Painting the Dao

75 ak11.2 Out of the Incense Ink on cloud-dragon paper 78 × 141 cm, Hong Kong, February 2011 Three artist seals 水松石山房 Shuisongshi shanfang (Water, Pine and Stone Retreat) 攜杖老人 Xiezhang laoren (Old man who carries the staff ) 无爲 Wuwei (Without action) Published The Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, Beyond the Stage of Time , ii: Staff Masters and Stone Fools (Hong Kong: Rasti Chinese Art, 2020), 108–9 A Tale of Two Cities: Painting and Calligraphy by Shanghai and Hong Kong Artists (Hong Kong: K. Y. Fine Art in association with the Shanghai Academy of Art, 2015), 36–7 inscr iption Having begun to recreate on paper many of the memorable stones, staves and ruyi I have either owned or encountered over the centuries, it occurs to me also to paint little likenesses of some of those friends who shared my passion for such objects. I have known so many staff masters, stone fools and ruyiren over the years, who were every bit as intriguing as the magical objects they owned. I prefer to depict them in a more fitting manner than that of traditional portraiture, allowing them to pop up where they will. The Incense-drunk Hermit was ever fond of sitting high in the mountains amidst the thick clouds, sometimes visible, sometimes lost to sight behind an ever-shifting white veil. Sometimes he would sit for many hours, even days. It was how he recharged his powers, and made sure he never lost his oneness with the light – difficult in eremitic retreats, but easy enough in the urban life of the dusty world. It seems appropriate, given his main passion, to depict him with a censer, emerging from the smoke as he would emerge from the clouds so long ago. Inscribed at the Terrace at the Edge of the Universe, Hong Kong, 2011.