Artistic characteristics of Gaomi Pratt & Whitney New Year pictures

The so-called ash throwing means burning ash with willow branches, mainly tracing lines, and making multiple copies at a time. Then the artist painted the face and hands on the printed manuscript, colored it, drew gold, crossed it, and finally painted the key parts with varnish. Powder-spraying New Year pictures have unique techniques, replacing ink with color, rough and smooth lines, strong writing meaning and distinctive style.

Gaomi Pratt & Whitney New Year pictures originated in the early Ming Dynasty and have a history of more than 500 years. It is said that its founder is a Wang Xing family in Gongpomiao Village, Beixiang, Gaomi (Dongfeng Village, Zhuangzhuang Town this summer). The family immigrated from other places. Forced to make a living, they copied some posters and temple murals and set up stalls for sale. They gradually mastered some skills and kept exploring. They burned willow branches that were available everywhere into charcoal sticks as brushes, and carved pickles into seals and printing molds. Since then, high-density ash-throwing New Year pictures have been born, which have the earthy flavor of the countryside, the traditional customs of farmers, the magnificent charm and great charm of folk art. Most of the early ash-throwing New Year pictures are mainly gods and ink screen flowers. By the mid-Ming Dynasty, ink flowers were selling well in the market as stereotypes. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the king of in-laws temple village began to accept apprentices. First, he accepted four sons of Zhang in the village as apprentices. After finishing their studies, the Zhang brothers set up their own workshops to paint and sell, with novel themes, which expanded the influence of throwing gray New Year pictures. At the end of Qianlong period, some people from Gaomi, Zhaojiaquan, Dujiaguanzhuang and other places came to the in-laws temple to learn from the Zhang brothers, returned to China with skills, and set up workshops and apprentices. For a time, artists who jumped on the gray New Year pictures sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

During the Jiaqing period, Gaomi Pratt & Whitney New Year pictures began to use the new technology of combining painting and printing. At that time, Hu San, who had worked in Tianjin Yangliuqing Painting Shop, came to Gaomi Li Jiazhuang and joined Hu Yuxian. He integrated the techniques of Yangliuqing woodcut New Year pictures into the production of dusty New Year pictures. He carved and printed line drawings, and then finished the pictures by hand, so that each painting could be mass-produced in a short time, which greatly improved the efficiency. Because the economic benefits have multiplied, many painting workshops have changed to draw this kind of New Year pictures, which are called half-printing and half-painting.

A new workshop was opened in Beixiang, Gaomi, which gradually formed a large-scale production, attracting a large number of foreign art dealers and merchants to flock, making the ash-throwing New Year pictures gradually sold all over the country from near to far, gaining a far-reaching reputation and becoming one of the famous New Year pictures in China. In order to keep the best-selling New Year pictures, artists constantly expand their subject areas and refer to various techniques of other paintings to improve and flexibly use them. In the creative competition where a hundred schools of thought contend and a hundred flowers blossom, artists have their own specialties in subject matter and techniques, forming their own characteristics. Generally speaking, two schools have been formed: one school is dominated by ink painting and ink screen, whose pictures are elegant, plain and steady, and people call them "old paintings"; The other school is the "Big Red and Big Green" school. They draw lessons from the color application skills of Yangliuqing woodcut New Year pictures and other woodcut New Year pictures, dye the pictures with red and green, and replace ink with color, in pursuit of bright, prosperous and strong contrast. The early ash-throwing New Year pictures were mainly ink and wash, which gradually developed from Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty to replacing ink with color and tended to be gorgeous. At first, the theme of throwing ash New Year pictures was the kitchen god and the god of wealth. Later, it gradually turned to various New Year pictures used to decorate and beautify the room. Most of the content also revolves around the traditional customs of China. For middle-aged and elderly people, longevity and filial piety are the most important. The New Year pictures show longevity. There are old birthday stars with crutches, big birthday peaches, auspicious clouds or fairy deer riding on their feet. Compared with Gu Song and cranes, there are couplets on both sides: Longevity is better than Nanshan, and happiness is like a stream in the East China Sea. The representative New Year pictures showing filial piety are Twenty-four Filial Piety Pictures, which are all the rage in Gaomi.

In order to meet the needs of the market, the content of the ash-throwing New Year pictures is mostly festive, which is very suitable for people to post festivals. For example, my aunt's gossip, kicking shuttlecock, all the best, prosperity and peace, the Eight Immortals' birthday, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, both of whom live long, the birthdays of two children, the beauty of the round fan, the four seasons flower screen and the family hall are all representative works of New Year pictures. The main schools of ash-throwing New Year pictures are nave, Striped Screen, Couplet, Window Painting, Kitchen Painting, Kang Painting, Sacrifice Painting, Calendar and so on. According to the theme, there are mainly family worship, civil and military wealth, the Eight Immortals, auspicious celebrations, story operas, historical allusions, scenic flowers, historical figures and so on. It can be called the epitome of rural social life and the grand view garden of folk life. Ash-throwing New Year pictures are divided into two schools: old pictures and red goods. The old brush painting inherits the traditional painting method, and still focuses on painting ink and wash pictures, with elegant painting style. Despite the impact of the new school of painting, but determined not to change the original intention, he created his own logo: ink screen, ink screen, bright desk. The wife doesn't like it, and the old man flatters. Every seller has his own future. Red goods boldly draw lessons from the use of color in Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year Pictures and Weixian New Year Pictures, and move closer to red and green, making the works show gorgeous and prosperous characteristics, with strong contrast, which is loved by most people for a time. Artists also write their own songs to publicize their achievements: the red and green ones are painted in big strokes, which sell well in the market and are hung on farmers' walls, which is auspicious and prosperous.

Brush brush, slip away to plant flowers. A lot of graffiti. Draw a tick. Careful pink face, smart eyebrow eye painting. Stay in the United States, kimchi knocks flowers. This jingle not only explains the style and characteristics of Gaomi Pratt & Whitney New Year pictures, but also tells the means of making them. Brush naturally refers to the speed of painting. In order to pursue efficiency and meet the needs of sales, folk painters show a free and unadorned style in painting. A lot of graffiti, painting hook refers to the brushwork of throwing gray New Year pictures. A lot of graffiti is the embodiment of meaning, and painting is the portrayal of works.

That's why the gray New Year pictures are called folk freehand paintings. Careful pink face and clever eyebrow eye painting are the subtleties of throwing gray New Year pictures. There is one or more white powder in the figure works of the New Year pictures with dusting ash, that is, first, a white powder is painted on the face, then the facial features are skillfully outlined, and then painted, which looks elastic, transparent and delicate, giving people a strong sense of reality, which is beyond the reach of other folk New Year pictures. Pickled pickles flower is a production method to enhance the appreciation effect of powder-spraying New Year pictures, that is, after the whole work is completed, radish and pickles are engraved with patterns, and then a large number of clothes painted randomly are dipped in color to break the dull feeling of the picture and seek vividness and change. In order to improve work efficiency and enhance the picture effect, folk artists have also created Yuanyang pens, line arranging pens and various types of rinse pens. The division of these tools has also provided conditions for the formation of meticulous and colorful New Year pictures.

Although the production process of ash-throwing New Year pictures is unique, it still belongs to a kind of Chinese New Year pictures. Before the emergence of ash-throwing New Year pictures, the production of New Year pictures in Gaomi area was mostly hand-painted by some poor literati. In order to meet the needs of the people, they painted some festive New Year pictures by meticulous or work-study methods and sold them in the city to make up for the lack of life. It is conceivable that this production efficiency is extremely low. Therefore, the inefficient drawing of New Year pictures alone cannot meet the needs of folk people to post New Year pictures during the Spring Festival. Years of production practice have prompted artists to improve the techniques of New Year pictures, so the painting of "Pratt & Whitney New Year Pictures" was born. The appearance of ash-throwing New Year pictures gives ingenious folk artists the means to make a living by making New Year pictures.