Series
Ongoing bodies of work shaped by ink, breath, memory, and the emotional landscapes of human experience.
Seven Climates Ensō
7 İklim Ensō
Seven Climates Ensō is an ongoing series in which the ensō becomes a field of human emotion rather than a simple circular form. Each work approaches an inner climate: longing, distance, hesitation, intimacy, rupture, surrender, and the fragile balance between two presences.
In this series, the circle does not close around certainty. It carries what remains unresolved between people — the silence after a gesture, the weight of memory, the space between approach and withdrawal. Through ink, body, breath, and a single brush movement, the series traces the emotional weather of relationships.
Here, the ensō is not only a sign of unity; it is also a space where separation, tenderness, and inner conflict become visible.
Process Video
A short process video tracing the breath, body, and brush movement within the Seven Climates Ensō series.
Selected Works
Gönül (The Inner Heart)
Stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
97 × 120 cm
From the Seven Climates Ensō / 7 İklim Ensō
In Turkish, gönül means more than the heart. It refers to an inner space where intuition, love, conscience, memory and spiritual truth are held.
Inspired by Yunus Emre’s understanding of gönül as one of the deepest inner places of the human being, this work traces a movement from mind toward heart. The ensō does not seek completion here; instead, it becomes the record of an inward passage.
Through the changing weight of the brush — from dense ink to fading gesture — the circle moves across an inner geography. Within the Seven Climates Ensō series, Gönül suggests that our inner climates are not fixed states, but places through which we continually pass.
View work
Dönüş İklimi — Threshold / Transition
Stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
97 × 66 cm
From the Seven Climates Ensō / 7 İklim Ensō
One figure continues on the path; the other carries within them the possibility of return. In the open space of the ensō, departure, waiting, and an unknown outcome meet in the same silence.
Hicran İklimi — Autumn / Release
Stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
120 × 97 cm
From the Seven Climates Ensō / 7 İklim Ensō
To remain within the same circle does not always mean reaching one another. In this work, the ensō holds two figures in a shared space, yet their silence turns inward. Release appears not as an ending, but as the quiet acceptance of distance.
The bodies are unclothed because inner climates encounter the human being not through titles, but in their most vulnerable and most authentic state. Within the ensō, what remains is only the body, the breath, and the space between two people.
İç Zaman İklimi — Inner Time
It Almost Became Love, But Did Not
Stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
96 × 170 cm
From the Seven Climates Ensō / 7 İklim Ensō
They were close enough to reach one another, had their pasts not stood between them. Yet they were not close enough to step out of those pasts. The path seemed as if it would open; the fog never fully lifted.
Inner time is like a fifth season that cannot be found in calendars. In this work, the ensō becomes a bending of time — a quiet space where possibility, hesitation, and distance remain suspended.
This series is ongoing. Further works from the Seven Climates Ensō / 7 İklim Ensō series will be added as the body of work continues to unfold.
Lotus Series
Nilüfer Serisi
The Lotus Series is an ongoing body of work exploring the lotus as a quiet image of inner transformation, withdrawal, resilience, and return. In these works, the flower is not treated only as a symbol of purity or beauty, but as a living presence that carries silence, fragility, and emotional depth.
Emerging from water yet never fully belonging to it, the lotus becomes a metaphor for the human condition: to remain open while touched by absence, to close inward without disappearing, and to rise again through stillness.
Through sumi-e, stone ink, paper, and restrained color, the series follows the subtle states of the soul — thirst within water, solitude within openness, and the fragile courage of blooming.
Process Video
A short process video tracing the movement of ink, water, and breath within the Lotus Series.
Selected Works
A Lotus Thirsting Within Water
Suyun İçinde Susuz Kalan Bir Nilüfer
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
110 × 96 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
In this work, the lotus becomes a body of quiet contradiction: surrounded by water, yet carrying thirst within itself. The reclining figure rests between openness and exhaustion, as if the soul has reached the surface but has not yet found relief.
The water is present, but it does not fully console. What remains is a fragile state of waiting — a silence held between need, surrender, and the possibility of renewal.
Echoing a Turkish tale of the rose and the water, love here is not only declared, but tested by nourishment. The flower may stand beside the very element it longs for, yet still wither if it is not truly reached. In this work, the lotus carries a similar paradox: to be surrounded by water is not the same as being nourished by it.
The Lotus Folded Inward
Nilüfer İçine Kapandı
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
150 × 96 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
The Lotus Folded Inward belongs to Hilmi Şimşek’s ongoing Lotus Series, in which the lotus becomes a contemplative image of inner transformation, fragility, and endurance. The work presents the body and the flower as parallel forms of inward movement: both appear withdrawn, yet neither has disappeared.
Rather than depicting closure as an end, the composition approaches it as a state of protection, silence, and self-return. The figure’s folded posture, the vertical lotus stem, and the surrounding water create a restrained emotional field in which vulnerability is held with quiet dignity.
Here, inwardness becomes not a retreat from life, but a necessary pause within it — a moment of suspension before renewal.
Lotus and Kingfisher
Nilüfer ve Yalıçapkını
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
110 × 96 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
Lotus and Kingfisher brings together the stillness of the lotus with the alert presence of the bird and the quiet movement of fish beneath the surface. The composition unfolds as a suspended encounter between waiting, dreaming, and the unseen life of water.
Where the water falls silent, one presence waits while another dreams. The reclining figure rests between the lotus leaves and the reflections below, held within a fragile balance of attention and surrender. In this work, the lotus is not only a place of refuge, but also a threshold where inner life, instinct, and silence meet.
Lotus Turning Toward the Sun
Nilüfer Güneşi Selamlıyor
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
150 × 96 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
In Lotus Turning Toward the Sun, Hilmi Şimşek treats the lotus not simply as a symbol of blossoming, but as a figure of inner redirection. The composition suggests a state in which the self, after retreat or difficulty, begins once more to orient itself toward light.
The work does not describe joy in explicit terms. Instead, it lingers in a quieter threshold: a moment of composure, restraint, and renewed openness. The result is a meditative image in which the lotus and the human figure mirror one another as forms of endurance.
Lotus Basking in the Sun
Nilüfer Güneşleniyor
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
96 × 170 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
In Lotus Basking in the Sun, the lotus opens into a horizontal field of repose. The reclining figure no longer appears in struggle, but inhabits the leaves as a body suspended between rest, exposure, and quiet recovery. The composition slows the gaze, allowing light, water, and breath to gather around the figure without narrative urgency.
Here, basking is not simply leisure; it becomes a state of receiving. After withdrawal and inwardness, the body rests within the lotus as if learning once more to accept warmth. Through restrained ink and spacious paper, the work reflects a moment in which vulnerability is allowed to remain open.
Crows and Lotuses
Kargalar ve Nilüferler
Sumi-e, stone ink on paper, 2026
96 × 160 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
In Crows and Lotuses, the lotus field expands into a wider emotional landscape. The stillness of the water is interrupted by the presence of crows: watchful, restless, and alive within the open space of the composition. Rather than appearing as symbols of darkness, the birds become witnesses — carriers of movement, memory, and instinct.
The work brings together rootedness and flight, silence and disturbance, fragility and alertness. Within the Lotus Series, the lotus is no longer only a solitary image of inward transformation; it becomes part of a living field where other presences arrive, pass through, and leave their trace.
A Breath Upon the Water
Suyun Üzerinde Bir Nefes
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
200 × 96 cm
From the Lotus Series / Nilüfer Serisi
In A Breath Upon the Water, the lotus rises through a vertical field of silence. The elongated composition allows the eye to move slowly upward, from the dark density of the lower leaves toward the lighter movement of stems, blossoms, and the dragonfly above.
The work approaches the lotus not as a static flower, but as a living rhythm between water, air, and breath. Each stem becomes a line of ascent; each open space carries stillness. Within the Lotus Series, this piece suggests a state of quiet emergence — a fragile but persistent movement from depth toward light.
Together, Each in Their Own Way
Birlikte, Kendi Hâlinde
Sumi-e, stone ink on Okawara / Kozo paper, 2026
96 × 73 cm
This series is ongoing. Further works from the Lotus Series will be added as the body of work continues to unfold.
Cat & Vinyl Series
Kedi ve Plak Serisi
The Cat & Vinyl Series explores a playful encounter between movement, sound and circular form. A cat follows, watches or interrupts the record as if responding to a rhythm that cannot be seen.
Through minimal ink gestures and open space, the works bring together the movement of the cat with the revolving motion of vinyl — turning an everyday scene into a small visual dialogue between curiosity, music and play.
Parallel Universe
Paralel Evren
Sumi-e, 2026
45 × 82 cm
From the Cat & Vinyl Series / Kedi ve Plak Serisi
In Parallel Universe, the ensō becomes both vinyl and cat. One revolves around sound, while the other curls into its own silence. The same circular form appears in two different states — one carrying rhythm, the other stillness.
Here, the circle is not treated as a fixed symbol, but as a playful field of transformation. Sound, silence, movement and curiosity occupy the same surface, allowing an everyday encounter between a cat and a record to become a small visual dialogue.
Won’t Let Go
Bırakmam
Sumi-e, 2026
40 × 70 cm
From the Cat & Vinyl Series / Kedi ve Plak Serisi
In Won’t Let Go, the ensō takes the form of a record held in the cat’s mouth. Before the transformation seen in later works of the series, this image returns to an earlier moment — a point at which the cat has not yet become the vinyl, but is already bound to it through instinct, attachment, and play.
Here, sound is not heard directly; it is grasped. The cat’s bite becomes a small gesture of insistence, as if refusing to release the source of rhythm. Within this suspended encounter, the work suggests a quiet narrative of possession and fascination, where music first appears not as performance, but as something held, guarded, and almost claimed.
The Night at 33 RPM
Gecenin 33 Devri
Sumi-e, 2026
50 × 50 cm
From the Cat & Vinyl Series / Kedi ve Plak Serisi
In The Night at 33 RPM, the ensō passes through the curled body of a cat and becomes a vinyl record. Accompanied by music in its solitude, the cat carries in its yellow eyes a quiet hope of loving and being loved.
With every melody, it seems to move a little closer to life. Perhaps one day, someone who loves the same song will curl up beside it.
The 45 RPM Cat
45’lik Kedi
Sumi-e, 2026
50 × 41 cm
From the Cat & Vinyl Series / Kedi ve Plak Serisi
And then it happened — the cat picked up speed and became a 45 RPM record. Folding further and further into music, it finally finds itself at the very centre of the circle.
There is longing on one side of this cat and hope on the other. With every turn, it seems to move a little closer to itself, while its yellow eyes continue to look outward toward life.