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.

Dragonflies and Bamboo

Dragonflies and Bamboo
Chinese brush painting on paper, 12x18

Today I am totally out of my box with Chinese brush painting and sumi ink!  Our guest instructor for the Tri-County Art League meeting was Valda Hsu, and she had a wonderful demo!  I have taken one other workshop in this technique - years ago, but she her method was more descriptive - and I was able to absorb so much more this time.  I came home with pages of strokes and flowers, bamboo, butterflies and dragonflies, fireworks and leaves.  Using single strokes to make each mark, the way one composes these marks - makes the painting.  This was very informative - and so fun to soak up another culture with this ancient painting style!  Painting number 914 in 914 days.