was still an imitation of folk New Year paintings, then "Nursing Seedlings", "Primary School on the Lake" and "Wedding on the Lake" are all New Year paintings of the new era and new style. The most favorite one is the painting "Making Military Shoes" of five Shandong women with fresh life style, beautiful and simple spring orchids, autumn chrysanthemums, completed in 1977. This work won the first prize in the provincial New Year Painting Exhibition in 1985, the third prize nationwide, was collected by the Huaihai Campaign Memorial Hall, and was recorded by the Central News Documentary Film Studio. It became popular all over the country.
In this sketching and sketching brushwork, Shan Yinggui incorporates both writing brushwork and woodcut brushwork for New Year pictures, forming her artistic honest and simple aesthetic character. She internalizes the truth, kindness and beauty of human nature, and those ordinary and stubborn lives, into the emotional power of the paintings, which is moving. With her simple, honest and unique style of art, she writes about her love for the common people, turning suffering into perseverance and solidity, inspiring people's upward spiritual pursuit, and showing the grandeur of art and the beauty of spirit in simplicity. In today's world of diverse and exotic flowers and plants, her art is irreplaceable. Shan Yinggui has been an artist for 60 years. In her artistic career, she has engraved the footprints of the progress of China and the country, as well as her personal ups and downs in life. She walked out with the Communist Party of China carrying a heavy history. She was an artistic elite of an era and completed the artistic mission of an era.