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The folk handcraft Lunar New Year painting, which is used for blessing and ringing in the Chinese Lunar New Year, is one of the most popular forms of artwork among Chinese families. It originated from the paintings of ancient doorkeepers, and is believed to repel evils when posted on the door of a home. At the same time, the painting can decorate the house, bringing happiness and joy to the family.
Lunar New Year painting has a long history in China. After hundreds of years of development, there are now several groups producing different types of Lunar New Year paintings. Some are purely hand-painted; some are printed with wooden blocks, while others are half painted and half printed.
Lv Zhenli, transmitter of intangible cultural heritage in China:
"Lunar New Year painting in Gaomi has a history of more than six centuries. Yangliuqing painting in Tianjin, Yangjiabu painting in Weifang and Wuqiang painting in Hebei are all printed with wooden blocks. The only all-hand-painted paintings are from our Gaomi."
First, the artist burns willow twigs into charcoal to draw the draft. Then he stamps the image onto paper making several copies at one time. After the prints are made, the final step is to color them. The unique technique and the rough style earned Gaomi painting the name "folk abbreviated art work ".
Ren Helin, curator of Lunar New Year Paintings Museum in Zhuxian town:
"Zhuxian painting can be traced back from the Song Dynasty, with a rich history of engraving printing. There is no need to draw or print during the whole [painting] production process; all the products are made by wood chromatography. The first step is to draw the draft. Then the artists use the draft to cover a piece of wood to cut blocks for printing the outline. When it comes to the coloring step, we have a set of special printing blocks. There is one color for each block; just print one color at a time."
Gaomi paintings are all hand-painted. Zhuxian paintings are all printed with wood blocks, while Yangliuqing paintings for Tianjin combines these two methods together. Using wood blocks to make the outline, then using your hands to paint all the colors is also a very popular technique among Chinese.
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