Sumi-e Class Susan Frame

 

I should have named this post "Long Time No See" since it's been a few weeks since I last posted. The last two weeks I spent a couple days with my daughter watching the two youngest grandsons because the babysitter was on vacation. But I did manage to take some classes like another Susan Frame sumi-e class. This class was all about spring flowers which is one of my favorite things in the world.

If you have been on Instagram, you will know where a majority of my time is being spent, quilting! I am in the middle of lots of quilt projects. I'm just about halfway through but it does take a lot of time even though I am using a rotary cutter to cut pieces out and my sewing machine to sew. It's not like Korean bojagi where everything - and I mean everything - is hand stitched. I have a gal who will do the long-arm quilting for me and she is booked until June which is fine with me and gives me time to get all the quilts done.

I haven't made a quilt in years and it feels good to be quilting again. It also feels good to visit my local quilt store, Bear Patch Quilting in White Bear Lake, MN. There is nothing like a good quilt store to sooth your soul. I love just looking around but that can get me into trouble too. I noticed that a lot of fabric was made in South Korea. How cool is that!! I also find that I am obsessed when quilting. It's all I think about and it's hard to get to sleep sometimes because I'm so excited. I also have Rocketman involved since I hate math and there is math in quilting.  He determines how much fabric I need. I don't know what I would do without his help.

I better run, I'm itching to start pinning the next quilt. It's all cut out and just waiting for me.

Busy Couple of Days

 

Yesterday I spent the day babysitting the two youngest grandboys. They live the opposite side of the Twin Cities from us so I like to get over there before rush hour which means I'm on the road by 6:30am. I'm not a fan of heavy traffic these days mainly because of all the texting while driving I've seen.

 

Ezra had a really cool game from Kiwi Crates and we played that for quite awhile while I also kept an eye of little Judah. Ezra loved this game and he was really good at it. Both boys were so good and momma came home a little early from work so I could miss the Friday night traffic. I would have stayed for dinner but I had an all day class the next day and I wanted to get prepared for it and a little rested up. 

 The all day class was another sumi-e class with Susan Frame at the White Bear Center for the Art. The subject for the class was the iris. There are several ways to paint one and we went over two. These are the best of my paintings.

I had not practiced my sumi-e since the last class last fall. I always want to make time at least a couple times a week to paint but it never seems to happen. I am also taking an on-line year long class with Wyanne Thompson and I have been doing some watercolor paintings for that but still not enough. But my goal is still to make time for both. I love and enjoy it so much but it seems that cooking, wash and ironing, and other crafts get in the way. So I'll just keep on keeping on as long as it works for me.

Sumi-e Class with Master Yuming Zhu - Landscapes and Horses

The second day of class with Yuming Zhu began with landscapes. It is probably the most intimating subject for me because of all the elements you can paint. Mountains, trees, waterfalls just to name a few. Yuming supplied a bunch of landscape photos to use. For black ink, he used an inkstick and inkstone. You add a little water to the inkstone which has a well and you grind the inkstick around and around slowly in a circle until you have a little pool of ink. I had never done this before but I fell in love with the process and the feeling of making my own ink.  He told us that an inkstick should last 20 years and if we used ours all up, he would personally give us a new one, free of charge.

 

                                                 The landscape painting begun.

               After the demo, we returned to our spots and began our own landscape paintings.

Then it was time for the horse demo. He used a very large sheet of sumi-e paper and started by sketching the horse with charcoal.

Then he took his brush and started to paint. 

     Seriously, I could watch him paint all day long and I think my fellow classmates would agree.

                                      He signed the painting and then took out his chop to stamp the painting.

                                                                        Finished!

                                      Yuming Zhu explaining the power of sumi-e.

Now to my paintings. One of the hardest things for me is to know when to stop. Sumi-e is about leaving white space. This space is very important and it takes practice to learn when to stop.

And now my horse. I knew that I do not like to ride horses and I also discovered that I do not like to paint them. I had a photo to use as a reference and I struggled badly. Yuming came over and looked at my horse, turning his head side to side. He took awhile before he finally commented. He told me that I had painted an abstract horse like Picasso would have done and that some people would really like my interpretation. I think he was just being very kind. So take a good look at my first and last sumi-e horse. Oh and for the record, I was not trying to paint an abstract horse.

The class was two days lasting six hours each day. I must say I loved every minute of it. Yuming lives in the greater Seattle area and teaches there. He also travels across the country teaching. If you have the opportunity to take one of his classes, I highly recommend it. There were 14 of us in class and he continually walked around giving each of us individual help. I learned so much.

Here is a video of him in action:

Sumi-e Class with Master Yuming Zhu - Koi FIsh and Lotus Pod Cups

I have spent the past two days in all day classes with Yuming Zhu, a Master of sumi-e (Japanese brush painting). The class was hosted by the White Bear Center for the Arts. He is from the Pacific Northwest and was surprised that class wasn't cancelled because of all the snow we have which is all of couple of inches on the ground. He also was pretty surprised at how cold it was, the high today being 16 degree F. But we have been unusually cold even for Minnesota.

He began class with a demo of koi fish. It was amazing to watch him work. I could watch him all day long.

                                                                 Doing things like this.

                                                           I love koi!

 We went back to our seats and did some painting. Then we moved onto lotus flowers, lotus pod cups and lily pads.

                                                         I love the gold fleck paper.

                       The lotus pods are what happens when the flower petals die and fall off.

                                                      Lots of painting going on.

                         Now for my paintings. I learned so much but I have a long way to go.

To be honest, I have not practiced my sumi-e since my last class with Susan Frame months ago. I know it is something I want to do every day. When I was learning maedeup (Korean knotting) while living in Korea, I practiced 6-10 hours every day, seven days a week. 

 

I've always been afraid to paint which comes from deep within myself. I don't know where that fear comes from because I have worked in just about every medium in the art world fearlessly. I've always yearned to paint but fear always held me back. I found my muse in Korea and saw the joy in creating every day from my Korean teachers and fellow Korean classmates.  Korea taught that whatever you want to do , you can. That's not to say that the fear is not still there, I've learned I can ignore it for the most part. I started my journey into painting upon our return in 2012 with sumi-e classes adding watercolors in 2013. I'm so glad I took the plunge.

Sumi-e Class

Today I had another sumi-e class with Susan Frame at the White Bear Center for the Arts. I wasn't sure I would even be able to attend. I had been so very ill the past two weeks with the worse case of crud I have ever had. I became ill on October 6th following a routine doctor's appointment and flu shot. I sat in the waiting room around 45 minutes with a roomful of sick people waiting to be seen.

I came home after my appointment and almost immediately starting feeling ill. It started like a case of the flu with a fever of 100 degrees and I spent the next week in bed. I had no energy and Rocketman had to take care of himself. I barely ate and when I tried to force the fluids, they would quickly evacuate. I was too sick to wait in the doctor's office again and decided it I was still that ill, I would definitely go in and get checked out.

As it happens, I started to feel better last Sunday afternoon and have steadily been feeling better. Now I'm just left with a nasty cough and fatigue. But I felt well enough to go to my class today and I'm so glad I did. It was all about pumpkins, Fall leaves and birds. Susan did a lot of demonstrations and I could watch her do her magic all day.  These are my attempts at pumpkins.

I haven't made time to practice between my classes and that's something I want to do. I love sumi-e and it takes time and practice to learn how to control the water in the brush.

Leaves, they are also tough to paint. I can home exhausted from a day out but so happy for all that I learned. I'm planning to continue to take it easy until I'm finely rid of this nasty bug. Luckily, Rocketman has caught it.

Sumi-e Class with Susan Frame - Peonies and Cliffs

 

Last Friday I took another sumi-e class with Susan Frame at the White Bear Center for the Arts. The focus for this class was peonies and cliffs. Peonies are one of my favorite flowers and it just so happens to be peony peak time here in Minnesota. I didn't venture into color ink but stayed with black to work on my strokes as you can see from my paintings.

 

 I also did a couple of cliff paintings. I don't know why landscapes intimidate me so much but they do.

I really have enjoyed all the painting classes I've taken and will definitely continue. It makes me less homesick for Korea where I was taking some kind of Korean craft class every single day.

 

I'm also learning to listen to my body and to not overdue especially when it's hot out. Yesterday, I wasn't planning on mowing the lawn as Rocketman has been in town to do that so I went on my 3 1/2 hour walk which I do every morning.  When I returned home, I heard on the news that we would have rain starting in the afternoon. Rocketman was going to mow that night so I decided to mow and so I began around noon. It was in the mid 80's and humid.

 

Our mower has also been acting up with thick black smoke that spouts out of it as you mow and the blade decides at will to disengage. It's extremely frustrating but we only have one mower so we make due. I had finished the front and was working on the back when I started to feel lightheaded and I was also sweating profusely. I came in and drank a bunch of water and rested for about a half hour and went out again.

 

I mowed for another 20 minutes or so and it happened again only I felt a whole lot worse. I came in and drank lots of water and rested again. I ended up taking three breaks to finish the lawn. I came in when I finished and felt horrible and knew I had heat exhaustion. So I took it easy the rest of the afternoon including dinner which was a frozen pizza which Rocketman did not mind at all.

 

I was feeling so poorly that I went up to bed early and slept nearly 12 hours. This morning I was still feeling pretty tired but I did do my daily walk anyway but that wore me out for the rest of the day. So I know now for the hundredth time that I can't do my walk and mow the lawn during these hot summer days. I need to remember this next time and you can be sure there will be a next time. Will I ever learn?

 

Sumi-e Class with Susan Frame

 I had another sumi-e class with Susan Frame a few weeks ago and loved every minute of it. This time it was all about flowers which is one of my favorite things.

                                          These are tulips just in case you were wondering:)

This is an iris. I really, really need to practice more. She offers classes in her studio too but I haven't looked into them yet. She teaches about twice a year at the White Bear Center for the Arts which is just a five minute drive from my house.

Rocketman and I even went out on a date, something we haven't done in a long  time. I had seen Jim Gaffigan on Comedy Center last year and was blown away by his talent. He is also one of Rocketman's favorite comedians. I went online and found that he would be in Minneapolis in a few months so I ordered tickets.

He was worth every penny. We both have not laughed so hard and so much in a long time. If you get a chance to catch him on Comedy Central or in person, don't pass it up. Here's a video clip of Jim: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jxpd_jim-gaffigan-i-m-a-vegetarian_fun.