In my last posts, I showed 2 works that are part of a tryptichon that is now finished. The title of this triptych is a mountain. These are abstract works that essentially deal with the subject of mountains and caves in the back of the mind.
An archaic Chinese character for mountain looks like this:
So we see 3 peaks that together form a mountain.
To see more in these paintings is up to the viewer.
More of this kind can be seen in gestural abstraction
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I discovered a water color I did in 1988 and I wrote on it — in Chinese — a couplet from my favorite poem. It is a mountain. Maybe my favorite mountain… Definitely a mountain with personal meaning to me. Looking at the writing, I felt like I’d lost something in the interval of other journeys, loves, quests and decided to return to practicing writing Han Zi. I guess that was a journey into one of your images of mountain caverns in my mind.
Thank you Martha, for your comment! Yes, the mountain is very important in Chinese thinking. I am happy that you can see the caves.
In my first sheet from the cycle, I worked through a pain. When you enter the picture, stand in front of the massive mountain and go into the cave, there is suddenly light, which is a paradox.
I would like to tell you a little story in connection with mountains. The painter Huang Binhong, whom I admire so much, writes in a little book about landscape painting: “Before I start painting, I make friends with the mountains around me.”
I love that. It’s true that some mountains are friendlier than others.
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