01/18 En Gallery Exhibition Suemae Lin Willhite

For our first exhibition of 2019, we will feature the Chinese brush paintings of Santa Barbara-based artist Suemae Lin Willhite. Suemae was born into a family of artists and scholars in Taiwan, where she was surrounded by beautiful tropical birds and flowers, all inspirations for her later work as an artist.

Suemae immigrated to USA in 1975 and received a BA from a California State University for Business Administration with a minor in Marketing. She went on to work in marketing and publishing firms since from 1986 to 2001, when she felt a spirit calling her to reclaim her cultural identity and pursue her artistic creativity. She embarked on a career practicing and teaching traditional Chinese painting, sometimes adding her own contemporary touches to this ancient art form.

Since 2002, Suemae has taught over 2000 students at Santa Barbara City College, School of Extended Learning, Carpinteria Art Center, and many other workshops in California. She has also won several awards for her paintings of Chinese landscapes and her more intimate views of nature’s details, like flowers, fish, birds and butterflies.

For this exhibition we are presenting Suemae’s paintings of koi fish and bamboo – both inhabitants of Chinese and Japanese gardens and auspicious symbols in these cultures. She recently visited Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden and found more koi and bamboo for inspiration. Symbols of good fortune throughout East Asia, these carp were brought to China around the 5th century BC as food fish, and eventually became fixtures in Chinese and Japanese garden ponds, admired for their bright colors. Bamboo is a grass that is fast growing, strong and highly flexible in the strongest wind, qualities that have made it symbolic of integrity and flexibility of spirit.

This exhibition will be on view from January 10 through Friday, March 15. Suemae will also be demonstrating her painting technique and style at the Lunar New Year Festival on Sunday January 27 from 2pm to 4pm.