Chinese prints, like many other old trades, are always passed down from family to family, and they are accustomed to the hardships of their fathers, but it is difficult not to be attracted by the beauty of them.
Huo Qingshun was like this, his father did not want his children to continue this hard work, Huo Qingshun did not listen, and secretly wanted to paint. Thanks to this stubbornness, the yangliuqing old painting museum "Yucheng Painting Zhuang" for nearly a hundred years has been passed down to this day, and Huo Qingshun has painted from a teenager to a full head of white hair now.
Nowadays, Huo Qingshun's two sons and daughters-in-law have inherited the craft of printmaking, and in addition to painting fat dolls, they often have innovative themes. The old man supports the new painting style, but there are also rules: "No matter how innovative the painting style is, the old craft of sketching, engraving, overprinting, painting, and mounting cannot be lost." ”
Huo Qingshun and his daughter-in-law both inherited Yang Liuqing's printmaking skills. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
More than twenty processes are only for the doll's red face
As the New Year draws to a close, in the hutongs of Yangliuqing Ancient Town in Tianjin's Xiqing District, a wooden plaque hangs at the entrance of a courtyard with the words "Yangliu Youth Painting Museum" in large willow green characters, and huo Qingshun, the representative inheritor of YangliuQing woodblock prints, is in the east wing of the painting hall.
Huo Qingshun stood in front of the Yucheng Painting Village. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
The stout palm brush swirls over and over the woodblock, and the ink of the brush head is evenly immersed in the woodblock grain.
Huo Qingshun covered a piece of rice paper on the woodblock, exerted different weights of hand force, and a clear "Lotus Year is more than enough" jumped on the paper, which is the most classic image in Yang Liuqing's woodblock prints.
Huo Qingshun took a palm brush to make a New Year painting. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
Yangliuqing woodblock prints originated from the thousand-year-old town of Yangliuqing, which has a history of more than 400 years.
Due to the wide range of themes, auspicious meanings, and the use of a combination of carving and painting, Yangliu Qing woodblock prints are therefore considered to be the first chinese folk woodblock prints.
A young painting of willow with a wide range of themes and an allegorical meaning. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
The various steps of painting are the essence of Yangliu Youth Painting. Huo Qingshun held the coloring bowl and a flat pen in one hand, and began to color the face of the Nian painting doll on the "painting door".
"Painting door" is a tool commonly used in the painting of Yangliu Green Woodblock New Year painting, generally six to ten "doors" for a group, a piece of painting paper is vertically pasted on the door, when painting, as long as you debug a color, you can complete the unified coloring of the same part of multiple paintings at the same time.
Huo Qingshun painted the face of the Nian painting doll. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
"Drawing paper from the table to the wall is also kung fu work." Huo Qingshun told reporters. Generally speaking, Yangliu youth paintings are the purchase of raw rice paper, after buying back, the painter must add alum on the rice paper, otherwise the New Year painting drawn with raw rice paper is a big flower face. Alum is also exquisite, according to the temperature and humidity of the four seasons of the year, to add different proportions of alum. In the spring, when the wind is strong, the proportion of alum is smaller, and in the summer, because of the high humidity, the proportion of alum is larger.
"In the process of 'alum wall', some painters have to practice for half a year." Between the words, Huo Qingshun's right wrist spun around deftly, and the flat brush in his hand turned around on the face of the Nianhua doll, and a small red face appeared on the face of the Nianhua doll.
Huo Qingshun is painting the "Lotus Year", busy for a long time, but completed the most basic steps of the New Year painting doll red face, follow-up also need to dye the face, hook the face, bake the face, cover the face, out of the picture, point the white eye, point black eyeballs and other more than twenty painting processes.
The anti-counterfeiting logo left by the "painting sewer" craftsman
The fat doll held a big fish, two lotus flowers behind him, and the reporter looked at the "lotus year that Huo Qingshun was painting for a while", and then found some clues in the middle of the painting - "painting slits".
According to the traditional craftsmanship, the production of Yangliu Qing woodblock prints is composed of five major processes: sketching, engraving, overprinting, painting and mounting. A larger work often needs to be spliced when printing contours, taking "Lotus Year Yu" as an example, the woodblock is engraved with the word "Lotus Year" and the fish head on one side, and the word "YuYu" and the fish tail are carved on the other side, and the doll's body is carved on both sides of the woodblock. If you want to complete the printing of the other half, you need to turn the woodblock over, and no matter how exquisite the craftsmanship, it will leave traces in the painting. The almost invisible seams are handmade imprints, "also the anti-counterfeiting threads of that era," Mr. Huo said.
Huo Qingshun's painting "The Lotus Year Is More Than enough". Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
The painting "Lotus Year Is More Than enough" has been handed down to the present day since the old artists made a hundred years ago, and Huo Qingshun has never been tired of painting. "The lotus year has more than enough, taken from the meaning of the year there is more, the use of 'lotus' means like a lotus flower continuously, and the lotus flower also has the name of the lotus, the New Year painting painted two lotus flowers, here there is the meaning of harmony and beauty. Fat dolls also have meanings, everyone hopes that children and grandchildren are full, but some people like boys, some people like girls, so the hair of the New Year painting doll on one side is a bun to symbolize the boy, and on the other hand, the small braids are combed up to symbolize the girl. A small painting, the blessings of boys and girls have been. "The head of the carp, the body of the crucian carp, the tail of the goldfish, and the big fish held by the doll in the "Lotus Year of The Year" New Year painting collects the best parts of the three kinds of fish, and the blessings are full.
Huo Qingshun introduced that Yangliu youth painting can be divided into five categories, dolls, maids, folklore, folk tales and myths, and there are hundreds of contents in each category. "Busy Crops", "Five Sons Seize the Lotus", "Nancun Visiting Friends" and so on are also traditional paintings that are widely circulated in Yangliu Qing woodblock prints.
In 1926, the "Yucheng Painting Village" was established, which was the large-scale New Year painting workshop in Yangliuqing Town at that time. When Huo Qingshun was born, the heyday of Yangliuqing's woodblock prints "Every family will be dyed, and every household is good and Danqing" has passed, "By the 1950s, the only new year painting workshop in the neighborhood was our home." ”
Watching the New Year painting grow up, learning the Yangliu Qing woodblock prints with his father and two sisters was Huo Qingshun's favorite thing when he was a child. "Steal art first and learn art later", because of hard work, but also because of the decline of the industry, his father initially did not want Huo Qingshun to continue to engage in this business, but when he was young, Huo Qingshun secretly learned art after school. When the two sisters were painting, he watched from the side, and when there was no one in the house, he copied it himself. Probably seeing Huo Qingshun's stubbornness and talent, his father began to teach Huo Qingshun the craft by hand. This entry into the industry, decades of white colt gap.
Under the epidemic, life goes on
Zhang Hong, 46, rented a courtyard in the ancient town two years ago to make Willow Green WoodBlock Prints, and these two days, she was busy "rushing to work", and this batch of orders was to be issued to customers before the Spring Festival.
Huo Qingshun's eldest daughter-in-law, Zhang Honghe, was "like a tiger adding a trick". Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
Zhang Hong is Huo Qingshun's eldest daughter-in-law and apprentice. When he was studying, Zhang Hong and Huo Qingshun's eldest son were classmates, and when he came to visit the door, Zhang Hong was shocked by the woodblock new year paintings in the room. After graduation, she found Huo Qingshun to learn art from her teacher. "The old man's family will make woodblock prints, and I have learned the whole production process, but my favorite is still painting."
A small yellow tiger with an open mouth, two eyes replaced by copper coins, and even a pair of wings behind him, this is Zhang Hong and the professional teachers of the Academy of Fine Arts together to create "like a tiger to add a cannon", compared to the "Lotus Year has more than enough" such a traditional willow wood print, this is a new creation of Zhang Hong.
On the basis of continuing the traditional craftsmanship, let more young people fall in love with the Yangliu Qing woodblock prints, which is what Zhang Hong wants to break through the most, "but the old man has told me that no matter how innovative the painting style is, the old craft cannot be lost." ”
In the ancient town of Yangliuqing, zhang Hong also hung the "Yucheng" sign and the painting house of Huo Qingshun's second son and second daughter-in-law. On the first floor, various yangliu youth paintings are displayed, and along the stairs to the second floor, Huo Shuqing and his wife Han Ping are painting on the door, and the couple only communicate occasionally, as if all the tacit understanding is on the tip of the pen. Like Zhang Hong, Han Ping also followed Huo Qingshun after marrying into the Huo family to learn to make Willow Green Wood Prints.
Huo Qingshun's second son Huo Shuqing and his wife Han Ping are painting the New Year paintings. Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui photographed
The roots of the year are approaching, and the red lanterns in yangliuqing ancient town are decorated with the taste of the new year. Usually, Huo Qingshun would often go around the painting workshop of the two apprentices, but he couldn't go in these two days. Just this past weekend, the situation of epidemic prevention and control in Tianjin suddenly became tense, Yangliuqing Town launched a large-scale nucleic acid test, and the Yangliu Youth Art Museum was temporarily closed. On the 10th, Huo Qingshun, who had already received the third dose of vaccination, came to the studio alone and continued to paint the scene before the case. Huo Qingshun felt that difficulties will always pass, and the epidemic will definitely subside, just like the fat doll in the painting "Lotus Year Is More Than enough", how many years are always so festive, this is people's hope for the future, the new year, life continues.
Beijing News reporter Cao Jingrui
Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofreader Zhao Lin