Humanity / Nature / Life
Yinchuan Evening Newspaper Official Fang Wenhua WeChat Pingtai | No. 1027
Wang Xuelian's glass paintings.
There are many kinds of paintings, in the memory of many people, forty or fifty years ago, many people would have that kind of old wooden furniture with clear water paint hanging on their homes, and the furniture was loaded with a piece of glass, and there was a painting on the glass. In that era when ornaments and works of art were not common, such a small glass painting was a beautiful existence in people's minds. Wang Xuelian, the inheritor of glass painting Xiji County, has loved it since she was a child, and she also presents the beauty of art on the glass with her own understanding.
The enlightenment of a small glass painting
Wang Xuelian has loved to draw since she was a child, and the paintings she knows are drawn on paper. I remember that when I was four or five years old, my family made furniture in a cabinet, and the craftsmen drew a "rising sun" pattern on the glass of the cabinet door, which seemed simple and rough, but for Wang Xuelian, it was so incredible to be able to paint on the glass.
Wang Xuelian.
The small glass painting she saw as a child became Wang Xuelian's enlightenment for this craft, and she really began to learn to paint glass painting, which was inseparable from the help of her husband Li Hailong.
Li Hailong's grandfather was a well-known glass painter in the Jiangnan generation before, he himself studied art-related majors, and at the university graduation exhibition, Li Hailong created glass paintings, which attracted the attention of many people.
At first, Li Hailong did not take glass painting seriously, and only occasionally a friend wanted to paint it. But Because Wang Xuelian likes glass painting, she has insisted on learning from Li Hailong for many years. During the epidemic last year, staying at home and painting became the most important part of the daily life of Wang Xuelian's family. When the oil painting materials ran out, Li Hailong also began to concentrate on painting glass painting, and this painting gave the husband and wife a new understanding of glass painting.
Multiple paintings can be fused
"In China, the daily production and application of glass is relatively late, so the history of glass painting is far less long than that of Chinese painting." Wang Xuelian introduced that glass painting first appeared in Europe, during the Qing Dynasty, brought into China by the missionary and court painter Lang Shining, and has since begun to develop in China. A few years ago, Wang Xuelian saw a glass painting from the Qing Dynasty at the Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, the color is particularly beautiful, even after more than 200 years, it is still like a new painting. However, the creation of glass painting has never been the mainstream, and for a long time, glass painting has been circulating in the folk. After 1949, with the continuous improvement of people's material conditions, there are higher requirements for furniture functions and styles in life, and glass painting is also widely used in it.
"My husband belongs to the academy, usually mainly painting Chinese painting, oil painting, in the past two years to paint more glass painting, only to find its unique." Wang Xuelian said that as a painting material, glass can well integrate different painting types. Take Chinese painting and oil painting, one is painted on rice paper, the other is painted on canvas, the two exchange media, it is difficult to draw the original characteristics. However, on the glass, you can use the way of Chinese painting to outline the lines, with the brushstrokes of oil painting to fill in the color, these two different paintings can be integrated, resulting in a new painting effect.
The peculiarity of the reverse operation
Glass painting has a good "inclusiveness", but it is not easy to draw. First of all, the glass is particularly smooth and not easy to pen. "It's the opposite of our usual habit of painting." Wang Xuelian said that painting glass paints on one side of the glass, and when admiring, it is the other side, so when composing the picture, it must be reversed, and when painting, the background and the order of the main things and various details must also be reversed. "For example, when we paint oil paintings, we first draw large areas of color blocks, deal with the chiaroscuro tone of the whole picture, and then draw finer things on it step by step." But this order is used in glass paintings, and the final color blocks are seen at the bottom. You have to draw details first, even if it is a spot on an apple or a little dust on a bottle, it must fall on the picture first. ”
The year before, Wang Xuelian based on a glass painting "Green Water and Green Mountains are Golden Mountains and Silver Mountains" painted by Guyuan Laolongtan, and participated in the exhibition of folk crafts in western China, the picture is full of green, trees, grasslands, mountain stones, and the green attached to it is deep and shallow, rich in layers. Because of the extra layer of glass, it is like adding a layer of filter to the picture. In the absence of direct light, the landscape is so clear and transparent; and when there is direct light, under the reflection of the glass, there are more white lights on the screen, which looks more dreamy and flexible. "Glass painting blends folk aesthetics, with beautiful and vivid colors, and can express elegant artistic conception." Wang Xuelian said that glass painting is appreciated by both elegant and customary.
Let more people know about glass painting
In the early 1980s, glass painting was still very popular, and there were production in arts and crafts factories everywhere, and a group of craftsmen trained at that time were now old, and the young and powerful generation rarely painted glass paintings, let alone to explore and innovate. Wang Xuelian, who has always liked glass painting, always feels that it is a pity, so she is more involved in painting. Slowly, she discovered the value of glass painting, began to apply for intangible cultural heritage projects in 2019, and became a non-hereditary inheritor of glass painting in Xiji County.
"As far as inheritance responsibility is concerned, I should be like other non-hereditary heirs, to bring apprentices, if anyone is willing to learn, I will be particularly happy." But now there are not many people who understand glass painting, and most people's understanding of glass painting is still stuck in decades ago, and there is no basis for accepting apprentices. Wang Xuelian believes that the primary task at present should be to promote more and let more people understand today's glass paintings.
At the end of 2020, Wang Xuelian participated in the National Inner Painting Technique Young and Middle-Aged Talents Advanced Research Class, and also brought her own works. Many craftsmen were full of praise after seeing it, and they did not expect that the glass paintings used for decoration by the people could become beautiful works of art. Previously, she went to Ningxia Vocational College of Finance and Economics to do several sessions of glass painting into the campus activities, students see such paintings feel very magical, attracted by the hazy and transparent picture. "The unique texture of glass painting is very attractive, and insisting on painting well has great prospects for the future."
The text | Li Shang
Images in this edition are provided by the interviewee
Editor| Seventh Floor Qi Yu
The head of the duty | Li Zhenwen
Produced by Yinchuan News Media Group [Yidu Culture].
Interpret Yinchuan culture in the most readable way
Culture depth 1 ° perspective more 1 ° strong feelings 1 °
In-depth analysis of Yinchuan urban cultural phenomenon
Exclusive record of Yinchuan cultural feelings and stories