Painting the Dao

128 ak24.13 Homage to the Ink Master Ink and watercolour on cloud-dragon paper with collage on Liu Kuo-sung paper 188 × 98 cm, Hong Kong, March 2024 Four artist seals 水松石山房 Shuisongshi shanfang (Water, Pine and Stone Retreat) 墨者不朽 Mozhe buxiu (Let ink be my immortality) 如如居士 Ruru Jushi (Retired scholar who believes all doctrines equal) 石狂 Shikuang (Stone fool) inscr iption Which is Earth? I first heard this question asked from the walls of my gallery in London half a century ago. I had no idea where it would lead as I tentatively set foot upon the way. Mesmerised by a series of paintings of celestial orbs floating in the colourful space that in reality has no colour, I sought out the artist halfway around the globe to follow where he led. Over half a lifetime, he ‘plucked my tendons and stripped my skin’ to reveal what had always been there, unseen, waiting. First I saw the surface, the portal to understanding; then I heard the wisdom and saw it expressed and re-expressed as I watched him paint, sometimes for hours and weeks on end. I began to understand the warp threads of theory hand in hand with the weft threads of praxis weaving the fabric of meaning. So I reached for the brush to follow where the master led, and in awe joined him above the clouds, eternally grateful. Homage to the Master of Ink inscribed by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat at the Garden at the Edge of the Universe in the spring of 2024.