Week #41, Ink & Brush: Strawberries

Dusti Bongé, Penworthy - Easy Glide Quality Writing Tablet - p.21, 1984, ink & wash on paper, 9” x 6”.

As I mentioned last week, the ink and brush painting technique can be used to portray any subject matter. this sketch of strawberries is a perfect case in point. Although Dusti Bongé mostly used the method to paint bamboo and calligraphic symbols, occasionally she also used it to draw everyday things with no particular connection to far eastern culture.

Typically, we do not associate strawberries with Chinese or Japanese art. It might have something to do with the fact that the majority of strawberry species come from the Americas (there are a few native types in Europe). Thus, it is likely that eastern cultures were not terribly familiar with them.

Strawberries have, however, enjoyed a rather long history as a symbolic fruit in western art dating back at least as far as classical times and especially during the middle ages. In medieval times they were often used in paintings of the Virgin Mary, of various saints and of religious scenes. In these depictions, supposedly, the strawberry’s little tripartite leaves that crown it symbolized the Trinity, and its red fruits were drops of Christ’s blood. Then, of course there was also the flip side of this association with religious virtuosity in the work of the most subversive surrealist of all times, Hieronymus Bosch. He thought of the berry as an erotic, sensuous symbol as evidenced in his Garden of Earthly Delights.

It is doubtful the little berry had either strong association for Dusti. More likely it was simply strawberry season and she had just gotten some nice ripe ones. And so she chose to depict a very western fruit in a decidedly eastern painterly style. The pattern of unevenly shaped fruit in rows suggest that she was primarily trying to capture their essential form in as few brisk brush strokes of ink as possible.