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The art of overglaze painting on porcelain or china painting, as it is commonly known, had its beginnings in ancient China. It continued to gain popularity in the 1800s in Europe, especially in Germany and France where many factories employed skilled artists to handpaint their wares. The art was brought to the United States in the early 1900's where it became a very popular pasttime till about the 1920's. There was another resurgence of interest in the art in the 60's and today there are still small groups of china painters preserving and passing along their knowledge of the art. |
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It is an overglaze process, which means that, unlike its sister arts of pottery and ceramics, all of our work is done on an already glazed piece, using the glaze as an oil painter would a canvas. Many of you have seen pretty handpainted pieces in antique store and flea markets, some of you have family heirlooms painted by a great grandmother or a favorite aunt and the lucky ones have someone in the family who either has painted porcelain in the past or is still actively doing so....but the number of china painters worldwide is very small in comparison to the number of artists who practise other art forms and it can be a long and fruitless search trying to find another china painter ...much less, a teacher. |
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We are hoping to change all that here at PPIO. We are hoping to make porcelain painting information and other porcelain painters easy to locate via this incredible medium of the internet....and to that end, we present our first in a continuing series of lessons on china painting: NOTE: These lessons are not meant to be a substitute for a good teacher. There are some things that are difficult to describe that are much easier taught by watching a knowlegable teacher, like the correct texture of the paint...and there is nothing like being able to create under the watchful eye of a teacher....but they can be difficult if not impossible to find in some areas...so we hope we can fill in the gap with the information we present here.(Also , please sign up for our FREE china painters mailing list where the answers to any and all of your questions are just an email away!) ANOTHER NOTE: Also, be aware that there are as many ways to paint on porcelain as there are artists and for the most part, there are many different ways to accomplish the same thing. There are also many different techniques for getting different looks. What I present here is MY method of painting. It is by no means the ONLY way..... |
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First, here are a few examples of some of the many styles of china painting... |
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In my lesson, I will be discussing the "american" style of painting: |
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Above: American style piece with softly blended background |
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Right: Dresden-type piece with one- fire flowers done in tole-like brushstrokes |
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Left: a contemporary stylized piece designed and painted by PPIO charter member Gene Patterson titled "Three Kings" |
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Above: a small contemporary box created by Marci Blattenberger with luster, dichroic glass and porcelain fusion |
Above: an antique piece, artist unknown, painted in the
American style
Right: contemporary portrait (12 x 16 inch porcelain tile)
painted by (and from an original photograph by) Marci Blattenberger ...titled
"Mary's Reflection"
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CLICK ON THESE WORDS TO GET TO THE LESSON........... |