Ebruli: Traditional Turkish Painting

At a museum house in the city of Beypazarı, a skilled Turkish artist performs the traditional art of water painting. The colors of paint you see in the jars are actually naturally found pigments in the earth, and they are a powder that is gently mixed and placed into the bucket of water you see. With a few dips of the needle back and forth from the jar to the bucket, the density of the paint allows it to raise to the surface despite being submerged in the water.

When the artist completes the dipping, she takes the needle to deform the circles produced. The deformation of the circles allows the creation of spirals and minute twirls that emerge as the appearance of flowers and other kinds of images.

After the final layout is completed, the artist grabs a special paper and places it directly on top of the water, allowing the paints to soak through the paper. The paper absorbs the paint, and she slips the paper out of the bucket in a swift, singular motion facing towards her. The paper is then set to dry.

The images on the paper is a traditional artwork known as "Ebruli."

When completed, the artist adds natural fertilizers (i.e. poop) to distill the paints and start the process again with a new image, new paints.

Here is the video of Ebruli painting that I uploaded

Natural pigment paints found from earth

Turkish artist painting traditional prints on water

This was for his girlfriend. Notice the paints being dispersed in the water as if they were like bubbles. This was actually performed by tapping the paint across the surface and allowing it to expand in the water.

The finished result, before drying

The ripple-like stems of color seen here are a result of different types of combs brushed through the water. 

Take a tour of the house in which this painting occurred!