In this new series, The Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat explores the expressive potential of blue and green pigments in Chinese ink painting, applying them not only to landscapes but also to scholar's rocks—a subject rarely depicted in these colours. When the Song dynasty painter Su Dongpo was questioned for painting bamboo in vermilion red, he replied that black bamboo does not exist either. The real question, he suggested, is not ‘why this colour?’ but ‘why not?’ For the artist, these works embody a central belief: meaning lies not on the surface, but at a deeper, timeless level that transcends detail. Historically, blue and green pigments were derived from minerals like azurite and malachite—substances also used in alchemical quests for immortality. Such paintings came to be associated with the realms of the immortals. He does not seek paradise in the alchemical sense, but rather evokes its possibility—and our enduring need for it.

October 2019