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Artist Perry Dino captures Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella movement’

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Photos of Hong Kong’s “umbrella movement” have ricocheted around the world. But artist Perry Dino has been capturing the drama in a more old-fashioned way, with oil color and brush.

Beginning with an Aug. 31 rally, Dino has created eight canvases capturing the democracy movement as it gathered steam in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

It’s not his first attempt at painting Hong Kong’s protest scene. In 2012, he was inspired by rallies against a proposed “patriotic education” curriculum, and he created multiple canvases documenting those demonstrations. The scale of those protests eventually forced the authorities to retreat from their plans to require the classes.

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Dino also has painted the territory’s annual marches commemorating the 1989 crackdown on protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

“These events will go down in Hong Kong history, and I wanted to capture them in this way,” Dino said recently as he put the finishing touches on a canvas in the Admiralty district.

Just minutes earlier, a group of young art school graduates had surprised the crowd by rolling a giant sculpture into the protest zone. Made of wooden blocks shaped into a human form, the figure was holding a large yellow umbrella — the symbol of the protest movement, used by participants to shield themselves from rain, sun and tear gas.

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Dino pointed to the lower right corner of his painting, where he had already daubed in a likeness of the sculpture.

“I could photograph the scene and go home and paint it,” said Dino, “but that would be too static.”

Have a look above at some of Dino’s canvases from recent weeks.

For news from China, follow @JulieMakLAT on Twitter

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