Fancy paint set for The Girl

The Girl is really into drawing and painting -- apparently (according to the daycare ladies), more so than most kids her age.

My grandma does sumi-e painting (see photo at left; not one of hers, just something I found with Google image search). My understanding is that sumi-e is characterized by using single brush strokes, rather than many little ones -- for example, each bamboo leaf is a brush stroke, as is each segment of bamboo. Also, it tends to be monochromatic -- although some folks add one or two colors -- but usually not more than that.

Anyhow, very stylized, and very old. My grandma does the Japanese style -- not sure how the Chinese style differs.


So, while we were in Seattle during our Christmas vacation, we visited my grandma. At my request, she showed The Girl how to hold the brush, rub the ink stone on the plate to get ink, etc. The Girl was a little too young to do it properly (she's only four), but she seemed to like it.


And then -- unexpectedly -- my grandma made up a little ''care package'' for The Girl. Two brushes; an ink stone and inkwell; and the special ricepaper.

Neat-o! Partly because it's so specialized -- but also because it's from my grandma's (her great-grandmother's) stash. Once she gets old enough to use them properly (I guessing half a year to a year), she'll be using the gear that her great-grandma used.

Neat-o.


--GG