Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    WATERCOLOR painter Xu Jingru said she is a fervent follower of Vincent Van Gogh. But in her work, Xu is not merely mimicking what the 19th century Dutch artist created 200 years ago — she has invented her own way of interpreting his art, using colored clay.

    The Shenzhen resident has won several awards for her art, at home and abroad. Her latest watercolor picture book quickly sold out on Dangdang.com. She said she is enjoying her life by pursuing her passions.

    Xu is also a co-founder of Green Seed Art Training Center, where she offers free lessons every Wednesday night to parents and children who love art.

    A staff member at the center said Xu is very charming with her students.

    “She has versatile ways of teaching art, she is very knowledgeable and she gives lectures in a very humorous way,” the employee said.

    Clay inspirations

    Xu previously made her living in various ways, including as a kindergarten teacher and a newspaper cartoon artist. Her inspiration for using clay as a raw material came to her while she was showing children how to make cartoon figures with clay.

    “I didn’t figure out that clay could be associated with my art at first, because I felt it was childish to use children’s painting material to create serious art. But I found it very amusing when I tried it,” she said.

    Xu said she adores Van Gogh’s stippling technique, or pointillism, very much, and found that clay is an incredible medium for the style.

    When she used clay to copy her first Van Gogh painting as an example for her students, she was stunned to see that grains of colored clay revitalized the entire picture. Since then, she’s been obsessed with working with clay.

    Interpreting Van Gogh

    Xu said she has developed a veneration of Van Gogh since her childhood.

    “He is a spiritual icon for me and he motivates me with my painting,” Xu said.

    She gradually realized that the clay she used to teach art was suitable for embossed works, and a material that few people used, so she developed the idea of using it to recreate works by Van Gogh.

    She has created more than 30 pieces of works based on Van Gogh’s paintings and said she’s most satisfied with her depiction of his classic painting “Sunflowers.” She gave her clay painting a merry note by making the vase grimace with a stuck-out tongue.

    “Van Gogh painted ‘Sunflowers’ for his friend Paul Gauguin. That means the painting was created out of love. People often learn about Van Gogh’s tragic life but seldom feel the happiness in him when he created it, so I want to express the love and happiness in my own way,” Xu said.

    Under Xu’s fingers, Van Gogh does not have the stereotyped appearance of deep eyes and a stern face, but rather has a fashionable hairstyle and playful expressions, such as giggling through half-closed eyes like a cartoon figure. She turned his gray beard into a golden color and brushed his dull black hat into a bright color. Her depictions of flowers make them look like exotic creatures with beady eyes or cunning faces.

    A portrait of Van Gogh by Xu is placed on her desk in her workshop.

    “I think its colors are used with better skill. The picture seems in motion, giving the portrait a lifelike vividness,” Xu said. “I placed it close to me so I can feel reinvigorated at the sight of it when I feel tired or want to goof off.”

    Tossing clay

    Xu tried different materials before she eventually discovered clay was a good raw material for her paintings.

    “I used lightweight clay at first, but it hardens quickly and is difficult to fix. I experimented with other materials but they weren’t very suitable, either. Finally, I found that the plasticine used to produce cartoon figures has good plasticity required for my creations,” she said.

    Clay painting is very time-consuming. A clay painting the size of a sheet of medium-sized paper takes more than 20 hours to finish, Xu said. She often buries herself in her work and shuts herself in her workshop without noticing the passage of time.

    “At first, I would draw an outline or a sketch before I started with clay, but later I simply followed my instinct to do it without sketches, because I became very familiar with Van Gogh and his works. I copied his works in the beginning, but I was more inclined to put my own creativity into it so I added animated expressions into my creations, and it proved a nice trial.”

    Creating art with clay is a laborious job that needs great concentration and care, Xu said. Grains of clay are kneaded into different shapes before she sticks them together into a painting, and any minor mistake can take a long time to repair. She often has skin on her fingers peeling off because of heavy manual work.

    She said she has to knead clay balls whenever her hands are unoccupied.

    And her brain is rarely at rest, because she has to constantly think about dyeing clay into different colors, and about how to create comic effects while retaining some of the original artistic effect.

    Sticking to her interest

    Xu has put photos of her clay paintings of Van Gogh’s works online and they’ve earned praise from netizens. Despite her popularity, she said she is doing it out of interest.

    People have offered to buy her clay paintings but she has rejected all offers so far. She wants to open her own exhibition.

    “Now I just want to keep my mind on my creation. I feel there is still room for me to improve with Van Gogh’s works and I haven’t realized my goal of finishing all his works with clay reliefs,” Xu said. “I want to focus on creating beautiful art works rather than winning prizes. I like to work on paintings that I am interested in and do them in different ways.”

    She said she will finish a complete series of Van Gogh’s works before she moves to another topic.

    “I will create my next works about dogs because I have been thinking of drawing a picture book of dogs and I think it would be great to do it with clay,” Xu said.

    One of her hot-selling picture books, “Reminiscing her 1970s,” is devoted to her parents, with 260 pictures of her childhood memories. She said the financial gains from the book went beyond her expectations.

    A colleague of Xu’s, surnamed Fu, said Xu is a passionate art teacher who is devoted to her art and to public causes such as environmental protection and art lessons for youth.

    “She has paid close attention to art-teaching techniques, especially for children’s education and young art teachers who have just taken their positions,” Fu said. “She also actively promotes green lifestyles in every moment of her life.”

    “He is a spiritual icon for me and he motivates me with my painting. ”

    — Xu Jingru, a watercolor painter, who said she is a fervent follower of Vincent Van Gogh