Grandma Van Gogh: All my paintings are real things.

Text messages? Figure/Chang Fang Some pictures provided/Chang Xiufeng

It sounds like a legend, but it is true: Grandma Van Gogh is an ordinary rural woman in Funiu Mountain, Henan Province. She has been farming all her life and can't read or draw. When she was in her seventies, her wife left, and her son who worked in Guangzhou took her to Guangzhou. In order to describe her hometown to her granddaughter who grew up in the city, she couldn't read, so she picked up a brush and inadvertently became "Grandma Van Gogh" who touched countless people.

Grandma Van Gogh held an art exhibition in Hong Kong, and was twice invited to participate in the "Covenant between Lu and Yu". Chen Danqing spoke highly of her paintings, and Ruben, a famous French photographer, and Ma Ying Jiu of Taiwan Province Province collected her paintings respectively.

It's incredible, just like a miracle-let's walk into the legendary world of this super grandma ... How did Grandma Van Gogh come from?

Grandma Van Gogh has four names: osmanthus, Chang Xiufeng, Dongtan Niang and Grandma Van Gogh. Chang Xiufeng named herself. Xiu is excellent, Feng is a mountain peak, and Chang Xiufeng is always an excellent mountain peak. In addition, she has several names: when she was a female doll, her parents called her osmanthus; After marrying into jiang jia cun, the villagers called her "He Dongniang"; After 70 years old, she also has a playful nickname-Grandma Van Gogh.

"Grandma Van Gogh?" She has been whispering in her heart, do we still have this place in Guaihe Town?

Now she finally knows who Van Gogh is, but she still doesn't understand why so many people like her "countryman". She used a strong Henan saying in the program "Lu Yu You Yue": "This Van Gogh must be very unhappy that his sunflower doesn't stretch, and his paintings are bitter. My sunflower has sunshine to warm her, land to support her, and water to moisten her, just like I painted her mood, very happy. If you ask me, I can't understand that painting by Van Gogh, but the sunflower painted by Van Gogh is not as good as mine. Sunflowers can't be put in vases. Without water and soil, it will die. " It is this simple words and those simple and warm paintings that have touched countless modern people and aroused the homesickness of urbanites, calling her "Grandma Van Gogh".

On the day of the interview, I called her "Grandma Van Gogh" as soon as I saw her. She said, don't call me "auntie", let me, who is also from Henan, instantly ignite my homesickness, and the two of them chattered endlessly on the balcony with a strong Henan accent. Painting begins with hawthorn trees.

How did the hand that held the hoe and sickle all its life pick up the brush? Grandma Chang said she didn't expect this. In 2003, at the strong insistence of her son, she left her hometown for the first time and came to a strange metropolis, Guangzhou. Grandma Zhang, who is used to rural life, is not used to the new city life. My son's house is on the fourth floor, and the old lady's legs and feet are inconvenient It takes a long time to get to the next floor. The same buildings and roads in the city often make the old lady get lost, so she seldom goes downstairs and begins to live in "Little dovecote".

Like all the old people, Grandma Zhang's greatest pleasure is to tell her little granddaughter, who was only three years old at that time, stories about her hometown: hawthorn trees and dogwoods on the hillside, foxes and wolves in the mountains. The little granddaughter who grew up in the city couldn't imagine it at all and said, "Grandma, can you draw it for me?"

This sentence changed grandma's words in her later years. Since then, the old lady has told more and more stories and painted more and more things. By chance, Art editor's daughter-in-law was shocked when she saw these crayons that didn't pay attention to perspective and proportion. My son and daughter-in-law can't believe that an old man who has never studied painting has such a talent. When he picked up a hand, it turned out to be a "big hand" of post-impressionism.

After half a year, Grandma Zhang has thirty or forty paintings. The paintings given to her by her daughter-in-law were scanned and printed into a book, and began to spread in small circles. Some people even come to see grandma's paintings. Later, some media came to interview, and "Lu Yu has an appointment" also came, and Grandma Van Gogh became famous.

Warm heart

In the corner of the balcony is Grandma Van Gogh's studio. Outside the balcony, there are shady trees and old trees covered with bauhinia. The wind passes through the trees, and the green light makes people tremble. Grandma Van Gogh sat there casually, absorbed in her paintings. After a long time, crayons, paper and colorful oil paints are everywhere in the corner of the balcony, which looks like a painting.

Most colors are bright and beautiful, except for a few black, which represents miserable life. Grandma said that her pigments green, red and yellow were used the fastest. After so many hardships, she still expresses her feelings about life with bright colors. How warm and sunny the old lady's heart is!

Grandma Van Gogh painted scenes of rural life in mountainous areas. Crops in the field, small animals in the mountains, ridges and flowers are all related to her past life. In grandma's pen, everything in her hometown is particularly beautiful, such as the old house in Jiang where she once lived and raised five children, the red hawthorn tree, the golden sunflower and the naughty wild cats and birds in the mountains.

She likes painting sunflowers best. Sunflowers in the painting are chubby in the soil, with a slightly tender green heart and full head hanging down, all like a small sun. Grandma's animals have crooked eyes, so do cows and wolves. I asked my grandmother, are wolves also terrible? Grandma said, not scary. In fact, wolves are very similar to dogs. They are all afraid of people.

In the decades of rural labor life with the loess facing the sky, those small animals on the mountain are mountain friends who have accompanied Grandma Van Gogh for many years. Those flowers and plants on the ridge were trampled underfoot, and she kept them in mind.

Grandma, do you want to copy according to the photo? Gee, can you remember what you planted all your life?

When painting, she sometimes talks that the tree in this painting is a poplar tree in front of relatives' houses behind the mountain; The wheat cutter is her mother-in-law, and the child in dirty clothes doesn't know where she came from ... In her paintings, all people and things are famous and real. Grandma said: "All my paintings are' real' things, not made up!"

I said, grandma, you have lived in the city for so long, can you draw a picture of the city for us? Grandma said, I can't draw, I can only draw what I grow, and I can draw trees in the city at most. I know she's thinking about home 3000 miles away.

Journal of private rural life

Grandma's eyes are not very good. Every painting is slow. It takes at least 2 ~ 3 months to finish a painting. She is not so much painting as showing her art with her heart. When the light is good, grandma carefully mixes the exact colors and puts the reading glasses near the canvas. At first, she was fascinated by the painting. I photographed her with my camera and made a lot of sounds. She won't look at her for a while, and her hands will tremble involuntarily. This is the sequela of hemiplegia. Sometimes when she has a headache, she rubs her temples with her brush-pinching hand.

What Grandma Van Gogh paints most smoothly is the rural things she has been dealing with all her life: sweet potatoes, pomegranate flowers, corn, wheat and pomegranate, from spring to autumn. Grandma Van Gogh's paintings give urbanites with heating in winter and air conditioning in summer the concept of "solar terms". Grandma said, what is autumn like? Persimmon leaves are red and used to grow wheat, and the leaves are burnt yellow, which is different from the leaves in spring. She recited the natural solar terms hidden in the painting: sweet potatoes are big and sweet in March. Pomegranate flowers in May, pomegranate flowers have passed the Dragon Boat Festival. In September and a half, persimmon leaves are red, and they are used to grow wheat ... In her world, if you look at the color of persimmon leaves, you will know that spring, summer, autumn and winter have reached that stage.

Grandma's life can be summarized in several words: farming, cooking, taking care of her husband and teaching children. If it weren't for these paintings, it is estimated that no one would be interested in her life. But it is these paintings that evoke our collective memory. "As soon as I paint sesame seeds, I will go to sesame fields; As soon as I row the wheat, I hear the sound of a sickle cutting the wheat; I will draw what I think in my heart. " She said that many people in her paintings are old or dead now. The yard of her hometown Jiangjia Village is full of weeds, but in her grandmother's paintings, it is still a beautiful rural life.

The illiterate Granny Van Gogh created that she can only recall and record the past through simple painting. She is self-taught. She painted old houses, plants and animals on mountains, ridges and fruit trees. She has no limitations or profound ideas, but she has worked hard for decades and is full of life wisdom. Many people were moved by the sincerity and love of life in her paintings at a glance. Isn't this the highest state of art?

On the other hand, I also want to say that if you still don't show any talent, don't worry, live well and love the people around you. Who says you're old and not another super grandma?