To celebrate the Chinese "Year of the Monkey,” Blue Lily Atelier gallery hosted the opening reception of East Meets West: The Traveling Chinese Brush featuring the exquisite works of Nora Sanders during First Friday’s Artscrawl last weekend. The gallery was packed with locals and art enthusiasts as Sanders led a demonstration painting of traditional Chinese flowers such as bamboo, orchid and chrysanthemum as well as an eclectic mix of East meets West. Blue Lily Atelier, a new boutique art and event space in Nobhill, is the creation of mother and daughter duo, Nadine Scala and Robin Scala, long-time Albuquerque residents and entrepreneurs.
The featured artist, Nora Sanders, is an international artist whose artwork has been exhibited and sold in China, England and the United States. Sanders was born on the Greek Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. She went to school in England where she lived most of her life. Sanders also lived in Hong Kong in the 1970’s where she first fell in love with Chinese Brush Painting (CBP), better known in the United States as Sumi-e. She studied CBP over many years and most of her early works are in this style. Sanders remembers that one of her teachers, Qu Lei Lei, insisted on the use of only black ink for several years before allowing his students to use color. The idea was to master the brush and the ink and to learn to create moods and perspective with different shades of black.
Sanders now lives in the New Mexico and continues to be inspired by the beauty of the mesas, high desert sunsets, the Rio Grande and the changing colors and seasons of the landscape. However, she uses her Greek roots, her British upbringing and experience of the Orient to guide her in her choice and rendering of a subject. Since coming to the United States in 2006, Sanders has transitioned to painting in a fusion of Eastern and Western styles. She uses a variety of mediums, mostly water based including watercolors, acrylics and also pastels and inks. Sanders does not adhere to a style as this would be too restrictive and limiting. Neither does she label her work as expressionist, modern, impressionist or realistic. “I hate being put in a box,” she says, “so why put my art in one.”
As a side note, Sumi-e art involves the same techniques as calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in very dark ink or watercolors derived from vegetables or minerals. It arrived in Japan via China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) via the sea trade exchange brought in by the Zen Buddhist monks. Over the centuries, the Sumi-e art of Japan developed its own unique characteristics but its roots in the use of the brush, ink and rice paper remain as those that originated in mainland China. It could be said that Sumi-e has retained a purer form of the Xi (Spirit of Zen) as the emphasis is still on the colors of black and white, positive and negative space, the yin and yang of art and everything else.
East Meets West: The Traveling Chinese Brush will hang through February 29th at Blue Lily Atelier gallery, 3209 Silver Avenue SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, (505) 263-6675, http://www.bluelilyatelier.com/. Gallery hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm.
