Thinking About The Forms Of Oil Paintings On Expressing The Folk Customs In Shanbei

This paper mainly discusses oil paintings’ superiority in expressing the theme about folkcustoms of the northern areas of Shaanxi. It puts forward some specific ideas to improve thecomposition of this theme. Folk activities in the northern areas of Shaanxi take various forms,and there are rich resources for the theme. Due to the special geographical location, theseactivities have diversified and distinctive characteristics. The writer of this paper, on the basisof investigation, collection and sorting out, longs to refine and dig up the artistic features andaesthetic value of the folk activities and so to provide theoretical support for the compositionof oil paintings. Through the exploration of the culture in northern Shaanxi, this paper istrying to reveal that as a type of western paintings, oil paintings vary from other types in theidea of modeling and methods of presentation. The model has a big advantage in expressingthe folk customs of northern Shaanxi. It is good at revealing the unique terrain andcharacteristics of the customs. It has another superiority of expressing the localization andnationalization of oil paintings.The paper elaborates on the writer’s thinking about the composition of oil paintingswhose theme is the folk customs in the northern areas of Shaanxi from a unique perspective.Restricted by various factors, it is difficult for artists to go deep into the folk activities. Their paintings mainly focus on the unique terrain of the areas, but seldom on the contents of thecustoms, which makes the composition of oil paintings on the theme of folk customs inactive.The result of the research may be a beneficial exploration of the theme, and will fill someblanks in the composition of oil paintings about the folk customs in northern Shaanxi.In the recent hundred years, the theme of northern Shaanxi presented by oil paintings hasgenerally experienced three periods: the first period is Yan’an Period in the1930s whosetheme was the revolution, which served mostly for political purposes; the second period,from the founding of the PRC to the reform and opening-up period, mainly composedhistorical paintings; third the period, from the reform and opening-up till this day, expressesmore subjects of the folk customs in northern Shaanxi. None of the periods however hasformed a system of oil paintings expressing folk customs. From the viewpoint of customstheme, this paper states the superiority of oil paintings in expressing folk customs. It putsforward some ideas, and provides a useful reference for expressing the folk customs innorthern Shaanxi through oil paintings.