Original Chinese Brush Paintings on rice paper by Darlene Kaplan

For many years I painted realism in oils before making the change to oriental brush painting. Studying martial arts for years inspired me
to try this medium, which I fell in love with right away. The calming effect of grinding the ink before painting, the energy that is put into
throwing ink on paper is just the greatest of pleasures that only this style of art allows me to feel.

I grew up in the country in Tennessee where all of my spare time was spent walking in the woods searching out bugs, plants and
anything else that was alive. Those childhood days spent with nature is brought alive every time I put a brush stroke down on paper. All
of my paintings are derived from nature.

The paintings are from the very simple, elegant brush stroke of the bamboo orchid to the complicated soothing landscapes that your eyes
can take a journey up into the mountains and off into the mist before returning home.

Subtlety of a good painting lies in its being alike and yet unlike the subject where the absence of content can itself create rhythm and
variety.

I believe that an artist is a person who can see something within the mind that can be brought into reality where it can be seen, felt,
touched, heard, and even sometimes smelled.