First Attempts at Sumie

Below are my first attempts at Sumie painting. I attended a workshop conducted by Gerard Menzel on Sunday, the 14th of February. I have messed about with brush and ink in the past so I appreciated the opportunity to receive some formal instruction in the Sumie style of ink painting.

My first marks

 

Then on to the first of the four treasures of Sumie – bamboo. Previously, I used western style brushes so the eastern ink brushes were a revelation – so flexible and expressive. Gerard said it can take two years of practice to paint a bamboo leaf with one stroke of the brush.

 

The next treasure was the orchid. The traditional Sumie way is to hold an image of the subject in one’s head and convey the image onto the paper. I found this a challenge as I tend to work from direct observation of the subject. On the day, we were re-interpreting paintings which Gerard made to demonstrate the techniques of creating the subject. Luckily, I had studied and drawn orchids in the past and felt more comfortable with making these paintings.

Previous paintings were done on butchers paper whilst rice paper was used for these final two paintings.

Making paintings of two treasures was enough for one day. The chrysanthemum and plum blossom await another day.