1973 Water-Ink-Brush Painting

These three brush exercise sheets were made to discipline the hand and the eye.
Ink and light watercolor are painted on paper with a soft sable brush.
These are single brush strocks moving once from left to right.
The first strock starts in the upper lefthand corner, proceeding downward.
The spacing and placement are by eye alone, without guide lines.
In doing these sheets, I began by watching the brush strock as it went down.
But I soon learned that what mattered was the space between the strocks.
The only compositional element is the slight shift between warm and cool ink color.
The optical vibration between strocks is controlled by the brush strock undulations.

---

Nine warm strocks, then nine cool strocks

---

Nine alternating warm and cool, thin and thick strocks.

---

Twelve cool and thin, twelve warm and thick, then again twelve cool and thin.

---

DANZ ART HOUSE