I Love Bamboos

Chinese brush painting, known in Japan as Sumi-e, was the first art form I learned.  I always appreciated the elegance and simplicity of this art.  The motto "Less is More" appeals to me tremendously.  It has helped me to paint fast and achieve a great deal of detail work, quickly and effortlessly by using different techniques I learned.  And of course, the design and composition is never boring, even as "Subject Matter" referring to painting something as portrait, centering it in the middle of the surface, whatever it may be.

I learned this art under a wonderful teacher, Master Lim Opas, in Thailand.  I remember the first day I was at his studio, he asked me to paint a bamboo leaf.  He loaded his brush with ink and handed it to me, pointing at a piece of rice paper laying on the table.  I must have looked puzzled thinking how on earth am I supposed to paint that leaf, holding the brush the way he held it in his hand, awkward indeed.  But I took it anyways and painted a bamboo leaf for him.  He then asked me how long had I been painting?

He knew it was my first day and I knew then that I was invited to take lessons from him.

Master Lim once told me that I have a bamboo personality, tough but flexible!  How he figured it out, I have no idea but he was right.  Love you Master Lim, miss you a lot!

These bamboos are painted in ink on rice paper watercolor on watercolor paper, acrylics and oil on canvas.