The "Flower of the Canal" opens on pottery

According to Cangzhou' release:

With the continuous advancement of the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt in our city, the Grand Canal is like a beautiful ribbon that has attracted everyone's attention. Painter Liu Zhitian and pottery enthusiast Zhang Fucheng condensed the canal customs of 34 cities along China's Grand Canal into pottery works, telling the story of the canal in a new way, and more than 500 works will allow people to see the canal style on the pottery.

"Flowers of the Canal" painting has "words"

In the southwest corner of xinhua bridge in the city, close to the canal embankment road, an old house is very inconspicuous, and Zhang Fucheng's pottery studio is located here.

Through the door number, some people may think that it is only a place to experience pottery, but Zhang Fucheng and Liu Zhitian are creating a "big project" there.

Cement floor, brown walls, a few old cabinets, interior decoration, decoration can be described as "minimal". The few exquisite clay vases on the table look a little out of place with this style. Above this one, a gentle woman is playing the lute intently. In that picture, a mother and daughter happily release paper kites. At first glance, the protagonists of each clay vase pattern are women. Looking more closely, the petite osmanthus flowers, the elegant peonies, the feminine moon season, and the flowers in each painting are different.

Looking at it, the creator Liu Zhitian walked in and said: "This is the newly created 'Flower of the Canal', the one that plays the pipa is called the 'Flower of Suzhou', and the one that flies the kite is the 'Flower of Henan'. We will create a set of works for 34 cities along the Grand Canal, taking local femininity and city flowers as the 'introduction', and integrating intangible cultural heritage, landmark buildings, special cuisine, folk customs, etc., and more than 500 'Canal Flowers' works will allow people to look at the canal style on pottery. ”

"It's really 'words' in the painting." The reporter suddenly realized. Liu Zhitian picked up a piece of "Suzhou Flower" and continued: "This work uses the composition of the scene in the scene. The two embroidery ladies sat in front of the embroidery bandage and threaded the needle, embroidering the city flower osmanthus in Suzhou. Behind them, outside the lattice window, pavilions, flowers and trees, small bridges, flowing water... These elements are fused together, is not it a condensed version of the Suzhou garden? Each work must have both visual beauty and highlight the unique local culture, and we created the 'Flower of the Canal' to vividly show the cultural heritage of the cities along the canal on the clay vase. ”

Tell the canal story in a different way

Liu Zhitian, 41, is good at painting and is a teacher at Cangzhou Vocational and Technical College and a member of the China Gongbi Painting Society. Zhang Fucheng, 35, who likes pottery for many years, is the director of the Ceramic Art Committee of the Cangzhou Artists Association. Both are natives of Cangzhou and did not know each other before.

One day in March 2020, Liu Zhitian was invited by a friend to visit Zhang Fucheng's studio, and the two talked about their childhood by the canal in addition to exchanging pottery. It is very interesting to go for a ride along the river with your friends, stand by the river and look at the waves, and the old alleys with stories along the canal... The more they talked, the more speculative they became.

Over time, Zhang Fucheng and Liu Zhitian, who have been obsessed with the past of the canal, collided with a new "spark". With the continuous advancement of the construction of the Cangzhou Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Grand Canal is like a beautiful ribbon that has attracted everyone's attention. Growing up listening to canal stories, they want to combine ceramics and paintings to tell canal stories in a different way. To this end, they consulted cultural scholars and went through historical materials, and finally set the theme of the work as "Canal Girl".

Liu Zhitian told reporters that she is a typical canal girl, and she wants to use a paintbrush to sketch her canal memory on the pottery little by little, so that the canal story is more graphic and more infectious than the text.

A woman working in a turban, a delicate girl with a cat in her arms... In November 2021, more than 200 works of "Canal Girl" created by Zhang Fucheng and Liu Zhitian were exhibited in the studio located on the banks of the Grand Canal in the city, which attracted many citizens to visit, and people sighed: "Telling the story of the Cangzhou Canal in this way, image and creativity!" ”

The enthusiasm of the public to visit inspired Zhang Fucheng and Liu Zhitian to create new creative inspiration. China's Grand Canal is composed of Sui-Tang Canal, Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and Zhejiang East Canal, in August this year, the sixth Garden Expo of Hebei Province will open in Cangzhou, they took this opportunity to create a long scroll of ceramics for the Grand Canal of China on the basis of the works of "Cangzhou Girl", after several brewing, the creation of "Flower of the Canal" has a eyebrow.

Every piece of creation is very "brain-burning". Pulling and firing ceramic vases is the basic skill, and the most difficult thing is to paint on it. Each picture is presented through several creative processes. In order to let each work show the long history, beautiful scenery and customs of the Grand Canal in multiple dimensions with novel ideas and unique perspectives, Liu Zhitian studied a large number of books on canal culture in her spare time, and it became normal to create until one or two o'clock in the morning every day.

What kind of picture to fully show Hangzhou on the banks of the Grand Canal? Liu Zhitian has been pondering these days. Osmanthus is the flower of Hangzhou, Hangzhou women are exquisite, elegant and romantic, West Lake silk umbrella is a national intangible cultural heritage, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors are 400 years old, West Lake Leifeng Pagoda has a history of more than 1,000 years, there are many legends and stories of the Three Pools Of The Moon, these 6 key elements are constantly flashing back in Liu Zhitian's brain. Suddenly, the inspiration came! She picked up a paintbrush and sketched it on the clay vase: under the fragrant osmanthus tree, an elegant woman with a silk umbrella came to her. The elegant fragrance of osmanthus flowers also attracted another woman, she inserted the osmanthus flowers in the plum vase of the boudoir, and the moon outside the door behind the woman, the Leifeng Pagoda and the three pools of the moon were quiet...

Canal flowers carry out the current city business card

"Creation often requires a quiet environment. Why did you move your studio from the North Outer Ring road to the canal in the city center? "People often ask Zhang Fucheng this.

"Where the popularity is high, there are many talents who come to experience it." Zhang Fucheng said this, in fact, he wanted to teach pottery production more people to understand the canal and approach the canal.

A few days ago, a couple interning in Cangzhou went to Zhang Fucheng's studio to experience pottery. After learning that the girl was from Hangzhou, Zhang Fucheng took her to see several works of "Flowers of the Canal". Leafy osmanthus trees, the west lake with water waves, and the small and exquisite Hangzhou silk umbrella, the girl was amazed by the picture of "Hangzhou Flower": "I didn't expect that a porcelain bottle could perfectly present the cultural heritage of Hangzhou." Before, I only knew about the Hangzhou Canal, which increased the knowledge, and the story of the canal on the porcelain bottle was too vivid! ”

Zhang Fucheng said that each city along the Grand Canal has many cultural business cards, and it is difficult to show them one by one on porcelain bottles. In order to make the canal story of each city more fleshed out, it is necessary to dig deeper in many aspects such as the selection of vessel types, the production of ceramic sculptures and the expansion of urban elements, which means that the workload has increased again. It is getting closer and closer to the provincial garden expo, and they are working overtime every day.

Recently, Liu Zhitian is brewing the "Flower of Cangzhou". Cangzhou's city flowers are the moon season, acrobatics, martial arts two cultural business cards are indispensable, the "three buildings" (Qingfeng Building, Lang yin Building, Nanchuan Building) on the banks of the urban canal must have, how to perfectly integrate these elements together? Liu Zhitian said that every work created will have a deeper understanding of canal culture. With the advancement of the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Cangzhou Grand Canal has become a dazzling pearl along the Chinese canal, and they must carefully polish their works to make the "flower of the canal" bloom on the grand canal.

Source: Cangzhou Daily

Reporter: Qi Jie Correspondent Wang Hui

Photo: Chen Lei