Watermark prints are an art form that carries the spirit of traditional Chinese aesthetics. The mirror image pattern of the painting is painted or presented on the wooden board by a special method and engraved, and then the water-based pigment is applied to the carved wooden board, and then the paper covered with different dry humidity is rubbed to form a watermark print. Traditional watermark prints belong to the category of reproduction woodcut prints, which are mainly used to copy Chinese paintings for the purpose of printing and dissemination, and can maintain the style and style of the original Chinese paintings and even the effect of chaos. How to make ancient art forms shine in the new era is a problem faced by contemporary watermark woodblock printmakers. As Chen Qi wrote in his book The Concept and Technique of Chinese Watermark Woodcut: "Printmaking is an art form that was born in China... Artists who use watermark woodcuts as the creative medium return to tradition, and then start from tradition, or draw on modernist artistic concepts and visual forms, or use contemporary social image resources, or theoretical breakthroughs based on the ontological language of printmaking to expand and innovate contemporary watermark woodcuts. "With the development of the times, a variety of contemporary art concepts and constantly innovating media technologies are infiltrating the creation of watermark woodblock prints, and gradually entering a new stage of development. Chinese watermark prints can be expected in the future, let us wait and see.
Source: Guangming Daily