The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting is a painting manual from 1600s China for beginning and novice artists. Centuries after its first publication, what artistic lessons can the The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting teach us?
Quite a lot.
Explanations, tips, and examples abound within the pages, from chapters on trees, blossoms, and rocks to people and crickets. I stubbornly am bad at following any step-by-step advice. But what affected me most were the teachings on painting as a discipline. They’re infused with the teachings of Daoism. They seem to capture the ineffable. And speak about the teachings of patience and practice.
These were my favorite bits of guidance on achieving spirited and balanced paintings in a translated version of The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. I recommend reading them out loud to avoid rushing through.
On “Method”
To be without method is deplorable, but to depend entirely on method is worse.
The end of all method is to seem to have no method.
If you aim to dispense with method, learn method. If you aim at facility, work hard. If you aim for simplicity, master complexity.
He who has command of his brush should not allow the brush to control him.
Three Faults of Brush Handling
- Boardlike: stiffness of a weak wrist and sluggish brush. Shapes of objects become flat and thin, lacking in solidity.
- Carving: labored movement of the brush caused by hesitation. Heart and hand are not in accord. In drawing, the brush is awkward.
- Knotted: the knotted effect when the brush seems to be tied or in some way hindered from moving freely and lacking pliancy
On Beginning
He who is learning to paint must first learn to still his heart, this to clarify his understanding and increase his wisdom.
He should be sure that he is learning what he set out to learn, and that heart and hand are in accord.
One must scratch the ancients, then scratch oneself. If with this brush one composes poems and essays, and writes characters, and people look at the results and feel no ache, no itch, nothing at all, one might as well break one’s arm. What use is it?
Boundaries, Originality, Chi
Originality should not disregard the li of things.
The Shou Wên said that to paint or draw is to indicate a boundary or to outline forms in the same manner as a fence around a field marks its boundaries. The Shih Meng said that paintings may also hang; and by means of colors, forms, and images, may therefore be hung.
In painting, it is better to be inexperienced than foolish. It is better to be audacious than commonplace. If the brush is hesitant, it cannot be lively; if commonplace, it most likely will produce only banalities. If one aims to avoid the banal, there is no other way but to study more assiduously both books and scrolls and so to encourage the spirit to rise, for when the vulgar and commonplace dominate, the chi subsides.
The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting
Read More:
- You can read the manual online. From ancient color mixing (including using earwax – now that’s sustainable), to understanding the nature of landscapes and painting fighting birds, it’s all here.
- If you want to get a feel for the non-translated version, you can, thanks to the lovely Brooklyn Museum: https://archive.org/details/brooklynmuseum-o17617-mustard-seed-garden-a-chinese
