Desert sand and stones inspire artworks

STONE and sand that have survived thousands of years of wind and rain in northwest China are now showing a new value: materials for collage.

Li Huixia, a 41-year-old farmer, is “painting” peonies on a drawing board in a studio in Zhongwei City on the southern edge of the Tengger Desert.

She makes the full heads of peonies by sticking and pasting pieces of red and pink stone on the board. The leaves were made from green stone and stems from apricot tree branches.

Unlike typical painters who draw pictures with watercolor or acrylic paints, Li’s raw materials came from the desert and the banks of Yellow River, China’s second longest river, near her home in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

“The colored stones are the artwork of nature. What we do is to create masterpieces based on their natural shape and color to show local culture,” said Duan Wei, head of Ningxia Weiyuansu Cultural Transmission Company, and owner of the studio. The studio also teaches local farmers like Li creating artworks with sand, another rich natural resource in the desert city.

“Besides desert sand, we have ore sand of nearly 40 different colors, such as reddish ironsand and green copper sand,” said Yan Hengxiang, an experienced painter and calligrapher who teaches stone and sand crafts in the studio.

Farmers usually use stones to draw pictures of local delicacies such as goji berries and melons, and local life, while the sand is used to create landscapes including deserts, mountains and rivers.

Depending on its size and complexity, each picture can sell from 500 yuan to 36,000 yuan (US$80 to US$5,655) at local tourist attractions or in big cities.

Duan’s company conducts experiments to convince people their work is natural, such as putting colored sand into a cup full of water to see if it loses color or not. Since his company was established in July 2016, it has recorded sales of around 5 million yuan.