By Renuka Dhakal
Kathmandu, Jan.9: A single brushstroke, Chan mind spiritual painting by Jerome Edou has been put in display at Siddartha Art Gallery, Babarmahal – revisited in Kathmandu, from December 12.
Artist Jerome Edou has displayed 51 monochrome ink paintings on the Chinese paper.
This art exhibition calms the mind of the visitors affected by COVID-19 trauma and gives the feeling of being in another spiritual realm.
Each of the paintings reflects the painter's spiritual experience. Artist Jerome, of course, must have made the paintings with a deep contemplation.
A Buddhist scholar, Jerome is a French national, who has been living in Nepal for more than three decades.
Jerome studied Buddhism intensively and has been a translator of Tibetan texts and a teacher for years. He has also been practicing monochrome ink painting for years. He teaches ink painting in Kathmandu and regularly organises painting and meditation trips in Nepal, Myanmar and China.
The Chan painting looks simple at first, but it manifests the painter’s imagination and spiritual state of mind.
The significance of Chan painting is it transcribes Chan mind into an art through the spiritual intuition of the painter. This meditative art records a gentle and mindful contemplation of nature.
Artist Jerome suggested the visible essence of the invisible entity without re-touching the brush though his paintings are exhibited in the gallery.
In most of his paintings displayed in the gallery, he has used plum trees, orchids, chrysanthemum and bamboo. And a few other paintings focus on the rural landscapes.
The use of plum trees, orchids, chrysanthemum and bamboo are the four gentlemen of Chan painting which is taught in the basic training of Chan painting. Natural flow is presented in Chan's paintings and we can observe this in his paintings without adding any artificial touch.
In one of the paintings ‘migrations’ displayed in the gallery, an observer can see two cranes standing on the beach looking at two opposite sites. In this painting, Jerome has also made a tree and some water weeds and in the distance background, he has carved some trees but they are not so clear.
A crane is a migratory bird and normally it comes back every year in the same place. So he is trying to depict the nature in its natural way and leads towards the metaphysical world through his paintings.
Chan painting evokes the emptiness of nature and voyages towards void. So, in Jerome’s painting, there is a natural flow left out for the observers to define the meaning according to their imaginations and perceptions, said Jerome. Asked what is panting for him, Jerome laughed and said “I am not a professional painter; I don’t do panting for living. My motif of painting is meditation into practice. For me, painting is the human expression of ultimate teaching of Buddhism.” The exhibition will last till January 10.