A conversation with . . .

Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times Artist ZL Feng with one of his portraits, "Eyes of Wisdom".

Z.L. Feng stands out in an art scene dominated by two universities and by young artists whose work often trades subtlety for power. The Radford University watercolor and advanced drawing professor’s work conveys both attributes — both in his hyper-realistic portraits and in his more recent impressionist landscapes inspired, he says, by the natural beauty of the New River Valley . The award-winning artist came to Radford from Shanghai in 1986 to earn a master’s degree and to learn English. He started teaching at Radford three years later and has never looked back. Here Feng shares some thoughts on teaching, on the importance of nature to his life and his works, and on soul searching with the paintbrush.

What brought you to Radford?

Z. L. Feng: I came here … direct from Shanghai to Radford. … We enjoy it here in Radford. Compared to Shanghai , it’s much quieter here. Lots of green stuff. In Shanghai you don’t see too much green and there’s too many people there. The best part here is I can concentrate and do more painting. In the big city, always before I always had too much distraction — the car, go to some place … here sometimes there’s no place to go, so I just stay at home and paint. … This place, there’s lots of inspiration in New River . … It’s very natural. It’s a beautiful place, so I find lots of inspiration locally. Before I did mostly portraiture and recently I do more landscapes.

I’ve seen some of your portraits, they’re very realistic. With your landscapes, is it an impressionist style?

Z.L.F: Totally impressionist style, yes. The portraits are more realistic because I kept the personality and the inside of the soul. So they’re more realistic, especially on the eyes. … Not many people can do well in watercolor in portraiture, so I challenge myself technically and also … in capturing the depth of the person.

I read that you said the technical skill is not really worth anything unless you can express some kind of depth and soul. I think what really makes it art is when you can create that empathy that you were talking about, between the subject and the viewer, because then it has some meaning as opposed to something that’s just duplicating something faithfully.

Z.L.F: You have to understand the person you paint. Sometimes now when I paint a portrait, it’s not really a real person anymore. … Maybe it’s just like painting landscape. I get the person’s expression, then I change it. It’s not any particular person anymore. … You try to not just make it look like the person, but look behind the person. In landscape I do the same thing. Just check something out and make my way to explain how I see nature.

What do you like about teaching?

Z.L.F: I really enjoy teaching here at Radford. We have a very good program. … The students learn from me, and there’s a lot that I can learn from them, too. I think the students there are doing very well right now, and they are also becoming very good artists. In my class on watercolor … I’m not just talking to students. The best way to learn, for me, is that I can show them. So during the class time I also demonstrate. … What happens though is that finally the whole class is doing the same thing I do. But it’s fun because they have fun with it and they can do the technique I do, and later on they can enjoy that "Oh, four years ago I had a class with a professor at Radford and he showed me this technique, and I feel like right now painting trees using his technique."