Hands on: Eleanor Winters guides her student to write calligraphy.

World-renowned calligrapher Eleanor Winters was more than happy to see young people’s enthusiasm for calligraphy during a recent class in Jakarta. She was thrilled.

American author Eleanor Winters has traveled Asia for more than 25 years to teach the skill of beautiful handwriting, or calligraphy. Indonesian calligraphy enthusiasts got a chance to learn from her in late October.

“This is my third visit. In the 1980s, I traveled Java and Sumatra. I also went to Bali for one year for a holiday. It [Bali] has changed completely,” Winters said, adding that it was her first time to teach in Jakarta.

During the five-day Copperplate Flourishing Workshop in Jakarta, she introduced her students to basic forms and patterns of copperplate calligraphy developed by English handwriting masters in the 18th century.

Using a pen holder, nib, ink and paper, they learned to create thin and thick strokes with different degrees of pressure.

Copperplate calligraphy is not thought to be as popular in Indonesia as it is in the US. Hence, Winters was surprised to see many people sign up for her workshop, most of them young people.

“I have been teaching for four weeks in Asia and have 17 classes. The students are mostly young. In the US, I have students of my age. Every year, I teach in England, and the students are really getting old. A lot of them are in their 80s, much older than I am,” said the 68-year-old.

Winters, who has been teaching calligraphy since 1975, said her students in Indonesia showed greater enthusiasm than those in the US. Besides, her Indonesian students joined her class to learn the art seriously instead of just having fun.

“Here, I see a very good future for calligraphy,” she said.

The spirit of young people to learn copperplate calligraphy boosts Winters’s confidence that the handwriting art will survive in a high-tech world where computer fonts can mimic finest scripts.

She likened calligraphy to the art of painting.  “You can print a picture, but that is not a painting,” she said.

For Winters, learning calligraphy is a never-ending journey. The more people learn about the styles, the more they will get involved in this art.  

“It [calligraphy] is such a beautiful art that goes in so many directions. There are many styles of calligraphy. There are also many different pens you can use. You can learn to work with color and you can learn to design,” she said.

There was no shortcut when it comes to calligraphy; it required a lot of practice, said Winters.

“Any kind of art demands a certain matter of time, concentration and patience. So, if people take a short class [of calligraphy] and they think they know it well, they really don’t. The people I consider the masters are doing it for many years,” she said.

Winters, who has published seven calligraphy books since 1984, said she really enjoyed her classes in Jakarta, although she felt that her students were nervous when they met her for the first time.

“On Wednesday, people said, ‘I couldn’t sleep last night. I am scared. Can we do this?’ I then told them that I am a very nice teacher. They should not be afraid of me,” she said, laughing.  

“I think by lunchtime, they were relaxed, and today [Sunday], they were crazy.”

Winters first studied calligraphy in her 20s through a vocational course by the Young Women’s Christian Association in New York. At that time, calligraphy was not popular yet, and she only had 12 classmates.

“I am always interested in art. I like to draw and look at letters. I always copied letters from art books. At some point, I found a right way to learn and do it with a special pen,” she said.  

After completing the course, Winters taught calligraphy for the first time in 1975 at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

In the same year, she also joined the non-profit educational organization Society of Scribes, founded by 12 calligraphers in 1974, to promote the study, teaching and practice of calligraphy. Winters said the art gained in popularity in the US by the 1980s. Today, people can find many calligraphy classes in that country.

“A lot of people do calligraphy as a hobby because it is very relaxing. Not everybody is interested in it for professional reasons,” she said.   

Calligrapher Chia Tjong, who arranged the workshop, said she had invited Winters to Jakarta to cater to people who wanted to learn calligraphy but could not find a formal course.

She started to learn calligraphy after finding it on a wedding invitation in Australia in 2013. In June 2016, she joined calligrapher Michael Sull’s workshop in the Philippines, and she plans to invite him to teach in Jakarta in April 2017.

Like Chia, calligrapher Veronica Halim studied calligraphy through online courses and overseas workshops.

Veronica, who was first introduced to calligraphy in Swinburne’s School of Design in Melbourne, Australia, in 2003, has made calligraphies for big brands like Prada, Gucci, BMW and Chanel.

“I also collaborated with some florists, writing love letters for flower orders. I also wrote down wedding vows to remind couples of the vows they said during the wedding ceremony. It’s a pretty fun experience!” she said.

Veronica, who regularly teaches calligraphy at workshops in Jakarta, Singapore and Japan, is now writing a calligraphy and lifestyle book slated to be published by Shufunotomo Publisher in Japan in spring 2017.

Indonesia also has a community with a passion for calligraphy, called Kaligrafina. Set up in August 2014, the community founders Prafitriani and Erwin Indrawan promote the group’s activities through the Instagram account @kaligrafina, which has gathered more than 40,000 followers. The community members hold a regular gathering named PenMeetUp in various places.

Calligraphy had become trendy in Indonesia since 2015, Prafitriani said. She was over the moon to get a chance to meet and learn calligraphy from Winters.

“She is the Madonna of calligraphy. She is the superstar!” she said.

— Photo by A. Kurniawan Ulung

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