Like the paintings of Sinh village, Kim Hoang or Hang Trong ... Dong Ho paintings of Bac Ninh is a unique line of folk paintings of Vietnamese people.
Dong Ho paintings belong to the line of woodblock prints created by the people of Dong Ho village. This is a line of paintings that vividly show and depicts the old Vietnamese society.
Dong Ho paintings are not only famous for their distinctive features of line work, compositions but also the colors and materials of their printing papers.
Dong Ho paintings use a special type of paper called “giấy điệp”. People crush the scallop shells then mix them with rice paste and used pine-needle brushes to sweep this mixture on bamboo papers’ surface.
Colors used in Dong Ho paintings are natural colors from materials such as charcoal (black), rust, indigo leaves (green), flowers (yellow). Most of the time, Dong Ho paintings only use up to 4 colors corresponding to the same number of woodblock.
To complete a picture, the artists must go through many elaborate stages. They would have to sweep the scallop shells mixture on the papers, let them dry, and then repeat these steps again.
When printing, each color must be printed one at a time. In the old days, Dong Ho paintings were sold mainly on Lunar New Year. The late 19th century to 1944 was the most flourishing period of this famous painting village.
After 1945, due to war time, many printing woodblocks were burned down and the craft of making Dong Ho paintings was discontinued. After peace was restored, the village gradually revived.
From 1970 to 1985, Dong Ho paintings were exported to several countries. Besides traditional paintings, Dong Ho artisans are also very creative and innovative with their designs.
Thanks to the efforts of dedicated artists, after so many ups and downs, Dong Ho paintings are still being preserved until this day./.
