「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Jing Kewen: Reviving Old Photos with Warm Realism

Does realistic painting equal “photo replication”? Jing Kewen’s paintings, however, breathe life into old photos! Through a re-creation with a painterly touch, his works achieve a dialectical unity of photographic truth and spiritual truth, allowing historical images to be reborn in the contemporary era.

In terms of color, he transforms the black-and-white images of old photos into bright and harmonious color combinations. The red and yellow of the characters’ clothing contrast strongly with the grass green and sky blue of the background. This not only retains the documentary feel but also conveys emotional warmth through “sketch-style coloring”, turning historical moments into spiritual symbols of idealism.

In terms of brushwork, he discards the smoothness of hyper-realism and retains the traces of manual work. When depicting the faces of characters, he uses fine hatching, while for the treatment of clothing folds, he employs bold color blocks. This combination of looseness and rigor in his brushwork not only echoes the era’s texture of old photographs but also highlights the independent language value of painting.

In terms of spatial treatment, he blurs the background and focuses on the spirit of the characters. He simplifies buildings and the sky into color blocks, allowing the characters to be detached from the specific scenes and creating a spiritual space that lies between reality and fantasy. This enables viewers to directly reach the core of purity and dignity deep within human nature.
Jing Kewen’s painting reconstruction is an artistic translation of historical memory. It also enables the spiritual power of the past to continue to shine in the present in the context of the proliferation of images, opening up a path for realistic art that combines historical depth and spiritual depth.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.