Grandmother's painting

My still-living maternal [step-]grandmother does a style of painting called sumi painting. She does it as a hobby, rather than a living -- although she does sell her paintings at art shows for a nice little sum.

Sumi painting is characterized by only using sweeping brush strokes, rather than dabbing and little scribbly strokes. For example, a length of bamboo would be painted by making a long wide line, while bobbing the brush closer to the paper as it travels to create the ''nodes'' of the bamboo; then the leaves would each be a single brush stroke as well.

Grandma would actually clarify that some of her work technically isn't sumi painting in the traditional sense, since it's supposed to be monochromatic, and she often mixes in some color as well. It sells better to the Westerners, she says. ;)

The painting I've shown here hangs in our dining room. Again -- although you probably can't tell from the photo -- the painting is composed of single brush strokes. So, the bird chest, the bird wing, the bird tail -- each one single stroke.

This grandma has had a pretty interesting life. She actually was born in California, because her dad was a go-getter who had some farmland (a winery? I taped an interview of her, but I haven't listened to the tape for a while) in California. So, she's been an American citizen since the get-go. Then they moved back to Japan. Then World War II happened, and I think she may have been urged to renounce her American citizenship. Because they were afraid of being bombed, they moved all their furniture and valuables to this one relative's house who lived away from the main bombing targets. And then that relative's house got bombed, too, and burned down -- so all she has of family heirlooms are a few dishes and a handful of photos.

She had a brother, too, who was killed in the war. In addition to being a swell guy, he also played guitar -- so if he had lived, I might've liked him. :)


In many ways, this grandma is an inspiration. In the basement of her and Grandpa's house, she has a room set up with all her painting gear, paper, and mat-cutting and framing tools. I hope to set up similar with my music stuff, as well as my woodworking stuff. It always intrigues me, to see people's layouts that support their hobbies: shelves and racks and cubbyholes, with everything they need within easy reach.

Someday...


--GG