Category: Sumi-e & Ink Painting

Retrospective Introspection

Admittedly I have been feeling rather sorry for myself.  I get like this when I have no time to sit down and think about life and what I want to do with it.  Thursday I walked into my office at work and was just unable to make choices as to what to pursue next.  Oh, there were a lot of things to be done, but it seemed just so overwhelming and the mere act of choosing what to do was impossible.   The best thing to do in these circumstances – for me, at least – is to sit down with paper and pen and begin to write.  Five pages later, the world was in order once more.

Writing is therapeutic.  It’s like the pensieve of the Harry Potter stories.  I pull out thoughts and ideas and frustrations, and when they are all placed onto paper, there is structure found amidst the chaos.

Painting is much the same process as writing; however, I often feel pulled into different directions.  I never focus on one style.  The consistent factor is my use of water-soluble media and paper, but other than that, I don’t have a particular style.  Consequently, I am not as accomplished as I would like to be in watercolor.  I like many of my ink paintings and the simpler watercolors that are based on sumi-e.  Traditional watercolors are often disastrous failures.  Acrylic paints are not my favorite medium, but there are times when I have used them to create more graphic pictures.

Today, I went through my hard drive to look at some of the paintings I have scanned or photographed over the past year or two, and pulled out some which appealed to me for whatever reason – sort of a retrospective of the work of the last few years.  Here they are, not in any particular order, but just for me and anyone who wants to look at them to see and consider.

Sumi-e Palm Trees, ii

I had hoped to create a video over this past weekend about painting a palm tree, as requested a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately, the flu and other life circumstance (like work!) have gotten in the way.  Just recently I came across the quote by Basho about the pine tree and the bamboo, and it made a lot of sense.  After all, in sumi-e, the point is to catch the spirit of something rather than render it as realistic as possible.  Observing palm trees is possible here in California – we have them in our yard, over the fence, down the street.  They are part of much of our landscaping.  However, for many of us, palm trees are rare and exotic creatures.

Thinking about this, I recalled the American artist Winslow Homer.  His paintings – oil and watercolor – of the Caribbean islands and its inhabitants – came to mind.  Palm trees!  His paintings show them in high wind, in a gentle breeze.  Tall ones, short ones.  If you click on the image below, you will be able to see these in greater detail.

If you really want to learn about palm trees, you can experience them, although perhaps not first hand. Looking at another artist’s work is a good way to learn, and it is traditional in many cultures to copy from the master. It is also possible to find movies with palm trees in them – maybe hit YouTube – as well as to do web searches for photos. For my own painting, I will use the palm trees in my neighborhood, and will provide some pictures as this mini series evolves.

Pine Tree, i

Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one – when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if your feeling is not natural – if the object and yourself are separate – then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit.

Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. Your feeling is not natural when the object and yourself are separate. You must become one with the object in order for your poetry to be true.

No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.

–Matsuo Basho

Sumi-e Palm Tree, i

The other day I received a request to demonstrate painting a palm tree in sumi-e.  As I have painted these in watercolor, but not in sumi, I thought I would do a bit of research.  To do this, I just googled “palm tree” and clicked on “images.”  You can also go to places like WebShots, Flickr, and so on, and do a search for palm trees.  The reason I did this search is to look at the different types of palm trees, as well as consider which one might make the most interesting composition.  Shape of the trunk, direction of the leaves, texture and structure all play important parts in a photograph and a painting.  As sumi-e is shades of black-grey-white, I find these elements are especially important focal points.

The above photo is an amalgamation of numerous public domain images of palm trees, as well as one I took when I was in the British Virgin Islands several years ago.  Some are very familiar to us here in SoCal, especially the top center one – these are the palms that are found lining the streets of Santa Monica.

I also have a couple of ACEOs I did of two different palm trees.  The one on the left is a sago palm (I think).  We have three of these in our back yard.  The one to the right is a banana palm.  Sagos are short, squat, and slow-growing.  Their fronds are stiff and pointy.  The banana palm is a much more “loose” palm – if such can be said – as its leaves fly around and are not serrated as most palm leaves.

Whenever I think about a painting, whether in watercolor or sumi, there are elements to consider.    For me, the shape of the object on the page is perhaps the most important.

With sumi-e and other ink-painting traditions, the essence or spirit of the subject matter is important. I don’t think this is less important in modern Western painting, but scientifically exact and accurate rendition of an object is less important in the East.

This means that a sumi painting of a palm tree must catch the qualities of a palm tree.  For me, the sound of a palm tree in a brisk wind is its most outstanding abstract feature.  Fronds dancing in the wind would be an element to catch. Other elements which say “palm” to me are the trunks. Many have smooth trunks, such as can be seen in the pictures above, but the sago palm, the king palm and many other have rough trunks. Fronds are dropped from the tree and the trunk develops a very ragged quality. Do I want to re-create that texture?

As I have been thinking about doing another video about painting, this request has come at a perfect time.