晒粮 Drying the Grain

Drying the Grain was shown as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival 2014 in the exhibition Rizhao Farmers’ Paintings. Rizhao in Shandong Province is one of China’s famed folk-art centres.

Rizhao farmers’ paintings feature local rural and marine customs with a strong flavour of country life, rich content, elaborate design, and abundant colours.

Beginning in the late 1950s as simple illustrations, farmers painting developed into a dynamic artistic genre in China. Farmers’ paintings are hand-painted, usually with gouache watercolours, on paper depicting the daily life in rural areas, including farm work, festivals, village customs, and harvest scenes.

The exhibition Rizhao Farmers’ Paintings was brought to Australia for the OzAsia Festival by Shandong Government Culture Department. Rizhao is situated on the coast of south-eastern Shandong Province in China. The name Rizhao originates from an old saying: “It is the first to get the sunshine.”