Asian Art - Naples Daily News

M
Arts & Entertainment
Asian Art
Chinese watercolors, a proven medium for Islander
Edythe Newbourne, in her East Meets West studio located on Collier Boulevard, is surrounded by the tools of her trade.
By Lance Shearer
T
here are no do-overs in
Chinese brush painting.
“When that stroke goes down on
the paper, it’s there forever,” says
Edythe Newbourne, owner of East
Meets West studio on Marco Island.
“You don’t get a second chance — it
has to go down just as you want it.”
Unlike painting with oils or
tempera, where a canvas can be
touched up, reworked or completely
painted over, Newbourne must be
certain of her stroke and visualizes the
final result before ever putting brush
to paper.“In my mind’s eye,” she says,
“ I know what that painting will look
like when it’s done.”
Newbourne has been practicing the
Chinese style for many years, having
traveled the world pursuing formal
training. She was educated at the
Pratt Institute, New York University,
the Traphagen School of Design,
Syracuse University and SUNY, and
finally obtained a graduate degree
from the Zhejiang Academy of Art in
Hangchow, China.
Before moving to Marco Island
permanently in 2000, Newbourne had
an extensive career painting, as well
as teaching her craft in the Detroit
area. Currently, her work is shown
in various galleries, including the Art
MARCO | 43
Edythe Newbourne personalizes a painting in
the Chinese manner with her own unique chop.
League, Marco Island Center for the
Arts. Newbourne’s own studio features
a selection of framed paintings
hanging on the walls, but she only
shows her work by appointment.
She also sells packs of original handpainted note cards.
In addition to creating her own
artwork, Newbourne teaches Oriental
painting at the Art League, where she
is education chairman and teaches
too; her next class will be in 2010. She
also conducts workshops at BIGarts on
Sanibel.
“I like to work with a small group,
no more than 10 or 12 students at the
most,” she says.“I demonstrate the
technique we’re working on, and then
work with each student individually.
It’s very hands-on.”
Oriental brush painting, she stresses,
is art of the mind.“I’m painting my
concept — it’s not a portrait. I may
have flowers in front of me when
I paint, but I’m not painting that
particular flower.”
Newbourne prefers to paint on rice
paper for its great ability to absorb
pigment, moreso than hard-finished
Western watercolor paper, and she
also paints on silk. Some recurring
motifs in her work include blossoms,
birds and bamboo — the classics of
Chinese art, along with non-traditional
MARCO | 44
landscapes and whimsical paintings of
fish, frogs and fruit.
Interpreting the same subject
matter in various media affords her a
comfort level with those concepts and
materials. This allows Newbourne to
work quickly, and, to an untrained eye,
effortlessly.
“I have painted bamboo and birds so
much, they just flow,” says Newbourne,
who can complete a watercolor of a
familiar theme in less than 30 minutes,
although a new concept can take a
week of contemplation and planning.
“It’s not that I don’t sketch, but by the
time I paint, it’s all in my mind.”
Newbourne’s process seems simple
to a casual observer. With a piece of
rice paper, she pauses just a moment
and picks up a brush from her vast
assortment. In minutes, bamboo
branches grow on the paper and a
brown-winged bird appears, perched
Rice paper, like what was used for this painting of peonies, can actually be rice, cotton or hemp-based.
on a slender stalk. With black
sumi ink, Newbourne adds detail
to the green leaves, as well as
giving the bird’s beak a bright
splash of yellow with another ink.
“I know sparrows don’t have
yellow beaks,” she laughs,“but
gray beaks are so dull.”
Back at her worktable, the new
painting is finished, Chinesestyle, by adding the artist’s “chop,”
or stamp, pressed onto the paper
with red ink. Newbourne has
something like a dozen chops
she uses and, in keeping with
tradition, the Chinese characters
spell out her name. In her case,
the words translate literally as a
baby, or “new born.”
Once she’s done pressing
the stamp to the paper, she
takes a pencil and signs her
name, lowercase, in English:
e t newbourne. After all, she
says,“I’m not Chinese — I’m
American.” M
Edythe Newbourne lays down the
first strokes of a painting she has
already finished in her mind’s eye.
MARCO | 45