February 20, 2005
Effortless
During the middle of the Northern Song scholars began to take up painting as one of the arts of the gentleman, viewing it as comparable to poetry and calligraphy as means for self expression.? Brushwork in painting, by analogy to brushwork in calligraphy, was believed to express a person's moral character.
?The scholars who took up painting generally preferred to use more individualistic and less refined styles of brushwork.? These styles were relatively easier to master by those already familiar with the brush from calligraphy, and did not require the years of exacting training needed to succeed as a professional or court artist.??
The eminent poet and statesman Su Shi (1037-1101) explicitly? rejected? the attempt to capture appearance as beneath the scholar.? Paintings should be understated, not flashy.? His painting of Rock and Old Tree, below, executed with a dry brush, exhibits rough qualities and does not aim at pleasure.? The painting is more akin to an exercise aiming to improve and develop calligraphic skill than the sorts of paintings done by contemporary court painters.? Emphasizing subjectivity, Su Shi said that painting and poetry share a single goal, that of effortless skill.
Wow. Strange when something so foreign reminds us of our own work. I even like all the stamps of ownership along the sides. I just came across a poem by a young american poet that seems to relate in terms of "making."
"How to Build an Owl"
1. Decide you must
2. Develope deep respect
for feather, bone, clay.
3. Place your trembling thumb
where the heart will be:
for one hundred hours watch
so you will know
where to put the first feather.
4. Stay awake forever.
When the bird takes shape
gently pry open its beak
and whisper into it: mouse.
5. Let it go.
Kathleen Lynch