Yijun county farmer painting originated in the 1950s and 1960s and is a folk artwork based on images of folk papercuts painted with bright colors. Attention is attached to decoration, color effects, and pursuit of a strong visual impression characterizing a unique style of farmer paintings. Yijun county farmer paintings highlight the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture. It is an art form in which the shape, skill, color, and consciousness of modern painting are integrated and adjusted, profoundly reflecting the spiritual culture of Yijun county and the language, customs, and concepts of northwestern China at large. It vividly records the history and development trend of civilization evolution in this ancient land for thousands of years.

Since the 1980s, Yijun county farmer paintings have been exhibited in San Francisco, Norway, Sweden, France, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, etc. Many works such asHerding Horses,Returning to Mother’s Home,Cooking Cold Noodles,Huwa(atiger image blessing children’s health)have been collected by professional institutions at home and abroad and praised and highly appreciated by experts and scholars. Argentine oil painter, Gegvary, notes in the inscription: “These beautiful farmer paintings reflect cleverness and wisdom”; Mr. Huang Miaozi, former vice chairman of the China Calligrapher Association, wrote an inscription for Yijun county farmer paintings: “(the paintings are) admirably wonderful and artistically outstanding.” Yijun county farmer paintings have both fine quality of freehand and decorative magnificence. They are rich in content and sublime in artistic conception, combining rigidity, softness, firmness, and solemnity. They are ancient and steady but not boastful, fresh, colorful, and elegant. Similar to a wide chrysanthemum rooted in the loess land, they feature distinct characteristics of the times and regional style.