Lately I've been getting more and more inspired by folklore. Now I was already a fan of folk music and I really like the old cultural traditions around the seasons, but for a few weeks now I've also been looking at folk art for drawing inspiration. Pinterest is full of the most beautiful flower prints. High time for a bit of depth.
According to Wikipedia, folk art is “art by ordinary people, intended for a smaller group and without great artistic pretensions.” So not to end up in a museum and not to be auctioned for a lot of money in a fancy auction house. Folk art is also not about paintings, but about everyday objects such as tableware, furniture and clothing. Ordinary objects provided with beautiful and often technically complicated patterns. Painted with a brush, stamped with dots or inlaid with wood. This makes it a craft that requires practice and education.
Each region in Europe has its own style when it comes to folk art. In Russia, Khokhloma originated in the seventeenth century. Khokhloma are characterized by gold and red ornaments on a black, sometimes red background, with accents in green and yellow. Popular motifs are berries (usually rowan berries and strawberries), flowers and plant leaves.
From Poland comes wycinanki, paper cutting art. Traditionally used by farmers to decorate their homes with scenes from everyday life, such as weddings and holidays. And at Easter, for example, eggs were richly decorated with roosters and flowers made of paper.
In the Norwegian countryside, Rosemåling, flower painting, originated in the second half of the 18th century. century, when Baroque entered the Norwegian urban area. Rosemåling is a decorative painting with stylized floral decorations, predominantly primary and secondary colors. It was also imitated in Sweden.
But we can do it in the Netherlands too! Think of the Staphorster stipwerk, where dots of paint are pressed onto the fabric with stamps. Or the Hindelooper painting, famous worldwide. Curls, flowers and leaves in the colours red, blue, white and green, were processed in Hindeloopen into a separate style.
And this is just a small part of Europe. The Aboriginals in Australia, the Indians in North America, Japanese print art, wajang puppets from Indonesia and I could go on and on. All examples of peoples who made their world more beautiful with their own art.
All that research has made me want to get started, so that's what I'm going to do. I drew this card on Wednesday and it tasted like more. Have a nice weekend!
PS You can find the map in the webshop.
