Chinese artist paints pictures with fingers and palms

Ma Jinfu’s hands. (Photo/Wen Sirui)

Ma Jinfu, an intangible cultural heritage inheritor of glass painting in Xining, capital of northwest China’s Qinghai Province, paints beautiful pictures on glass, ceramics, and coated paper with his fingers and palms rather than brushes or any other traditional painting tools, the WeChat account of China News Service reported on Dec.26.

Ma has never studied painting in a formal school of fine arts, nor taken any training class, but has won several awards and honors for his works, and has a considerable amount of fans and influence in the field.

Ma’s father and grandfather were both handicraftsmen who created glass paintings for a living. A distinctive folk art, glass painting was popular in China around 1980s and 1990s.

“At that time, people would need to take glass paintings to events such as inauguration ceremonies of buildings, opening ceremonies of stores, and celebrations. Glass paintings were very popular gifts,” said Ma.

Out of curiosity, Ma started to learn glass painting techniques from his grandfather when he was 12. It took him three years to acquire the knowledge, during which Ma discovered that his grandfather would sometimes use his fingers and palms to spread the painting ink, as the tung oil in the pigment made it hard to push by brush. This is the source of Ma’s practice of painting with fingers and palms.

When he saw that glass painting was gradually losing its popularity Ma knew he needed to make innovations in its techniques. “It is a precious treasure left by my grandfather and father. I can’t see it disappear in my generation,” said Ma.

When Ma was worrying about the development and inheritance of glass painting, the intangible cultural heritage protection center of Xining discovered him, and arranged for intangible cultural heritage inheritors like him to learn from experts about how to innovate the art treasures they inherited from the older generations.

Ma was inspired by the successful practices of other provinces, and endeavored to further develop the techniques he learned from his grandfather and father.

Using traditional Chinese ink and wash painting as his basis, Ma injected new vitality into the folk art. “In the past, painting with fingers and palms was only a part of glass painting, but now it has become a new way of painting,” stressed Ma.

Ma has also actively developed his own artistic style. He visits other provinces every year to gain new knowledge and inspiration, trying to create glass paintings with distinctive features. He has also tried to paint on different materials and created works for different decoration needs.

“I have brought my glass paintings created with fingers and palms to many countries, including Spain, Russia, and Italy. Many foreigners came to buy my pictures for their collections,” disclosed Ma.

Ma is almost 60 years old now. In his spare time, he goes outdoors and gets close to nature, watching the waters and mountains of his hometown, which are the subjects of most of his works.

Ma plans to teach his skills to children at schools, and hopes to kindle their interest in the traditional Chinese art form.

“I’m about to turn 60. I don’t want to see the techniques get lost in my lifetime. The skills cannot be acquired in just a short time. So I want to cultivate some inheritors by starting the teaching for children,” said Ma.

He also wants to create some works featuring the current Belt and Road Initiative and let more people see and understand the charm of Qinghai, , adding that “I will continue learning new things so as to constantly adapt my works to the current environment until the day I can’t move my hands.”