Watercolors

Mowgli Murals - Murals that Inspire

I find watercolors a very challenging medium and have been doggedly wading through this watery regime trying to get better, hoping my oil paintings improve as well (even though there aren't many obvious similarities). Here are some of my attempts and thoughts!

I chose this particular scene for its peacefulness and the suggestion of long journeys. 

I like the subject matter in this painting for its serenity and the misty clouds enveloping the mountains and forests.

I painted this watercolor from a photograph from the National Geographic archive. I tried to capture the feeling of contemplation and quietude along with the ever-present sense of adventure. I had a lot of fun painting the boats!

I have always admired Chinese and Japanese painters and their ability to portray nature's varying moods with such simplicity. These paintings draw the viewer into their inner depths and into the very essence of the subject's character. An essay by Ching Hao describes painting more eloquently than me. One part of this essay is very famous - the six essentials of painting, but I have reproduced the entire essay here as I like the introduction for its beautiful description of the power of trees. This essay also voices a pressing concern of mine regarding arrogance and being under the delusion that one knows all and not being in the frame of mind to receive from others.

Among the T'ai - hang Mountains are deep valleys and large country fields which I used to cultivate when I lived there. One day I climbed the Shen - cheng ridge, which offers a view all around, and on my way back I came to an entrance between two steep cliffs. The moss was dripping with water, strange stones were strewn about, and the mist of good omen was hovering in the air. I entered quickly and found that the place was grown with old pine - trees; the tree in the middle was the largest. The bark of it was overgrown by green lichen and covered by scales. It rose to the sky like a coiling dragon , trying to reach the clouds and dominate the whole forest. The spirit of it was bending down; the roots of some were reaching out of the ground, others were coiling across the water current, others again were suspended on cliffs hanging over the brooks which wound among the moss and the crumbling stones. The sight seemed to me most marvelous; I looked around with the deepest admiration. The following day I returned to the same place bringing my brushes along and made some pictures of the trees trying to render their real nature. Then in the spring of the following year, as I was walking among the Stone Drum Cliffs, I met an old man who asked me what I had been doing. When I told him about it, he said to me: "Do you know the method of painting?" To which I answered: "You seem to be an old uncouth rustic; how could you know anything about brush-work?" But the old man said: "How can you know what I carry in my bosom?" Then I listened and felt ashamed and astonished, as he spoke to me as follows: "Young people like to study in order to accomplish something; they should know that there are six essentials in painting. The first is called spirit, the second is called harmony (or resonance), the third is called thoughts (plans), the fourth is called motif (scenery), the fifth is the brush and the sixth is the ink." I remarked: " Painting is to make beautiful things, and the important point is to obtain their true likeness; is it not?" He answered: "It is not. Painting is to paint, to estimate the shapes of things and really obtain them, to estimate the beauty of things and grasp it. One should not take outward beauty for reality; he who does not understand this mystery, will not obtain the truth, even though his pictures may contain likeness." I asked: "What is likeness and what is truth?" The old man said: "Likeness can be obtained by shapes without spirit; but when truth is reached, spirit and substance are both fully expressed. He who tries to express spirit through ornamental beauty will make dead things." I thanked him and said: "From this I realize that the study of calligraphy and painting is an occupation for virtuous men; I am only a farmer and have not understood it; I have been playing with the brush, but not accomplished anything; I feel quite ashamed to receive your kind explanations of the essentials in art which were unknown to me."

Having said this, here is one watercolor that I made of trees in the mist. I love the ethereal and at once tangible character of mist and wanted to depict it playing amongst the trees.

 February 15 2005 

This watercolor is from a photograph of a Taoist temple at Hua Shan. I didn't get the shadow of the temple and the perspective correctly, but I am happy with the mountains on the right and the tall, straight rock spire. I wanted to show the mountains reaching out to the skies.

February 16 2005 

I saw a photograph of the White Heron Castle (or Himeji Castle) and loved the way the curves of the roof reminded one of flight. I made up the surrounding landscape, trying to emphasize the contrast between the castle's lightness of tread and the mountains' grounded-ness.

March 2005

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