The China Peasant Painting Village is an art colony located in Jinshan county on the outskirts of Shanghai, about two hours drive from the city centre. Set in verdant environments and modelled on a typical farming community complete with streams and ponds, vegetable patches, orchards, and traditional farming equipment, its main purpose is to showcase peasant paintings by farmers living in the surrounding farmlands and beyond.  Between sowing and harvesting, farmers do have time on their hands. What better past-time for the artistically inclined than to pick up a brush and share the beauty of pastoral life with the urbanites outside. Scenes of daily life, fruit harvesting, festivals, farm animals and other rural subjects are depicted with simplicity of execution and vibrant colours in marked contrast to the ink and wash style of classical Chinese painting. The medium of choice is gouache (or poster colour) on paper though other media like oil and acrylic are gaining ground. ...