嘉陵江上的碎石滩 2020

王新福 made this painting titled "Shingle Beach on the Jialing River" and it is built up through layers of gestural marks in blues, browns, and creams. I can imagine him standing there, outdoors, battling with the elements, trying to capture the light hitting the rocks in real time. The paint is applied so thickly here, a heavily textured surface where brushstrokes stand out, almost like a relief. This communicates a sense of immediacy, as though Wang Xinfu is laying down his impressions of the landscape as quickly as he can. Look at the way he uses the palette knife to apply the paint in broad strokes, creating a mosaic-like effect. Each dab of color seems to capture a fleeting moment of light and shadow, the whole thing just vibrates with energy. I wonder if he was thinking of other landscape painters, like Courbet or even some of the Impressionists, trying to find his own way to represent nature? It's like Wang Xinfu is having a conversation with those artists, adding his own voice to the ongoing exploration of landscape painting, each learning and building upon the other's work.