If you are interested to learn more about the method I teach and use in my art, then you can enrol in my “Sumi-e Painting of a Rooster: Method Overview” mini course, which is an overview/demonstration of the process. As I am creating my courses, the original intention is taking shape. The intention is helping people with modern/western upbringing to obtain the practical and mental abilities to be able to paint in oriental style and spirit. The Oriental art has not only different easthetics but also different premise and is based on totally different sensibilities which is rooted in the culture. I explain the differences in many of my blog posts. The method I teach breaks those barriers.
To learn in depth this mindful way of seeing and painting, I invite you to my school and start with the “Essentials for Learning Sumi-e Painting” and continue in the order presented.
The title of the school has changed to better represnt its teachings from “Zen of Creating with Mindful Presence” to “Zen of Calligraphy in Sumi-e Painting” as it is through the calligraphic strokes that we understand the spirit of the oriental painting. I explain in few of my posts . Why Use Calligraphic Strokes For Sumi-e Painting? , “How Does One Apply Calligraphy in Sumi-e Painting?” and few others.
Originally my intention was to teach the application of this mindful process not only to sumi-e painting but also to other forms of art creating (drawing, painting…). I invite you to visit the “Drawings” gallery of my website and see what I mean; bringing out the essence, rather than the detail, sharing the experience, rather than the description, using the white space, applying the living/breathing line…. the same spirit and principles as in sumi-e painting.
I still intend to teach this but I decided to make the name more specific to what I am teaching now. And there is still so much more cover:
– the use of the white space (yohaku)
– the use of colour
– the application of the stamp/seal to finish the artwor
– how to see with senses
and of course, work with various subject matters and calligraphic characters or just abstract shapes.
So the new name is of my school and the “Zen of Calligraphy in Sumi-e Painting”
Hope to see you in my school and learn to create mindfully….meditate with Oriental brush.