I have a whole bunch of project's in the works. Today I'll talk about just one.
Last year, while in Boston, I attended a few Sumi-e classes, just for fun.
This week, I felt the need to paint something, so I dug out my brushes and my ink stick, ground up some ink and tried to paint something, anything, if I could just remember how.
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| My ink stick and grinding stone :) |
I struggled, made a huge mess on my kitchen table, but eventually came up with this...
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| Bamboo Sumi-e painting |
It's supposed to be a Bamboo plant. Terrible, I know, but maybe with a bit of practice, I can actually make something lovely!
Sumi-e is the art of Chinese Brush painting which the Japanese added their own twist too. The artist grinds an inkstick into a grinding stone with some water to create ink which one would then use to paint. It's very minimalist, doesn't require much detail and can sometimes use colour, or maybe not.
One day, just maybe I could become as talented as this piece of work by Haji Noor Deen:
Haji Noor Deen is a Master Calligrapher and sometimes uses Sumi-e to portray his work in Islamic and Chinese calligraphy. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Canada and buying some of his beautiful work.
Yes his work is beautiful indeed! And yours is quite pretty too! Looks like fun, I'd like to paint on a canvas one day InshaAllah :)
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of using the barest of strokes to convey the very essence of something. It's something I'd like to aspire towards with my writing.
ReplyDeleteHope you post more of your sumi-e work :)
I have to say that it teaches you patience, A LOT of patience.
ReplyDeleteIf you lift your brush to quickly, you don't get the desired effect that you want.
I had to remind myself what my teacher taught me, to be patient, go slowly, relax, and think about the overall picture.
The grinding of the ink is quite therapeutic too!
I have an idea in my mind for some islamic art, so watch this space soon, inshAllah :)