Mineral Paintings of the Buddha

Painting the Buddha

Chang imports most of her ground up mineral "paints" from Japan, where this style is popular. But, "There are quite a few artists using these skills of mineral painting to paint landscapes, flowers and animals. But only very few use this material to do paintings of Buddha." Chang says she gives herself over to her paintings, taking months on end to complete each one. She's also very particular about the colors--she once waited a year for a particular ground-up green diamond to give her image just the right sparkly, verdant hue. In this painted Buddha, the gold robe is indeed painted in gold shavings, while the white is tiny flicks of diamond.

Photos and Text by Mark Anderson
Artist Interview Translated by Peter Huang