Zhang Jing, a teacher at the Affiliated Middle School of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
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Tongcao painting, which has disappeared for a hundred years, has a fault in the inheritance, and now, some young people are regaining the art of tongcao painting. Zhang Jing, who graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and is now teaching at the Affiliated Middle School of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, is engaged in the research, restoration and creation of tongcao painting, and uses tongcao painting for modern creation, giving this treasure a new life. She hopes that the younger generation will re-understand the beauty of Tongcao painting and understand the history and culture of Guangzhou through Tongcao painting.
Like an experiment
Slowly pick up the skills of grass painting
In 2016, Zhang Jing graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts majoring in oil painting, and when she participated in an event, she realized that tongcao painting, the painting paper is crystal clear, the painting is colorful, and the special material of tongcao painting suddenly attracted her attention. After the event, she brought back a few pieces of straw paper and tried to copy some of the sketches.
Zhang Jing is a post-80s, Shandong Linyi people, the process of studying in Guangzhou, so that she gradually got to know the city. "Every weekend, I like to visit museums and learn about Guangzhou's culture from the history and old objects. Ever since I came into contact with tongcao painting, I will also pay special attention to the exhibits of tongcao painting. Zhang Jing said that tongcao painting records many life scenes of Guangzhou people and is a good carrier for understanding the history and culture of Guangzhou.
Zhang Jing said that at the end of the 19th century, Tongcao painting used to be a specialty that foreigners in Guangzhou liked to bring when they returned to China, but in the early 20th century, Tongcao painting gradually disappeared. It was not until 2000 that Tongcao painting returned to the vision of Guangzhou people.
Due to the discontinuity of the tongcao painting tradition, Zhang Jing encountered some difficulties when trying to draw tongcao painting, and she began to study the characteristics of tongcao paper and pondered the technique of tongcao painting. In 2019, she was invited to participate in the research on the analysis and protection of paper pigments of Qing Dynasty grass paintings cooperated by Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangzhou Thirteen Elements Museum. "Through the high-power microscope, you can see the cell structure of the grass flakes, and the cells are a bit like honeycomb structures, which is related to the coloring later." In Zhang Jing's studio, she took out a piece of straw paper to show the New Express reporter, "This is the way it was before it was colored, and this is after it was colored." The granular mineral pigment is filled in its cells, so after it is colored layer by layer, after refraction of light, the texture of this paper will be very rich. ”
In the studio, Zhang Jing made some small color cards through grass painting, using oily mineral pigments and water-based mineral pigments, as well as ordinary chemical pigments, and every once in a while, she took out the color cards to compare and carefully examine the nuances. She studied tongcao painting like an experiment, exploring the mysteries of this genre. "This one has changed color after 5 months, indicating that it is still necessary to use water-based mineral pigments to facilitate the long-term preservation of grass paintings."
"The straw paper is very brittle, so be careful when taking it, but it has elasticity, and it is very flexible after being wet with water, so there is no need to worry about the coloring process." Zhang Jing told the New Express that in the process of painting, it is usually necessary to color, dry, and color again. After painting, it is necessary to flatten out for a month to prevent the paper from bulging. The preservation environment should not be humid, but also protected from direct sunlight.
Painting is a lonely thing that can withstand loneliness, often sitting for hours at a time, and drawing grass painting is no exception, and it is necessary to dry and paint repeatedly when painting. Between this repeated coloring and drying, the texture is slowly revealed, which is particularly vivid. The process of creating a grass painting is the precipitation of time, so that the color can stand the test and glow with the unique color of mineral pigments, so that it can still be bright after a hundred years.
Innovative technique research
Use grass painting for animal creation
Lifelike animal hair and well-textured goldfish scales, under Zhang Jing's pen, tongcao painting introduces modern content and painting methods, which is revitalized. Fluffy kittens, monkeys, koi with their tails fanned, peacocks with open screens, like embroidery works, paint the texture of silk threads.
In May this year, Zhang Jing's innovative series of tongcao paintings was exhibited at the 13 Elements Museum in Guangzhou. These works are an innovative study of grass painting techniques that she is doing, mainly studying the skin and clothing of the characters and the texture of animal fur and feathers on the grass paper, through layers of coloring, the hair is clearly rooted, to achieve the texture of the effect comparable to embroidery.
"When I was painting, I found that unlike other papers, sketching can be drawn very thinly, and I wondered if it was very suitable for painting things that were very detailed and particularly detailed, so I made an attempt on animals. At first, I painted cats, which were relatively rough at first, and then I showed this plush and fluffy feeling, and the effect was particularly amazing. This process of straw paper brought me a lot of surprises, that is, the feeling of 'the original straw paper can still be like this'. ”
"Painting fish scales was the inspiration found in the Disco Sound Museum. At that time, I saw the Qing Dynasty Tongcao painting "Fish" collected by Director Wang Heng, and the texture of the fish was very realistic on the Tongcao paper. I was there for a long time, took a lot of pictures, came back and tried to paint a series of paintings and was so pleasantly surprised. ”
Zhang Jing said that in the past, there were also paintings of animals in the grass painting, but the painting was not meticulous, and it was a painting method similar to Chinese painting. Not only painting animals, she is also working on plants, buildings, and film and television characters such as "Snow".
The grass painting also has the characteristics of "reverse coloring", and both sides of the paper can be colored to contrast with each other, making the color of the painting more gorgeous. The Qing Dynasty figures painted by Zhang Jing also follow this traditional technique to reverse the face of the character. "Because the grass paper is transparent, the reverse color on the skin of the character is more delicate than the front color, and through the contrast, the effect of the white and red of the character's skin is achieved."
In addition, Zhang Jing has been committed to the preservation and restoration of Tongcao paintings. Repairing tongcao paintings is still a problem, and a museum curator and a professor at Sun Yat-sen University approached Zhang Jing to restore the collection of Tongcao paintings by a British collector. "From the size and depth of the cracks in this painting, we can see that the cell wall is ruptured and it is very difficult to recover. I searched for a long time, found a piece of paper that is very similar to the texture and thickness of the base paper, compared and cut out a small piece that suits. The repaired glue can not be used indiscriminately, the pH of the glue I used is about 6.8, and the glue can be removed later. Zhang Jing said that she is quite satisfied with the restoration effect of this Qing Dynasty grass painting, and is still continuing to study, hoping to do better in the future.
Zhang Jing also often uses her leisure time to participate in various grass painting research activities, give lectures on grass painting for college students, primary and secondary school students, and share the inheritance and innovation of grass painting.
"When I saw the students' sketches, I felt that the future of the grass paintings could be expected." Zhang Jing said that the Attached Middle School of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts has also opened an elective course on tongcao painting, and I believe that tongcao painting will be more and more known to everyone, and she will continue to conduct relevant research to explore the contemporary painting method of tongcao painting and let more people love tongcao painting.
dialogue
Inspire students through sketching
Learn about traditional culture
New Express: What are your plans for the study of general cursive painting?
Zhang Jing: I think that sketching is a good carrier, and the particularity of paper will bring many possibilities. My direction is mainly to be a scholar-type researcher. Study its painting techniques, painting direction, and study the restoration of ancient paintings in the Qing Dynasty, and make some thesis records.
New Express: How will you do the inheritance and promotion of grass painting?
Zhang Jing: Mainly I want more people to understand Tongcao painting, at present, people do not know much about Tongcao painting, because Tongcao painting has disappeared in Guangzhou for many years, so it is a fault in terms of inheritance, and it is necessary to go through some activities, through explanation and let students paint with their hands, so that they know this period of history, this kind of culture that exists. Students are also in a stage of experimentation, they can feel that this kind of paper is more interesting, and when drawing, it is also a stage of exploration. After listening to my lecture, some students told me that they had seen Qing Dynasty grass paintings in the museum, and that it was very interesting to see how ancient people woven and how they played music. I think this is also a way to inspire students to understand traditional culture.
■ Written by: New Express reporter Xie Yuanyuan ■ Photo: New Express reporter Xia Shiyan