“Ebru Art” - Painting on Water












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            * “Ebru Art” - Painting on Water
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            As part of the Europe Meets School program, Kübra Asik, a Turkish born artist and Erasmus 

            Faculty of Arts of Charles University in summer semester 2011/12, visited the Olešská Basi
            Prague to demonstrate her unique art of painting on water to a very captive young Czech au
            The art, called “ebru” in Turkish, may sound straight forward. After all, what more do you

            than paint and water? But following an extensive description of the process Kübra went thr
            colours, the paintbrushes and the time it takes to find all the necessary ingredients, it 
            centuries old (it’s not possible to name an exact date) traditional art had more to it tha

            eye.
            Kübra began by explaining how she made the water, which was put into a small shallow tank.

            contains pieces of shell that Kübra has to prepare 3 days in advance and continue stirring
            over this time period. The shell makes the water denser so that the paint can be held toge
            surface.  The colours of the paint are made from soil and ox bile because this makes the c

            for longer. She doesn’t use just any soil however, it is from her home city of Istanbul. T
            are made from the stem of roses and the brush hairs are made from horsehair. The whole pro
            natural.

            To demonstrate the art, Kübra painted a flower. Kübra started by shaking a large paintbrus
            over the whole tank of water in order to make the background colour. She then chose a smal
            and carefully touched the surface with a green paint to make a circle of green. She then u

            paintbrush to slowly drag the circle and to make a stem. After she chose a bright colour t
            circle at the top of her stem. Finally she dragged a clean paintbrush diagonally inwards o
            circle, this made the petals of the flower. She then placed a clean sheet of paper on to t

            gently pressed down on it, then slowly peeled off the paper and presented her artwork. The
            were very impressed and Kübra was lavished with “oohs” and “ahs”.
            Kübra explained that the most classical version of the art is to paint flowers, as it is f

            Islamic law to draw faces. The art is a religious practice and so it teaches the art of pa
            calm, balanced mindfulness. The idea is that you are connecting with the water and it is d
            that you have to be very gentle and careful when you paint onto the water, in order not to

            creation!
            A great patience isn’t only needed in the process of actually painting, but Kübra also und
            level of training in order to learn this art. She’s currently in her 8th year of learning 

            that her teacher in the beginning made her wait 6 whole months before even letting her pai
            Luckily for the young Czech children, Kübra did not make them wait so long. All of the chi
            the chance to try painting on water with Kübra’s guidance. They each took it in turns to d

            water and then triumphantly present their creation to the rest of the class.