A spring that never fades on the canvas

Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Abiba) news: "Use Usma grass to squeeze out green, press dandelion flowers for light yellow, and squeeze cockscomb flowers for purple..." Awulimiti Reheman, a farmer painter from Yarkant County, Kashi Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, talked excitedly on the phone about his secret method of painting with natural colors.

Now 72, he is a well-known farmer painter in Yarkant County. When people from nearby villages mention him, they not only praise his painting skills but also note that his colors come from unusual sources: red from henna flowers, green from Usma grass, and purple from cockscomb flowers. He rarely buys paint from the store; instead, he heads to the fields. While others use palettes to mix colors, he soaks flower petals.

"I have loved painting since I was a child. Back then, I used coal chunks as brushes and white walls as canvases, drawing everywhere," Awulimiti Reheman said with a laugh. At that time, paint was expensive and hard to come by. For a farming family, spending money on paint seemed less practical than buying a few more meals. But the urge to paint was like weeds in the field: pull them out and they grow right back, impossible to stop.

"My mother loved beauty. She would use Usma grass to darken her eyebrows and wrap her fingers with henna flowers every day," Awulimiti said. "I noticed those colors could last a long time on the skin. So I thought, could I use plant colors instead of paint?" That idea stayed with him for many years, but painting paper was also costly back then, so he had to put it aside.

File photo shows Awulimiti Reheman paints on site in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

As life gradually improved, Awulimiti picked up his paintbrush again in his spare time from farming and became a farmer painter. His works feature bold colors, full compositions, and vivid expressions, and many villagers have bought them to hang on their walls.

Awulimiti has a large orchard at home filled with almond trees. When the flowers bloom each spring, the view in his yard is stunning. He loves nothing more than sitting in the orchard and painting almond blossoms, painting the happy life that almonds bring to people.

"One day, as I was painting, a flower petal fell onto the canvas. I looked at the flower I had painted with acrylics next to the real one, and I felt my painting was missing a certain soul. I thought: What colors are the flowers in the fields? What color are the leaves in the soil? What color is the Yarkant River under the setting sun? Those colors are alive. They breathe. They don't stay the same once squeezed out of a bottle. So I remembered that idea from my childhood again," Awulimiti said.

He counted these natural "paints" one by one: "Green from Usma grass, yellow from dandelion flowers, purple from cockscomb flowers, light pink from almond flowers, bright red by mixing henna flowers and dandelions, and different greens from the juices of different green leaves." He sounded like he was counting his most precious treasures.

These paintings made with natural colors are not vibrant, but they have a wonderful texture on the paper. Each flower glows with a natural soft pink under the sunlight, and each leaf gives off a faint grassy scent. "Sometimes the freshly squeezed flower juice can even attract bees. It's a pity that once painted on paper, the smell mostly fades and the bees no longer come. I once mixed honey into the colors and managed to attract a bee or two. It was really beautiful," Awulimiti said.

In spring, there are plenty of flowers and leaves to squeeze for dyes. But what about autumn and winter?

Awulimiti tried picking the flowers he found beautiful and pressing them between the pages of books to make dried specimens. "When I want to use them, I soak the dried petals in water, and the water takes on color: red, yellow, green. It's like magic. The colors are lighter, but I can still paint the most striking flowers in winter," he said.

For this reason, his favorite activity besides painting is collecting flowers. Among all these colors, roses are his favorite. Red, yellow, pink: he collects rose petals, soaks them to get different shades, and uses them to paint the Yarkant River under blue skies and white clouds, to paint the beautiful scenery of his hometown.

"About ten or more years ago, I searched everywhere in Yarkant County and once managed to gather 12 colors, all from the land beneath my feet, from the ordinary flowers and grasses in the fields. But they are hard to find now," Awulimiti said. In those years, he made flowers bloom on paper, and all his paintings were about flowers: smiling faces under almond blossoms, fellow villagers moving into new homes amid flowers; those were the most beautiful things in his heart, and he wanted them to last forever.

Now 72, Awulimiti has gradually put down his paintbrush. Although paintings made with plant pigments are hard to preserve and have lighter colors, he has never let go of his longing for the colors of flowers and plants.

"Today, the lives of farmers are getting better every day. Farmer painters use the brightest colors they can, such as red, green, and blue, because life is just so prosperous and vibrant," said Muhetaer Jumai, an art instructor at Yarkant County Cultural Center. The county has 17 farmer painters who continue to paint. Although few today still paint like Awulimiti using flowers and plants, he spent his entire life planting, one by one, the spring flowers of Yarkant into the canvas. Those flowers remain there, and the spring that belongs to him, to Yarkant, and to this land remains there as well.

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