Dialogue with murals spanning nearly a thousand years

Dragon king praying for rain 120×345cm

Palace treasure map 120×345cm

The palace still eats 120×345cm.

Tourist map of emperor Taizong120× 345cm < >

Starting from 20 14, Mei Ying spent three and a half years creating and copying 96 murals of 18 shop and Guangsheng Temple, with a total area of 407 square meters, such as the Dragon King praying for rain, treasures in the palace, Yuan zaju and so on. This is also the first comprehensive, systematic and high-standard copy of Guangsheng Temple murals in 700 years, which fills a gap in the field of murals in China.

Guangsheng Temple, which means "the vast sky is famous in the world", is located at the southern foot of Huoshan Mountain in Hongtong County, Shanxi Province. Its murals were painted in the Yuan Dynasty, exquisite in the Tang Dynasty, mellow in the Song Dynasty and ethereal in the Yuan Dynasty. China is a master of ancient murals.

20 19 1.5, Meiying Art Exhibition was held in China Art Museum. The replica of Guangsheng Temple mural exhibited in the exhibition amazed visitors.

"Refrigerator, Go, golf, etc. It can be found in murals 700 years ago. " Mei Ying said that the murals in Guangsheng Temple are rich and colorful, involving gardens, villages, streets, people of all colors, etc., full of rich flavor of life, reflecting the real face of social life at that time, comparable to Dunhuang murals and Ruicheng Yongle Palace murals, and pagoda and Zhao Cang called Guangsheng Temple "three wonders".

Talking about the original intention of creating Linyi, Mei Ying said that when she visited Guangsheng Temple in the summer of 20 14, she found that some murals in the temple were cracked and some were mottled because of the earthquake. The treasures left by these ancestors have long lost their elegance, and four murals have been lost overseas. So she had a bold plan to copy all the murals of Guangsheng Temple.

"This is a complicated and huge project," said Mei Ying, who is in her fifties, facing both physical and psychological challenges, especially to accurately copy the original materials of all murals. There are no ready-made pictures of murals lost overseas. She tidied up all the pictures that could be collected online, took a magnifying glass, drew the cut images on paper with a carbon pen, took photos to enlarge them, and then copied them slowly with a pencil.

Mei Ying ordered a painting table with a length of 4 meters, each painting is 3.45 meters long, and the width is appropriately enlarged or reduced in proportion, so that all murals are uniform in size. In the process of creation, faced with cracks, mottling, falling off and missing pieces, she repeatedly tried to figure out the original author's intention and pen and ink, carefully supplemented them, and strived to truly reflect the original style of murals and achieve "painting as new".

The process of creating a copy is lonely and boring. At the most bitter time, Mei Ying wrote a poem to inspire herself. "I polished all the loneliness and let them light up every dull day. I put all my efforts into beautiful pictures and let them last forever in the long river of years ... "

For three and a half years, Mei Ying stood in front of the painting case and used hundreds of brushes. After copying, submitting, dyeing and other processes, the Dragon King prayed for rain, treasures in the palace, Yuan Dynasty zaju, Emperor Taizong's outing, food in the palace, 12 wonders, 53 Buddha paintings, Confucius murals, Laozi murals, and vertical three. At the same time, she will also be lost overseas, and the four existing murals in the United States, France and other countries-the Buddha map of the pharmacist in the Yuan Dynasty, the Buddha map of the blooming Buddha, and the Buddha map of the pharmacist in the Ming Dynasty-are all copied and drawn.

"I chose the mural, and the mural also chose me." Mei Ying feels that as a modern artist, she has the responsibility and obligation to discover, explore and show her beauty.