Sumi-e and Zen: Ink and Breath

by
Mary Gunderson,
Ming Chiao Chapter

SimOna Nemcova weaves her Sumi-e practice with devotion to Zen meditation. From
Spring 2023 to Winter 2024, SimOna celebrated both practices in a set of four
workshops to honor Moto Oi and his founding of Sumi-e Society of America (SSA) in
1963. The anniversary coincided with her 20th year as a member of SSA and of
Minnesota chapter affiliate Ming Chiao. SimOna describes herself as a “lone ranger who
enjoys painting with other artists.” She taught both disciplines at each workshop
sessions at SenZen, her renovated farmhouse in Lukov, a village about an hour north of
Prague in the Czech Republic.

What brought you to Sumi-e?
I wanted to paint poppy seed pods on silk. When I wasn’t satisfied with my results I found Sumi-e Artist Elizabeth Baker teaching at the Edina Art Center near my home just outside Minneapolis. She did one stroke. I said, ‘This is it. I feel I am home.’

What was it about Sumi-e?
Sumi-e gave me a method to capture a moment. Once a stroke is made, you can’t redo it, it can’t be ‘fixed.’ It doesn’t have to ‘mean’ anything beyond being present.

Tell me more about your learning process.
My second teacher was Minneapolis Sumi-e Artist Susan Frame at the Edina Art Center. In addition to her classes, a group of Ming Chiao members painted together informally every Tuesday for an open studio. We taught each other: thinking, probing, critiquing, discussing brushes, paper and supplies. I want my workshops in SenZen to be as much
as possible like that studio setting: sharing ideas, inspiring one another, creating. That’s Sumi-e for me.

What is the value of belonging to SSA and Ming Chiao?
I find being a member of both fits together. I’ve attended every local and annual meeting workshop I could and learned something every time. I’ve entered every SSA National Exhibition and my paintings have been being selected all but two years; when selected many of my paintings have won SSA awards, including 2023 “Best of Show.”

And Zen?
I’d been doing Sumi-e for several years when my life, profession (medical doctor, surgeon, and physician research in sonography), location and family changed dramatically after a family tragedy.

In the aftermath, I found Zen meditation. What they were talking about, what I was doing  when practicing meditation, I started to see in my paintings. Sumi-e- and Zen practice  taught me to survive, live moment-by-moment, day-by-day. Practice showed me what to  paint and what to express in paintings. I’ve found many ways to continue practicing both  to give others space for creative expression. 

Who are your students?
I have people who have never painted, a mom with a daughter who loves painting, a  young woman born in the United States, now in Prague preparing herself for art school.  Some are my friends who want to get in touch with the brush. Each workshop has four  or five students. The goal is not to paint. The goal is to express their spontaneity. I ask them to not be  afraid but to paint, do it, at this moment.

Tell me about the workshop content.
In the morning we start with meditation. After, I introduce the Four Gentlemen and the  Four Treasures. We share a relaxed, simple but festive lunch. Participants and I paint  according to the day’s theme in the afternoon. Fresh flowers represent nature and the  theme of that day’s work. 

Spring: celebration of flowers—plum and cherry painting and Sumi-e brushes.
Summer: celebration of the orchid—wild orchid painting and Sumi-e stone.
Autumn: celebration of the chrysanthemum—the colors of fall and Sumi-e paper
Winter: celebration of bamboo—resist painting of bamboo in snow and shades of  Sumi-e ink.

For a celebration purpose I painted a mural on four pieces of cotton fabric, one to  represent each season. I hang them outside on my house. I’m inspired by the Chōjū- giga, a famous set of picture scrolls, or emakimono, belonging to Kōzan-ji temple in  Kyoto, Japan. Those famous pictures show frolicking animals in light-hearted scenes.  I want my workshops to be as much as possible like the open studio I loved in  Minneapolis with us sharing ideas, inspiring one another, creating. That’s Sumi-e for me.

Describe the workshop set-up.
The space resembles a Japanese room with gongs, scrolls and pottery. The look of the  room and the painting space is as important as with the tea ceremony, but not that strict,  a certain neatness to it all. My technology is to avoid technology. We sit on the floor on  cushions. I always have fresh flowers to the season and many books to show variable  styles for painting the subject.

What resources do you recommend to students?
Siegfried Wachman’s book Japonisme shows the Japanese influence on Impressionism from the beginning of the Twentieth Century. At my beginning, it was a major resource for me as I love the Impressionists. At one workshop, participants painted from Susan Frame’s book, A Beginner’s Art Guide: Sumi-e. I choose certain books according to the day’s theme.

Sumi-e continues to guide you.
The way of simplicity is practicing both Zen meditation and Sumi-e is. For meditation your breath is the tool, for painting the tool is your creativity. They are the bridge to find the basic essence of anything. My process has come about piece-by-piece. It’s important to learn and accept things as they are and as they come. In both Sumi-e and meditation, I see, sit, ask what I can add, ‘Oh, that!

To contact SimOna:
www.sumi-e.cz
simona@simonavins.cz