For the Impressionists, there was Japanese prints, for me it was Chinese scholar gardens.
In China, I visited 2 historic gardens, they were a revelation to me about my roots and my love of rocks. I still cannot believe it. Like having family one never knew about.
The Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, China was created in 1577 by Pan Yunduan, a Sichuan governor and mandarin in the Ming dynasty court. The other garden I visited was the Zhiyuan Garden in Hangzhou. Built in 1872, it was located within the former residence of Hu Xueyan, one of the wealthiest businessmen during Qing dynasty.
Here's what I came to realise: through the centuries the Chinese love rock! We're not talking dainty glimmering diamonds. These are big gnarly solid rock with a ton of character. Called Gongshi, they were prized as Scholar's Rocks. Looking at a gongshi excavated from Taihu lake, it is easy to be contemplative.
Besides Scholars' Rocks, rock and stone appeared in many guises.
In the residence of Hu Xueyan, a flight of stairs down from a main hall is a very cleverly put together rough rugged limestone cave, perhaps white and sparkling when built, but now tan brown. Within the illuminated cave the humdrum of life falls away. Over a hundred years later and standing there I could still sense what a sanctuary from the concerns of daily life this stone cave must have been for the owner.
On the wall in one of the small formal reception rooms to receive guests there is something akin to what we would have in our homes. Some of us set small family photographs behind shapes cut out on a matboard within a frame. This was there too, but instead of photographs of kids and family members, there are smooth polished slices of stone! There was an even larger slab that filled up the whole frame on another wall. However, these being portable, could be recent additions to the scene. It looks something like this below. Note that the wall itself may be stone tiles like we have nowadays.
I was bowled over by the presence of rocks and it informed me about the psyche and imagination of the gardens' creators.
My most startling discovery was that the 'gardens' did not have a single blade of grass. Water stood in the place of grass, and rocks for sculpture and hedges. It made me reflect on the purpose of gardens as flights of fancy and fantasy. My imagination of fairies exist in a sunny, grassy, flowery, tree filled world. A daytime fairy version of John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose http://www.jssgallery.org/paintings/Carnation_Lily_Lily_Rose.htm
So standing in each of the gardens, I came to suspect that traditionally in China there was a different idea of fairyland.
I returned and did some searching... turns out some Chinese fairies have rocky abodes in Penglai(pictured below), the Eastern Isle of the Immortals where they flew amidst craggy caves to mountain tops http://shimagata.tripod.com/srhist.htm .
All in all my trip reaffirmed my appreciation for the intricate beauty of natural rock. I came to understand that I need not censor my love for rough hewn stone with character and captivating texture.
Let me take another look at that green petrified wood and figure out a way to set it.
