Following the brush

I recently saw a wonderful documentary about the Japanese calligrapher Kazuaki Tanahashi – he is a brush master (and zen teacher) specialized in one-stroke paintings of Japanese letters. Each brushstroke is simple, made consciously and the brush strokes are ranging from barely visible whispers waving across the page, to powerful decisive strokes. All of the letters show a lot of energy.

I love what he said here about the brush:

Tanahashi: Brushes are primarily a tool, but also you work together with the brush and you follow the brush.

Interviewer: I thought the brush follows you?

Tanahashi: It works both ways, you know, but in a way it’s like a dance, the distinction becomes obscure, and then it’s sort of: who is leading whom? It sort of becomes insignificant.

While I’m currently not practicing calligraphy any more, I think the same is absolutely true for painting and particularly sketching, too. For me, a big part of the magic of drawing and painting takes place when you let things happen, and don’t plan every inch of your sketch. In my attempts to paint more freely and loosely this has been a very interesting insight. Letting the brush lead almost sounds a bit corny, but for me it also stands for not working against the materials, going with the flow, accepting mistakes as part of the process, and immersing yourself into the process without thinking about the end result. To keep going. That, for me, is the daily adventure in sketching and illustration, and it’s a lot of fun if you let it happen. In the image below, you can see my most loose and fluid work yet, and I felt quite intimidated while painting. I’m still not sure I like every aspect of these mushroom illustrations, but for me it was a big step in letting go of control, and following the brush.

If you’re interested in Kazuaki Tanahashi’s life and work: apart from being a calligraphy master, he’s also a zen teacher, and a peace and environment worker. Here’s the wonderful documentary about him where I came across his quote: The Brush Mind, and you can learn more about his person and work on his website: https://www.brushmind.net/