Nick Dudka | The Buddhist Art of THANGKA

Nickolai N. Dudka was born on the 1-st of May, 1962 in Dessau, Germany. He received a European art education at college in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia, and at the Academy of Art in Kiev, Ukraine. His first exposure to the complex science of Buddhist religioun, philosophy and art occurred in 1986. buryatian Lama Dharmadoddi and abbot Jimba-Jamso were his first spiritual teachers. Later, Nicolai met his main spiritual master Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. At the beginning of the 1990's he began an intensive study of thangka painting with visits to Mongolia, Nepal and India. Following this was a year-long period of work and education at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) in Dharamsala, India under the guidance of Ven. Sangei Yeshe, the personal artist of HH the Dalai Lama. At present, Nicolai works as a teacher of drawing and painting of thangkas in the State Academy of Art in Ulan-Ude and continues to work in his studio. Many of his thangkas are in Buddhist Temples in Buryatia and in museums and private collections of many countries around the world.

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The thangka, or scroll painting, is a special art of Tibetan Buddhism. In ancient India, for instance, there was the Pata, Buddhist portraiture, which was executed on the kasaya (the monk's outer garment) cloth, and the Hans sometimes used silk fabric as material for paintings.

The material used for thangkas is linen cloth or cotton fabric; silk cloth is reserved for important subjects. Before painting begins, the material is stitched along the edges with flax thread and stretched on a specially made wooden frame (T. Tang-shin). Then a paste made of animal glue mixed with talcum powder is spread over its surface to block up the holes in it. When the paste is scraped off and the cloth gets thoroughly dried, the material is ready for painting. To begin, the artist works out the sketches of the images with charcoal sticks. The drawing usually begins with the figure in the centre and then goes to the surrounding deities or landscape. Colouring comes last. The pigments used come from non-transparent minerals and plants such as malachite and cinnabar. They are mixed with animal glue and ox bile to make the lustre stay. When the painting is done, it is mounted on a brocaded silk border. Important thangkas are embroidered on transferred outlines; some of them use a great variety of stitch patterns such as flat and piled stitches to give them a three-dimensional effect.

The pictorial subjects of thangkas include portraits of Buddhas, stories from the lives of saints and great masters. Thangkas are usually rectangular in shape, and the square ones are reserved for mandalas. Thangka paintings vary in size, ranging from a little over a few square centimeters to several square meters. A large thangka often takes large team of artists months, even years, to make.

News:

25.12.2009
My dear friends and guests!
Marry Christmas and Happy New year!
I wish you all the best and fulfilling all your dreams!
As a Christmas present I've published table size calendar for 2010 with new thangkas. To look at it and order you can in the shop.

01.07.2009
Look at the web shop to see a few just printed posters and a set of cards «Visual images of DZOGCHEN».

27.04.2009
Visit my gallery to see new thangkas I managed to put there. Hope you will like them!

22.02.2009
Losar Tashi deleg!!!
My best greetings for Tibetan New Year! To all my visitors I wish long life, happiness and good fortune!!! Let this Yellow Cow year brings more smiles to all of us! Some more greetings cards you can find in the web shop.

25.12.2008
Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
To all my customers I wish long life, prosperity and happiness all the year long! To see my new thangkas just click here.

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