Here is a piece that I wrote some years ago that I thought you might like.
After a gap of about 20 years I have just finished re-reading “Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. It has struck me
most forcibly that this book has more than a passing relevance to art in
general and watercolour in particular.
It is rather gratifying to
find that I now understand more of the philosophy that I did on first
reading. He maintains that the great dichotomy between the classical and
romantic ways of experiencing culture are successfully bound
together by the notion of Quality. Later in the book he links this with
the idea that the interpretation of the goal of the Sophists by Socrates
was wrongfully translated as virtue whereas it should have been
translated as excellence.
He then comes to the conclusion that Good
and God are interchangeable as concepts and in substituting Quality for
this quotes many examples from his teaching to illustrate that this
concept is not normally the criterion adopted in institutional
education.
Artists are extremely fortunate in that they are trained
to regard all artistic endeavour as being at a point on a very large
spectrum, the two ends of which are represented by the extremes of the
classical and the romantic, this way both right and left sides of the
brain may play their proper part in artisitic endeavour.
As 1
understand it, Zen, as taught in Japan does not exist in isolation but
is always related to a skill such as flower arranging,calligraphy or
painting. It principally relies on the notion that intensive and long
experience in an apprenticeship under a master will develop the physical
and spiritual abilities of the pupil. In painting, if this has been a
success, at the start of a brush-stroke, if enough concentration and
spiritual power is brought to bear, the muscles of the body will take
over of themselves and in a minor explosive of creative energy complete
the stroke in a relaxed yet masterful manner. The unrelenting years of
apprenticeship before the Japanese are considered masters in the arts of
calligraphy or painting may look to our eyes as excessively severe, but
contrast sharply with the current uncritical acceptance of untrained
artists today.
The Zen method seems particularly well suited to
creating a watercolour. In this branch of painting, the very nature of
the materials and the unforgiving quality of the media demands a great
deal of prior planning, which should be a thorough and exhaustive so
that the watercolourist has solved the problems of placement,
composition and balance well before undertaking the actual execution of
the painting. He is then free to give his whole attention to the act of
painting, on keeping his brushstrokes free and well-formed and that
the placement is correct
This ensures that a strong statement is
achieved. The best watercolours are those that combine the essential
graphic elements but are also the most spontaneous and freshest in
execution.
I have always believed in the underlying spiritual quality
of artistic creation and greater experience continually reinforces
this view.
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