Brushwork

One thing I learned from wet ink brushwork 

Make the initial mark 

That’s all you have to do, otherwise it is overkill 

The samurai philosophy of right action and integrity 

Brushwork also emphasises this 

When a person has inner tranquility it reflects in their brushwork 

The philosophy of drawing a perfect circle 

When Picasso went to art school, 

in his interview he had no examples of his art. 

They asked; "how can you show us you’re an artist worth joining our course?" 

He drew a perfect circle before their very eyes and was instantly given a place. 

Try to draw a perfect circle. 

With swiftness and confidence. 

On traditional ink paper, 

every wobble representing lack of confidence and inner tranquility 

is amplified by how the ink goes into the paper

It’s a factor in respecting the artist through the art form. 

A literal translation of the zen stillness is captured on the paper through the ink. 

It is sacred for these reasons. 

So when we apply this understanding to the Western tradition of painting with a brush, 

which is a lot more complicated than simplicity of oriental brushwork, 

we can see the same applies here too, 

in the artists techniques. 

The huge thing in modern art is to persuade artists not to overwork their work. 

Giacometti is a famous example with his technique for sculpting. 

The only examples of his thin emaciated clay / bronze sculptures which survived 

are the ones his brother stopped him from working on. 

All the others collapsed. 

His method was to pinch clay away from them to get them as thin as possible. 

This sort of minimalism aesthetic is ancient and global. 

It is very important as an artist to be aware of it. 

Perhaps know this or some of this or a version of this already. 

I am not insulting your intelligence about that. 

I am attempting to teach what I know

and also to focus you

and also to simply discuss with you interesting stuff 

about art culture and techniques. 

Don’t overwork your work.