Saturday Art

It was really cold on Wednesday and I felt a little burned out on painting so I got the Chinese ink out. I had read - no, skimmed - a book on Sumi ink painting and when I sat there looking at the blank paper I remembered an exercise that I passed over. It was painting circles in one stroke. At the time it seemed too restrictive so I ignored it. Who wants to paint circles anyway? But it came to mind on Wednesday so I tried it out. This is one of the better ones:




... and this is a smaller one (on an old receipt with a tiny brush):



Anyone who likes the look of this should really try it out. It's really fun, cheap and easy. The supplies are at most art supply stores (ask for Chinese brushes, and ink stick and a grinding stone). Oh yeah, you get to make your own ink before you start and it smells really good. If you want a really enthusiastic opinion about this art form read this book and not only will you want to paint, you will have read a really good book. No joke!