"Although everyone is very familiar with these scenes, we still have to observe them carefully, and then use a paintbrush to slowly draw the distant mountains, trees, waterwheels, ......”
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon recently, on a large stone slab in Yanertang, Lianfeng Village, Shuanglong Town, Changshou District, a young woman was leading four villagers to sketch here. Although it was cold outside, everyone was still holding brushes and drawing on paper with great interest.
Villagers sketch in Yan'er Pond. Photo by reporter Zhao Weiping.
The young woman's name is Liu Ying, and she is a local talent in Jianshan Village, Shuanglong Town. The four villagers are Chen Sufang, a 75-year-old villager from Tiantian Village, Jia Luxia, a villager in her 30s, Chen Huarong, a 51-year-old planter in Lianfeng Village, and Yin Mei, a housewife in her 40s.
Why are these villagers, who have nothing to do with art, willing to learn sketching from Liu Ying?
In 2022, Changshou District proposed a plan to build a rural animation island. In order to play the role of the anime island project as a link between farmers and farmers, the company responsible for operating the project decided to raise the awareness of the local people about animation and train a group of farmers to draw cartoons. "At first, we invited a teacher from Chuanmei to teach us, but then we learned that Liu Ying studied painting in high school and university, so we hired her to teach farmers. Zhang Cihang, the relevant person in charge of the operating enterprise, said.
Liu Ying is instructing farmer Chen Sufang to sketch. Photo by reporter Zhao Weiping.
He told reporters that last year, the company held a total of 6 free trainings, and the cartoons created by 20 farmers were hung in the hall of the Changshou Slow City Tourist Reception Center for people to visit. In order to further stimulate the interest of the peasant masses in painting, Liu Ying decided to take everyone to Yanertang to learn sketching this time.
After learning the news, Chen Sufang, Jia Luxia, Chen Huarong, and Yin Mei signed up. Hence the sketching class held in the field.
Painted and wiped, wiped and painted ......Despite attending several trainings, Chen Huarong still seemed a little nervous, not knowing where to start, and kept muttering.
Unlike her, Chen Sufang is very calm. Despite her age, she was the most skilled of the four: she first carefully observed the waterwheel, then took a paintbrush and determined the location and size of the waterwheel, the distant mountains, the trees, and the houses on the drawing paper. It didn't take long for the outline of the waterwheel to come to life.
Seeing that Chen Sufang was devoting herself to painting, Yin Mei on the side cast envious eyes: "You are still good at painting!" I heard that your paintings are still on display at the Slow City Visitor Center? Yin Mei asked Chen Sufang. "That's not important, just paint the mountains and rivers of your hometown! Chen Sufang replied.
Chen Sufang told reporters that Yanertang left a lot of good memories for everyone in the past, sitting on bamboo chairs and shaking pu fans to enjoy the cool in summer, and drying grain on large stone slabs in the autumn harvest season. Now that the times have progressed, Yanertang has built another waterwheel and has become a check-in point for rural tourism. "If you draw the changes in Yan'er Pond, not only tourists can see it, but also leave a valuable spiritual wealth for future generations. ”
Liu Ying took over and explained: "The purpose of our training is to guide the villagers to record the people and things around them with paintings, so that more farmers can become creators, participants and beneficiaries of rural cultural revitalization." ”
Under the careful guidance of Liu Ying, the four villagers continued to paint seriously, and the sketches of the changes of Yanertang gradually showed ......