Inheritor of Jingdezhen porcelain painting integrates traditional art into modern-day life through innovations

By breaking the boundaries of functions and art, an inheritor of a type of Jingdezhen porcelain painting that is characterized by the flexible use of pigments and the perfect combination of different features of oil painting and traditional Chinese painting, has continued to devote herself to integrating the traditional art into modern-day life through her innovations.

Photo shows Sun Dena (R) and her husband. (Chinanews.com/Wang Haoyang)

Sun Dena, is an inheritor of this specific type of porcelain painting, a traditional porcelain painting technique that is listed as an intangible cultural heritage in Jingdezhen, a city in east China’s Jiangxi Province that has long been well-known for its fine porcelain, with the artist also serving as a provincial-accredited ceramic master, possessing a highly skilled set of capabilities for creating exquisite ceramics featuring vivid flowers, birds, animals and other figures.

One of Sun’s artworks that is representative of her unique artistic ideas is an elegant porcelain lamp. Featuring grain-sized holes and patterns of wisteria flowers, bees and siskins, the porcelain lamp glitters in the lamplight with a translucent appeal, making it a fine piece of artwork and a decoration that can be used as a household item.

“First, tiny holes were hollowed out in the clay body with knives and glazes were painted on the surface of the clay body before firing,” Sun said, adding that she then painted patterns onto the ceramic body and afterwards sent the item to the kiln for firing again. The ceramic artist revealed that she spent more than one month to complete the porcelain lamp.

“The best way to inherit the intangible cultural heritage is to integrate it into modern-day life through innovative ways. Only in this way can we create products that feature traditional cultural elements and are decorative yet functional, thus making them well received by modern-day people,” Sun said.

Photo shows a piece of ceramic work created by Sun Dena featuring vivid cats. (Chinanews.com/Wang Haoyang)

Having cultivated a fondness for painting since childhood, Sun majored in ceramic art design at Jingdezhen University in Jingdezhen city in 2005 and then focused on a specific type of porcelain painting, having become more and more interested in Chinese traditional painting techniques for birds and flowers.

To master the techniques, Sun spent much of her time painting and practicing traditional Chinese calligraphy during her college days. “Dozens of writing brushes wore out every year back then,” she recalled.

After graduating from the university, Sun settled in Jingdezhen and committed herself to creating porcelain artworks for the long-haul. That’s not an easy thing to commit to because it usually takes her over one month to finish just a single piece of porcelain work.

Sun explained that the clay can easily deform during the firing process. The thickness of pigments should be appropriately controlled for, with too much oil in the glazes leading to defective porcelain products.

Photo shows a piece of ceramic work created by Sun Dena. (Chinanews.com/Wang Haoyang)

“It’s also difficult to paint flowers, birds and animals on the ceramic body. One must be very careful and pay great attention to details so as to create vivid works,” Sun said.

According to Sun, the most difficult part is incorporating new innovations, and an artist needs to refer to ancient works for a novel source of inspiration.

Drawing inspiration from “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers,” a blue-green landscape painting masterpiece by a genius painter from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), Sun created a delicate tea set, which reproduces the rolling mountains and rivers of the masterpiece through the use of porcelain carving and painting skills.

Sun said she will continue to pursue her love of art and create more artistic works by better combining the traditional porcelain craft with new innovative technologies. 

Photo shows a porcelain lamp created by Sun Dena. (Chinanews.com/Wang Haoyang)