Bamboo and Dragonfly

Bamboo and Dragonfly
Chinese sumi ink brush painting on rice paper, 15x19
purchase here

This is my first attempt at chinese brush painting with sumi ink on super thin rice paper.  One trick that is new is to layer newspaper under the rice paper as I work. This allows any bleed through to be absorbed into the newspaper, instead of spreading out on the rice paper.  The strokes get easier with practice - and I find that I want to try some new subjects.  Maybe the super cute goldfish, or even a dragon - which several of my children have wanted me to paint since the beginning of time!  It also has me wanting to pull out some of my pigmented inks - which I have never used, to render some of this in color.  This brush painting is similar to calligraphy in many ways - and I love calligraphy, those seldom use it.  It is amazing how exploring something new opens so many doors in the mind!  Painting number 918 in 918 days.