蔡瑞蓉，熟人喜称其为“阿蔡”；从学生时代开始，于今仍如是。我们共同的老家温州一带素有此昵称格式，因此在听到这个称呼时，总会令我仿佛置身于特殊的气息中，里面混杂着海风里的咸腥味、退潮后滩涂上的光亮，以及如外语般难懂的乡音。学生时期的阿蔡，便有着在普通女生身上难得一见的大气、坦率和朴实；画画是这样，做人也一样。有道是“名副其实”；能在美院众多个性十足的女生群中，独享此乡土味十足的昵称，仔细想来，又何尝不是出自周边人群对其人品和画品的一种认定和评价。

　　出身于美术教育专业的她涉猎较广，油画、水彩、版画都来，与这个专业开放包容而内涵丰富的课程结构，有着密切的渊源关系。就如同她独享的昵称所带有的乡土气息一样，虽然身经数年的学院熏陶，阿蔡的画却总是与那些精致抑或帅气的学院画风，保持着相当的距离，保持着原初的“大气”与“土气”。说到“大气”，便不得不首先提到我特别喜欢的《三垟湿地》这个系列的水彩作品。作品里物象形态的界限是含混模糊的，这使水彩笔触得到了自由挪移挥洒和相互融通的空间，也使得“水色淋漓”这一水彩画独具的材料工具语言得到了充分的发挥；这些固然都是使这些画面带有一种扑面而来的、纵横涂抹来去无羁的“大气”的原因，但却不是最主要的。“大气”，首先来自于观照之眼之大，来自于她面对物象时更为整体而概括的观照视域。在她的视域里，只要是地面的物象，举凡阡陌、丘陵、植被，抑或是池沼、屋宇等等，都统统被归纳于一个浑厚的团块之内。它们有着一些似有非有、若似而非的形态，却更像是一些隐秘地蛰伏于地块之内、随时准备遁形的有机体。而与暧昧混沌的形态相伴相生的，毋宁说恰是因为形态的不确定性而得以恣肆涂抹的淋漓水色，又进而将那种潜流般运行的大地生机，烘托得充盈饱满、触手可及。由此可知，前文中所说的“相互融通”、“纵横涂抹来去无羁”等等，其实都是源自于其观照方式的必然结果，观看决定了一切。阿蔡的“大气”，绝非在技艺手段。

　　在《大港头》、《西北行》系列和一些乡村题材的水彩写生中，阿蔡看似在执行着“因物象形”的原则，以相对具象的方式对客观物态进行描绘；但与此同时，却也依然保持着“不计小节”的潇洒做派。她仿佛是以水和色为梭，在一路的点染叠洗揉皴中，编织着自己心目中生机盎然的精灵花园。花园中充溢着流动不息的活泼精灵，它们隐现无定，首尾相连，涌动着出现或消失在形态的边缘，时而相互汇流，又在催生出一片灿烂后倏忽隐匿其踪迹……这些或可称之为景物的“气息”或是“脉动”，应该是阿蔡透过景物的外相想要搜寻的；换言之也是她真正能获得感动的所在。在这里，画面再次揭穿了画家求索之眼的所有走线。依然是那句话：“观看决定了一切”。

　　让我感兴趣的另一个系列，是她的戏曲题材的作品。在她之前的像关良、韩羽等著名的先辈们的做法，是注重表现角色间的爱恨情仇的纠葛关系和各自的神态，此外的赘饰便统统丢弃不顾，只以简要的造型和笔墨情趣取胜。阿蔡却反其道而行之。她别出心裁地让皮影戏中通常是零星出现的角色排列成雄师出征般的阵仗，又将皮影身上的所有装饰要素重新编排，整合成平面化意味很重的大块面，使之成为画面营造上的核心团块。如果说，先辈们的做法是通过一个剧目的某一经典瞬间来窥视人性，那么阿蔡则是将传统戏剧视为一个蕴涵丰厚的文化载体，竭力表现其摄人魂魄的璀璨和雄浑；强烈的色彩冲撞，也使人觉得她是要以视觉的方式来还原戏码上演时的铿锵节奏和高亢唱腔……

　　《地底的图案》，是她戏曲题材作品中的一个系列的标题，我却觉得它还可以借用来描述阿蔡的创作状态。所谓“地”，就是人的立足之处，也是出发点；“地底”，蕴含山川风土四季植被的馈赐，也是决定此地异于彼地的根源。人心也如地，也有其异于他者的底蕴；作画如随心底意志而出，便自有其人的独特面貌在。王国维说“一切景语皆情语”，缺了由心底流出的“情”的支配，我想不出为何还要画画。阿蔡画画，看似不趋时流、守拙不敏，却在从心所欲的同时，在画画的根本处守住了“地底”的尊严，这其实是一种大聪明。

中国美术学院教授、中国美术家协会版画艺术委员会副主任 张远帆

2016年7月于杭州

"Patterns in the underground"

--of Cai's painting

　　Professor of China Academy of Art, Deputy Director of Print Painting Art Committee of China Artists Association

　　Cai Ruirong hasn't been changed in her nickname, A Cai to fellow acquaintances, since she was a school girl. People in Wenzhou–our hometown–has the convention of nicknaming old friends like that. Every time I hear this name, it always calls back a special scene, a mixture of salty taste of the sea breeze, the shining beach after the tides ebb away and the dialect that as unintelligible as a foreign tongue.

　　In her teenage years, her great bearing, frankness and simplicity were the noble traits which seemed so scarce among ordinary school girls. These qualities were demonstrated not only by her paintings but also in the way she lives her life. As a saying goes, "Come down from the cloud and join the human race." Only she had the reputation of using this simple and memorable nickname among so many girls in Academy of Fine Arts, which indeed indicates of the recognition for her fine personality and works from those around her.

　　Well educated in fine arts, A Cai is good at different kinds of drawing skills, including oil painting, watercolor and engraving, which can be attributed to the inclusiveness and openness of this major and its diversified curriculum system. Just like her nickname wreathed in the smell of earth and local demeanor, although immersed in fine arts for years in the academy, she always stood well clear of the academism that was renowned for its exquisite and stylish depiction, sticking to her original style of "broad mind" and "folksiness".

　　Speaking of "broad mind", the works that I especially enjoy are the series of watercolor Sanyang Wetland. Fading and dilution of the lines and boundaries among objects in the picture provides a blank canvas for her watercolor brushes to handle with free play of various colors and thus create their own ever-changing artwork, and also fully displays the charm of "unrestrained color-splashes in the paper". All these partly explain the overwhelming and unbridled "broad mind" spirit hiding in her works, but not the root cause. "Broad mind" firstly comes from her broad field of vision that can help to generalize and take a holistic view of things in front of her. In her field of vision, everything on the ground, such as farm lanes, hills, plants, ponds and buildings, return to a kind of primeval and chaotic magnificence just as the beginning of the cosmos. They have no fixed shape, but more like organic entities hiding beneath the ground that are ready to cover their traces at any time. The unrestrained water colors, just like born from the chaos with a great deal of uncertainty about the shape, have primal power to give the ground flourishing, and make the thrilling pulse of life so real, plentiful and accessible to us. Therefore, what you see is what you get. Therefore, the above expressed "Handle with various colors and freely create their own ever-changing artwork" and "the overwhelming and unbridled 'broad mind' spirit hiding in her works" are the inevitable product of the way she view things. The expression of "broad mind" in her works cannot be created with merely painting skills, but requires more of her great personalities and world views.

　　In her watercolor sketches on countryside such as Da Gang Tou and Journey to The Northwest, A Cai seems to follow the principle of "expressing objects objectively according to their original forms" to capture and depict objects from an abstract angel. But at the same time, she still keeps the nature of "standing on no trifles". It seems that she uses water and color as bricks to build her own ideal fairyland, where numerous vivacious fairies are flying freely in the sky, assembling head-to-tail in sequence, disappearing and reappearing on the brink of shape from time to time. Sometimes they intersect with each other, create dazzling picture and then vanish into the void……It can be seen as "breath" or "pulse" of the scenery that she tries to find out beneath the surface. And this is the true reason that she touches the hearts of herself and her audiences. At this point, the route of a painter's pilgrimage is revealed and echoes the saying "What you see is what you get" for one more time.

　　Another series that enchanted me are her works about Chinese traditional opera. Many renowned artists before her, such as Guan Liang and Han Yu, just focused the complicated love-hate relationships and the facial expressions and manners among characters while ignored or 'abandoned' other decorative elements and made sure that their works were mainly characterized by and excelled with concise images and implied meaning of painting. But A Cai does exactly the opposite. She takes the unique approach by combining bit parts in Chinese shadow plays into a phalanx as if they're going for a battle, then realigning all the decorative factors of shadow puppets by integrating them into a complanate patterns and using it as the core part of image creation. The previous artists make them privy to the human nature by grasping a classic moment of a drama. But A Cai sees the traditional opera as a culture carrier with deep significances and tries to presents visitors with its fascinating power of resplendence and magnificence. The strong vision wallops of color also make people believe that she's going to reproduce the lively cadence and sonorous singing of the opera through their visual sense.

　　Patterns in the underground, the title of one of her serie works about traditional opera, I believe, would be appropriately used to summarize her creation state. The "Ground" means a solid foothold and start point for people. "Underground" condenses all essences from great earth, four seasons to living things, which nurtures a variety of regional cultural features. Our heart and soul is just like the "ground", having great potential to be different from everyone else. A painter should follow the will from the bottom of her heart, so that her unique features can be incorporated into the works. Just as Wang Guowei said, "all the descriptions of objective sceneries are actually the expression of ideas and feelings." Without the support of sentiments from one's bottom of heart, is it really necessary for a painter to put extra effort into drawing or painting? It seems works of A Cai doesn't go with the main stream and remain honest and simple all the time. But it's indeed a great wisdom that she holds the lifeblood of painting— the dignity of the "Ground" and meanwhile follows her inner voice. The seemingly conservativeness is indeed great wisdom.

Zhang Yuanfan

July, 2016 In Hangzhou