Correct Rocks

In the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting there are 90 ways to paint a rock.

| Wang An-Chieh, two examples of painting rocks, 1679 |

There are not many secret methods in the painting of rocks. I  may sum it up in a phrase: rocks must be alive.

Large and small rocks mingle and are related like the pieces on a chessboard. Small rocks near water are like children gathered around with arms outstretched toward the mother rock. On a mountain it is the large rock, the elder, that seems to reach out and gather the children about him. There is kinship among rocks.

All so lyrical.

Julia Ritson