The Art of Zalipie

I have previously posted a lot of examples of street art and urban art installations, Here is something similar but different.

Once upon a time about 100 years ago in the small Polish village of Zalipie, a woman painted flowers over a soot stain caused by the stove. Other women who had soot stains caused by stoves liked it so much that they did the same, Pretty soon the village was reminiscent of Whoville, everything was covered in painted flowers, not just soot stains but walls, bridges, everything.

The women didn’t have professionally made equipment or paints, they made the brushes themselves using hair from the tails of their cows and made the paint from fat from the dumplings they made. Each year the women had to repaint their works and they did this after the Feast of Corpus Christi, when they weren’t so busy with their farm work.

Generations passed the tradition to successive generations with inspiration for the works coming from nature and local folklore, the paintings becoming larger and more colourful.

Gallery: