The painter who understands women best, I nominate her

Lu Mei gives people an unreal feeling.

In 2021, the topic #无码不卡的 Stills# became a hot search topic with the release of the movie. The stills are all colored ink paintings, and Zhang Ailing\’s ecstatic Shanghai comes to life vividly on the page. Some comments said that the person who painted the picture seemed to have actually seen Zhang Ailing.

Stills of \”The First Incense\” hand-painted by Lu Mei.

As a \”painting person\”, Lu Mei\’s story has been mentioned repeatedly – the 15-meter-long hand-painted scroll \”Wait Slowly – Pictures of Beautiful Beauties in Xiguan in the Republic of China\” was selected for the first national animation exhibition; the work was selected for the Italian Sasa He has participated in international exhibitions such as the Leno Biennale, and held a solo exhibition of \”Oriental Women\” in Italy; he also drew illustrations for the Hong Kong Heritage Museum\’s book \”Hong Kong 1935\”.

In June 2022, she appeared in the public eye again, holding a solo exhibition \”Enjoy Freedom\” in Shamian, Guangzhou, a place full of European style. The pavilion was packed with people, half young and half old. They discussed 54 ink paintings of women in cheongsam. Some said they saw the freehand life in their imagination, some said it was a documentary of women\’s mental state, and some simply wanted to see pictures of beautiful women.

The information about her on the Internet only focuses on her work, and the characters in her paintings all look calm and comfortable, standing on the opposite side of the fast-paced society and trendy culture. Therefore, what kind of person is Lu Mei? What do you want to express by drawing a large number of women in cheongsam? No one can guess.

Some netizens even asked, is she a modern person? Not long ago, she had a morning chat with a New Weekly reporter.

Contradictory image

The producers of \”The First Incense\” also had similar thoughts.

At the end of 2019, when the filming of the movie was about to be completed, he read \”Hong Kong 1935\”. The characters\’ demeanor and architectural details illustrated in the book were very reminiscent of 100 years ago. The producer thought that the artist was from the Republic of China period and was good at drawing calendar paintings. Later, after searching on the Internet, he found that \”she is a modern person.\”

It happened that Lu Mei was holding an art exhibition at the Guangzhou Book Buying Center, so the producer flew over from Shanghai. After the hand-painted stills were finalized, Lu Mei asked to sit in the old house on the top of Gulangyu Mountain in Xiamen, the filming location. She is used to this way of working. She has to feel the atmosphere slowly and personally. When the feeling comes, she can finish a painting in half a day. On the contrary, it takes two or three months to produce a painting.

She mainly paints people, so she naturally wants to feel people. When taking the bus, she would sit in the last row as much as possible, away from the crowd, and see them from an outsider\’s perspective, capturing their confused, anxious or joyful expressions.

Lu Mei loves to observe people and then integrate them into her paintings. /Photo courtesy of interviewee

The painting with the most details in the \”Enjoy Freedom\” exhibition uses a spatial structure to connect the classic buildings of the Shamian complex, including 100 modern people of all sizes wearing cheongsam. , some were holding selfie sticks to take selfies, some were squatting and working in the scenic area with their computers, and some were taking wedding photos – not far away, a woman with a sullen face was secretly staring at the groom.

Lu Mei smiled and said that another woman also loved the groom. The short stories on the paintings were all made up by Lu Mei, but people who visited the exhibition said they looked familiar, which shows that the plots come from real life.

Lu Mei mainly communicates with her fans through official account texts and videos of her works. She drew a new painting and posted it to her personal official account with a text chatting about recent events. Trivial things in life – the narrative style is also consistent with Zhang\’s Ai Ling has a certain resemblance; there are not many photos of her on public platforms, and most of her scenes are in art exhibitions; she has published two best-selling books focusing on women\’s lives, \”Cheongsam Fashion Love Paintings\” and \”Little Romance in the Wardrobe\”. He has drawn illustrations for several novels.

Except for her works, little is known about her real life. A fan once posted a post speculating that she is a person who never leaves her cheongsam, drinks tea, grows flowers and paints every day, and deliberately keeps a distance from the outside world, \”like a Taoist priest in the mountains.\”

Her resistance to being paid to paint further deepened this impression. There is no admission fee for her personal art exhibition, and she relies solely on art collectors to buy paintings to balance her expenses. After she closed her company, her capital chain was blocked. A friend suggested that she paint portraits for a fee. According to her fan base, she would shout \”Lu Mei wants to take the job\” and pay a few thousand yuan for a portrait, which would be displayed outside her door. There were long lines.

The reality is that this is indeed the case, and the order is suddenly scheduled for half a year. But she soon regretted it, because there were restrictions on the relationship between Party A and Party B. “When an order comes, you have to take it, complete it within the specified time, accept the other party’s urging, even if it is just a few transactions in the eyes of others, you have to pass it. At this level, I often have to draw many versions of these strokes, and if I am not satisfied with the drawings, I am not willing to submit them to others.\”

My friend advised her not to be stubborn.It doesn’t have to take half a month to paint a painting. Customers will be willing to accept the quality of the painting in half a day. She didn\’t think so, and would rather spend more time painting what she wanted to paint.

Netizens believe that the real her also lives the \”reclusive life\” in the painting. /Photo provided by interviewee

But those who have seen Lu Mei in reality will know that she is completely opposite to the public impression – she rarely wears cheongsam; she talks a lot, and when her desire for expression is ignited, she especially expresses her emotions and emotions. I can chat for three or four hours about fashion topics, and I will put down my chopsticks halfway through the meal, giggling as I talk; instead of escaping from the world, I have to deal with daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, and chicken feathers.

When asked \”Why is there a contradiction between myself and the work?\”, she said that what is conveyed in the paintings has always been the fireworks in current life, such as the girl opening the curtain in the alley, the girl just coming out of the market The \”teacher\’s wife\” returning home from shopping for groceries, or a group of best friends having morning tea in a Guangzhou restaurant, do not deliberately exaggerate the sense of suspension.

But is the mental state of contemporary people so calm and peaceful, without any anxiety? She thought about it for a meal, and finally summed it up: \”Most people will draw \’what he has and what he observes,\’ but I tend to draw \’what I don\’t have.\’\”

Lu Mei herself is not levitating. / Picture provided by the interviewee

Through painting,

conveys the peace that modern people pursue

Through Lu Mei’s experience, we can understand what “what I don’t have” refers to, why it only focuses on women, and what the meaning of cheongsam is.

Lu Mei was born in Shanghai, and her love for exquisite life was laid down since childhood; she spent her elementary and middle school years in Hunan; she applied for the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts when applying for the college entrance examination.

In the 1990s, Guangzhou’s trendy culture flourished. Because it was close to Hong Kong and Macau, most of the latest clothing and luxury goods there were shipped to Guangzhou first and then dispersed to other cities in the mainland. There was no language barrier between Guangzhou and Hong Kong and Macau, and young people I grew up watching TVB dramas and learning Hong Kong style dressing.

White T-shirts, jeans and other items that were popular during Lu Mei’s middle school days were all purchased from Guangzhou. She wanted to integrate into this trendy atmosphere, so she not only applied for Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, but also majored in fashion design. Many years later, she attributed this choice to her \”love of beauty.\”

\”Love beauty\” is not a bad word in her opinion, because people, especially women, naturally love beautiful things. The so-called \”love of beauty\” is actually an act of expressing desires or ideals. She mainly paints women. Firstly, she enjoys the process of depicting beauty. Secondly, the nature of her work in fashion design determines that she will live among women for a long time. “What are women thinking in their hearts when they are thirty, forty or fifty years old? I will go through it myself and observe along the way.”

After graduation, she worked in industries related to women and fashion, and continued to draw columns for fashion magazines. Over time, she grasped the word \”realistic\” characters. At the beginning of the 21st century, magazines were one of the main pastimes for young people. Lu Mei provided pictures for many magazines. The pictures were all about women-related topics, such as love, shopping, makeup, etc.

The women in her paintings drink tea in a teahouse. /Photo provided by the interviewee

As she drew more, she gradually discovered that women today are also troubled by the things that troubled women 100 years ago; women 100 years ago were not open-minded, and most women today are also troubled. Women are not completely open, either; hobbies and activities 100 years ago, such as partying and chatting, shopping for food and cooking, listening to music, etc., are much the same today, but the tools have been upgraded. \”Even today\’s mainstream topic – living a colorful self The phenomenon of New Women already existed at that time, and the reasons behind it are very interesting and worth exploring.\”

She began to frequently draw women wearing cheongsam style from the Republic of China period. Someone asked her if she wanted to use cheongsam to show the process of female consciousness awakening? Because some literature points out that from the early 1920s to the present, women\’s clothing has experienced a process from loose robes to cheongsams that highlight body curves. This is understood to be a process of \”women\’s courage to pursue beauty and refinement.\”

She feels that cheongsam may contain women’s awakening culture, but it cannot onlySymbolize it. What cheongsam has witnessed is more of the evolution of lifestyle. The most powerful proof is that women during the Republic of China did not pay much attention to body lines. \”Between the 1930s and 1930s, corsets were popular. Among the antique cheongsams in the collection, the smallest bust is only 60 centimeters, which is about the same as the waist. Women at that time considered it sexy. Not in the chest, but in the lower body.” In the past, the cheongsam was just a piece of clothing that could be worn for drinking or shopping for groceries.

According to this understanding, the image of women in cheongsam during the Republic of China does not conflict with the status of contemporary women that Lu Mei wants to express.

Going out, shopping for groceries, coming home, and checking the door are all daily behaviors, and cheongsam is also a part of daily life. /Photo provided by interviewee

But people have thousands of states, so why only draw the unconventional side? “The multiple experiences in the workplace, entrepreneurship and teaching career have made me more willing to see the good or positive side – no more anger, no sadness, no complaints.” Lu Mei said that she \”did not want to depict the reality nakedly\”.

She is drawing \”what I don\’t have\”.

Her emotions,

Everyone who sees the painting will understand

What Lu Mei wants to convey Calm and receptive to the outside world.

Many young people took the initiative to enter her exhibition. Some time ago, there was a 19-year-old girl who stood in front of a painting for a long time. In the painting, a graceful woman dances on the stage. The girl visiting the exhibition is an art student who studies dancing. She said that she was immersed in the painting and imagined that she would choreograph this dance. It should be beautiful.

In 2019, Lu Mei held the \”Oriental Women\” exhibition in Florence, Italy. A reporter from a local TV station came to shoot and burst into tears while filming. He said that seeing the painting full of peach blossoms reminded him of his hometown, because there is a large sea of ​​flowers in his hometown. When she was a child, she often sat under a tree and read a book. When the wind blew, the petals fell all over the book, covering the words.

After another exhibition in Rome, Lu Mei opened the guestbook and saw the words written by a visitor: \”I will dream with you.\” She still remembers this sentence. Because I feel the feedback from the outside world – people who look at the paintings can understand the uneasiness under her calm paintings, and they invariably cover up the uneasiness with calmness, and put themselves into it, \”ISure, paintings can communicate.\”

In the \”Enjoy Freedom\” art exhibition, there were many visitors born after 10 years. Lu Mei said that there are also children on the Internet who love to copy her paintings. / Photo provided by the interviewee

At the exhibition in Rome, Lu Mei also met a young man who enthusiastically expressed his love for Chinese elements. After reading the painting, he felt that Chinese culture was very artistic in expressing a peaceful and balanced life, and told Lu Mei to preserve it. Qian went on a trip to China, during which he repeated \”Great\” several times. Wall\”.

She realized that we Chinese have many beautiful fantasies about European and American countries. Similarly, there are quite a few European countries who have little understanding of Chinese culture and are still in the fantasy stage. Therefore, , cultural exchanges are meaningful and necessary.

She does not want to put \”holding a cheongsam ink painting exhibition in a foreign country\” on the list. Rising to the level of cultural export, although many people tried to guide her to set a tone for this behavior, \”Culture should be equal communication and mutual integration. The word \’export\’ is a bit strong like Party A.\” >

Not many people abroad understand what cheongsam culture is and what ink painting is, let alone the symbols and values ​​in China. The situation is the same. How many young people today really love cheongsam? People who look at paintings only see the beauty of life, mood and surface.

Zhang Xin, chairman of the Guangzhou Writers Association, said in \”Enjoy Freedom.\” \”The preface to the exhibition reads:

In an era of fanatical competition and pursuit of success, we have become accustomed to the rhythm of scrambling to be first. , careless interactions, quick success choices, the understanding of slowness and beauty is only conceptual. However, this is the value of Lu Mei and her paintings. When you feel a different kind of breeze and clear flow, believe me, then it will This is Teacher Lu Mei’s original intention.

Please believe that the pursuit of beauty in peace is the commonality of all kinds of life.