"Learn of the pine from the pine.."

[hanayama]

I learned this expression from reading haiku poetry – it is a quote by Basho, a famous haiku poet. I live in Canada, and we have many wonderful plant and animal species to inspire artists.  I believe that one must see and feel to understand the essence of something. Only painting from photographs or copying subjects that are not native to our environment is difficult and often yields unsatisfactory results. We can’t quite comprehend the important elements or ‘thusness’ of the thing.

It is not that I don’t practice with more exotic material, such as the lotus, which is cultivated in some parts of Canada, mostly on the west coast, but I focus on what I see outside my window – a mountain, a pine tree, a chrysanthemum, etc. I take a lot of photographs of plants and animals, which are my favourite subjects. I also get inspiration for abstract work from things that have become part of the earth, although they are not necessarily organic.  See the picture attached!.

I pulled this object from my lake in the northern mountains, and put it on a rock to photograph it. It is very old and shortly after it disintegrated into bits.

I later found out that it was once part of a steering wheel of a Model T Ford, from the early 1900s! There is a funny story attached to this also,

But when I saw it, to me it looked like one of the many ensos  (Zen circles) that I paint. See what you think!

 

[罗雁 LuoYan]

Yes, for me it is like a Zen circle. 🙂 I like your post which shows so much happiness and satisfaction of your life. Do you have any painting of the beautiful things out of your window to share with me?

I just returned from mountain area. When I was in mountain, I had to walk 6 to 8 hours per day. Now, back to quite city life again. This is a very strange contrast for me. 😉

[Author]

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