About the Artist
Darlene Kaplan
4609 Franconia Road
Alexandria, VA 22310
703-922-4175
For many years I painted realism in oils before making the change to oriental brush painting. Studying martial arts/Tai Chi’ 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 and 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.
Kaplan's original oriental brush paintings are for sale to private, business, and or corporate art collectors world wide. View her art in Soft Brush Studio, Alexandria, VA. You will see her art in many local locations as well. She accepts all major credit cards thru paypal.
Kaplan is President of the National Chapter of the Sumi-e Society.