paintings

here is the statement i wrote up for the art show i had in march at the bamboo grove salon:

i started painting last spring when i went back to boston, MA for spring break. i don't remember why, but i picked up my mom's brushes and started experimenting with them-- my mom is an artist through and through, starting with painting as a young child and currently with ceramic arts. i've always looked up to her aesthetic sense: at once subtle and razor sharp, always tactful, and heavily influenced by the rhythms of nature. there are many artists on her side of the family and sometimes i feel that when i started painting last year the dormant genotype was finally able to express its phenotype. i was drawn to the tools that she had: simple chinese brush painting with one color and a grinding stick that you made ink with by grinding for 10 minutes before painting.

i began experimenting and immediately became addicted. my mom gave me a brush, ink, and some paper to bring back to portland. i began painting anything that came to mind; abstract patterns, trees, faces, whatever. it became a nightly ritual that calmed my mind down from the marathon of medical memorization that is the second year of NCNM.

once i felt the limits of my imagination, i found myself craving actual techniques-- so i bought a basic book on sumi-e brush painting techniques. it laid out step by step instructions on how to approach the basic brushstrokes, framed by the "four gentlemen": four different plants that contain the basic brushstrokes that form the foundation of technique for chinese brush painting. i fell madly in love with the tradition of chinese brush painting and in particular, painting bamboo. last september i took my first chinese calligraphy class at NCNM with Dr. Zhou and subsequently fell madly in love with calligraphy as well.

i love the simplicity of bamboo painting and that it keeps me honest. in the short period i've experimented with bamboo i've found that if i get too attached to a certain image and try and paint a certain way, it almost always ends up contrived and unnatural, and that the paintings that seem successful to me are always done in a relaxed state of body and mind. i love painting in one color and one theme and exploring the never-ending diversity of texture and emotion within these limitations. finally, i love the improvisatory aspect to it; it feels very similar to jazz improvisation to me- in that there is a good balance of technique and free improvisation. i hope you will enjoy these paintings as i have and that maybe it will spark an interest in chinese brush painting for yourself as well!

many blessings,

eugene

for inquiry about commissions email sunjae (at) fermatawellness (dot) com or call 978.201.1140!