I am a strong advocate for life drawing and painting because direct communication with the subject is so important in fostering the artist’s creativity and interpretation of light and color and enriching the painting experience. However, there was a time in my life during which I painted mostly from photos. I made oil painting family portraits out of tiny photos and did replica of classical paintings. It was an interesting episode in my life. It was a choice I made out of necessity for making a living but I made the most out of it and made it part of my art education (or self-education).

1980年9月，我提請赴香港、台北處理父親後事的申請獲得批准，於是，帶著極少的行李由深圳跨過羅湖海關的木橋來到了香港。從此開始了人生第一大的轉變。

In September, 1980, my application to travel to Hong Kong and Taipei to deal with my father’s funeral affairs was approved. Carrying only a tiny amount of luggage with me, I crossed into Hong Kong over the wooden bridge at Luohu Customs from Shenzhen. This moment became the first major turning point in my life.

我與早幾個月到的弟弟、母親還有從海南島申請來港的老同學、老朋友李昌柏擠在九龍觀塘的一間極狹小的電梯舊樓房間。由於我在廣東生活廿十多年，語言不成問题，倒是很快就適應了香港的生活。此時身無分文，必需馬上投入工作。

I ended up squeezed into a cramped high-rise apartment in Kwun Tong, Kowloon, along with my mother and my younger brother who had arrived a few months earlier, as well as my old friend and fellow student Li Changbo who had applied to come to Hong Kong from Hainan Island. I had lived in Guangdong for more than 20 years so language was not a problem and I soon adapted to life in Hong Kong. Being penniless however I had to find work right away.

倒是好，香港在七十年代發展起一種外銷油畫的新行業，大陸初到香港的畫家、美院畢業生接觸到的第一種工作幾乎就是這種「外銷畫」。這種畫其實細分畫照片人像、臨摹歐洲古典油畫（印刷品）及一個樣版大量複製的油畫。前種單價當然高些，但費工費時，尤其對於初次接觸的人實在是一大考驗！僅憑一張印刷品，要將它放大到十多倍並畫成油畫。很多人無法達到品質要求，只好去畫量產的「行貨」。

Fortunately, the trade in export oil paintings had emerged in Hong Kong during the 1970’s. For almost all painters and Academy graduates from China, this type of “export painting” became their first job in Hong Kong. Export paintings were further broken down into photo portraits, reproductions of European classical oil paintings (from prints), and mass-produced replicas of oil paintings. The former naturally commanded a higher unit price but took time and effort. To magnify a single print more than ten times in size and turn it into an oil painting was a tremendous challenge to those without any previous experience. Many people couldn’t meet the quality requirements so had no choice but to paint mass-produced “standard goods” instead.

李昌柏早我到香港，對於接單、繪製早上軌道，他拿出一些畫片讓我挑選，我當時就挑了這幅稿，畫名是叫COQUETRY賣弄風情之意吧，畫工精緻、人物生動，也不知是歐洲哪位大師之作？我用幻燈投影機放大輪廓，足不出戶地畫了一個星期。到李昌柏「交貨」（完成的Copy畫）時他讓我同去見那位畫商，這位老板不夠三十歲，香港人，英文好。最後看我的這張畫，將畫攤開在大板枱上，這胖胖年青人摸著金框眼鏡微笑著端祥著畫，然後問我從大陸出來多久？我說一個多星期，他斬釘截鐵地說：不可能！並說許多大陸美術學院出來的人畫油畫都是“一撇一撇”用筆，好長時間都改不過來，你才一個多星期就能畫得如此細緻？

Li Changbo had arrived in Hong Kong before me so he already had the ordering and painting process figured out. He gave me something pictures to choose from so I picked this one called Coquetry, meaning to act in a flirtatious manner. The intricate brushwork and lifelike character was surely the work of some great European master. I used a projector to magnify the outlines then painted away at home for a whole week. When it was time for Li to “deliver the goods” (having finished making a copy of the painting), he took me along to see the art dealer. The dealer was a Hong Kong native no more than 30 years old who spoke excellent English. After laying my painting out on the bench, the plump young man adjusted his gold-rimmed spectacles, studied the painting with a smile, then asked me: “How long ago did you come out of China?” When I told him a week, he immediately said: “Impossible! Many painters from the art academies in China always make oil paintings “one stroke at a time” and find it hard to break the habit. How did you manage to paint with such delicacy after just one week?”

我告訴他，我在劇團任美工時在幻燈片上畫過雞蛋大小的「毛主席」呢，這不算什麼。從此，他開始下訂單給我，內容包括古典畫（十八、十九世紀）中大師作品，如魯本斯、華多、庫爾貝等畫作印刷品，美國「西南美術」月刊中的畫作，還有大量的美國、澳洲人的個人、家庭合影的照片，均需放大成指定尺寸的油畫……於是我就以此為生作起了油畫複製的工作。

I told him that as a stage artist, I had painted egg-sized “Chairman Mao” on projector slides so this was nothing at all. From then on, he started giving me commissions including prints of classical paintings (18th and 19th Century) by great masters such as Rubens, Watteau and Courbet, paintings published in the American Southwest Art Magazine, as well as many personal/family portraits from Americans and Australians. All of these had to be enlarged and turned into oil paintings of the specified size… Thus I started making a living from replica oil paintings.

這一段的工作對我的繪畫藝術也有正面的意義，主要是對油畫肖像的描繪細節更留意。這些磨練讓我在以後的寫生肖像中能更快地建立起了刻劃各種人物的能力和自信，但是，我也提醒自己，不要落入庸俗的「照片真實」之中。

這種生命經歷既無可避免亦不可重來，善用經歷並將其化為自身的智慧才能把可能是愁苦的境況轉換成快樂之事。

This period did have a positive effect on my painting career because I paid more attention to the details in oil portraits. The experience gave me the skill and confidence to quickly depict all kinds of characters in plein-air portraits later on. I did however remind myself not to fall into the trap of mundane “photo-realism.”

Such experiences in life are unavoidable but if you turn that experience into your own skills and wisdom then you can find happiness in even the most depressing of circumstances.