A woman from rural Liaocheng, Shandong province, has become an Internet sensation after millions of people watched her paint on the ground with coal.
Let’s check out some of her work:
Ding Chunmei has more than 200,000 followers and has created more than 100 lifelike paintings in just 2 years, her paintings have been viewed by more 10 million people.
photo credit: 赵晓
According to Ding Chunmei, when she as a child, due to poor family conditions, she couldn’t even afford to buy a pen and paper. She used a stick as the pen on the ground and randomly began drawing. Her interest in drawing became increasingly strong.
She has never professionally studied any type of art, but once
Ding Chunmei received some instructions from a college student who studied painting.
“At that time, there were college students who went to the village primary school to teach. After learning that I like drawing, the college student taught me every weekend for half a day.” Ding said.
After the college students were transferred from the village, Ding Chunmei began to explore and exercise her painting skills on her own.
Everywhere is drawing paper to her whether it be the cement courtyard at her home or surrounding walls.
“It takes half a pencil to draw a character on the ground, and to save money, I use the coal left over from home.” Ding replied about using pencils which she found extremely wasteful.
When she was tired from working in the fields, she would often draw with the materials around her. Using this therapeutic energy to create a break for herself.
We hope to see many more of her beautiful paintings!