#O99: Rosy Mist Descends

An imagined landscape, painted on primed MDF board. I wanted to stay open and relaxed so I put some unrealistic color into the sky from the start. It helped to open me up to a different view of what this landscape may be. The texture and tone of the green foreground grass touch something primal in me – I wish I could paint like this all the time.

Below is a close up of the foreground area:

In her book Daughters of Emptiness, Beata Grant writes of the Nun Jingnuo: “Jingnuo was the daughter of a county magistrate from Hangzhou. She entered the monastic life as a young girl and became the senior Dharma heir of the woman Chan master Weiji Xingzhi (d. 1672). Like her teacher, Jingnuo earned a reputation for compassionate but strict discipline and impeccable behavior and attracted hundreds of followers, many of them women of the gentry class.”

Here is one of Jingnuo’s poems, which I think goes well with my little painting:

Mooring My Boat at Suzhou
My little boat drops anchor tonight, 
From afar I gaze at the closed city gates. 
As the rosy mist descends, the riverbank clouds darken, 
As the crows return to roost, the mountain moon shines. 
But this little boat still has a long way to go, 
And the thousand-li traveler’s heart is unsettled. 
The noise of drums and oars make it difficult to sleep, 
And that rustling sound, from whence does it come?

Thanks for visiting my blog. Special thanks to all the old friends who have encouraged me with comments.