food for thought

[Craig Cowing]

My copy of the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting arrived today, so
I've had my nose buried in it every moment I've been able. This late
17th century manual on painting has marvelous illustrations on different
styles for painting rocks, trees, flowers, people, animals, buildings,
mountains, and other elements of Chinese landscape painting. It is more
than just a manual on painting, though, for it is also a treatise on
design, and is full of philosophical insights. The book begins with an
important insight applied to painting, but which can just as easily
apply to bonsai:

"Lu Ch'ai says:
Among those who study painting, some strive for an elaborate effect and
others prefer the simple. Neither complexity in itself nor simplicity
is enough.
Some aim to be deft, others to be laboriously careful. Neither
dexterity nor conscientiousness is enough.
Some set great value on method, while others pride themselves on
dispensing with methods. To be without method is deplorable, but to
depend entirely on method is worse.
You must learn first to observe the rules faithfully; afterwards, modify
them according to your intelligence and capacity. The end of all method
is to seem to have no method."

Craig Cowing
Monmouth ME
Zone 4b/5 sunset 38

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[Jim Lewis]

It is one of my favorite 'art' books. I am lucky enough to have
two paintings from an edition of the early 18th Century -- circa
1817-20. Both are of small, canary-like birds.

Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - He who sets
an apple tree will live to see it end. He who sets a pear tree,
sets it for a friend. - Anon.

[Lynn Boyd]

From Craig Cowing:
from _The Mustard Seed . .-_
. . . .snip. . ." The end [goal] of all method is to seem to have no
method."
>
This gave me food for thought when I first read it. After always
hearing an emphasis on the differences between eastern and western goals in
art - the east to replicate their traditions and the west to be individual
and original - I had to stop and realize again how many statements are
made that are almost true, but in their slight inaccuracy seriously mislead
us. Though east and west had those differences, they had the same goal it
seemed to me. That goal is that the art look NOT stiffly contrived, but
display an outcome that had coherence and flow of reason and a balance that
we found pleasure in. The differences so often stated are yet so often
alike in some perfection we discover in the depth of study.
My book is worn, curled on the corners, kept in a heavy folder
and never stood on a shelf; it lies flat to protect its weak spine.
Lynn