Lesson from the Wanli – The Return to the Canvas

 

---

Lesson from the Wanli – The Return to the Canvas

October 26, 2025

I spent most of the day with the Wanli painting, standing before it until my knees began to protest and my back reminded me of my age. But by then, I had made good progress — the kind that feels less like accomplishment and more like coming home after a long absence.

This piece is teaching me more than any book or teacher could. For years, I painted with the reckless joy of spontaneity — splashes, swirls, and intuitions that carried the pulse of the moment. But this time, the ocean has asked me to slow down. It demands patience, discipline, and attention to the small details that give life its quiet dignity.

The deep sea in this painting isn’t just a color or texture; it’s a state of mind. To capture its tone, I must feel its weight and stillness within myself. Every layer of blue and green reminds me that art, like living, cannot be forced. It must be allowed to breathe, to deepen, to unfold at its own rhythm.

After years of silence, I find myself painting again — not because life is easy, but because the soul insists on being heard. The Wanli has become my meditation mat, my confessional, my small act of defiance against despair.

I am reminded of Hokusai, who once said:

“From the age of six, I had a mania for drawing the forms of things. By the time I was fifty, I had published many drawings, but nothing I did before the age of seventy is worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I have somewhat begun to understand the structure of animals, plants, birds, fishes, and insects. When I am eighty, I shall have made further progress; at ninety, I shall penetrate even deeper into the mystery of things; and when I reach a hundred, perhaps I shall truly have attained the divine in my art.”

Perhaps this is what he meant — that there comes a time when the artist no longer paints to impress or to prove, but simply to understand.

There’s still much to finish, but tonight, I feel grateful. The brush may tremble, the body may ache, but the spirit has begun to sing again — softly, but surely.

“The brush does not seek perfection; it seeks truth.
In the stillness between strokes, the heart returns home.”

#WanliChronicles #ReturnToTheCanvas #ArtAsMeditation #TheArtistJourney #HealingThroughArt #OceanWithin #CheeseburgerBuddha #ZenAndTheBrush #DailyReflections #HokusaiWisdom

Image caption:
The Wanli nears completion — a dialogue between patience, breath, and the quiet persistence of the spirit.