Inspiration in a Japanese Zen garden
Oct 08, 2019
When I was a child, now and then my family visited the Clingendael estate in the Hague, Holland. We called it 'the forest of the squirrels', because in those days there were many squirrels around that were quite tame and even came to eat from our hands. Later in life I didn't visit Clingendael that much anymore, because the squirrel population had decreased a lot due to a virus. When I moved back into the area recently, someone told me about a beautiful Japanase garden, hidden in the park and open to the public only 8 weeks every year: 6 weeks in spring and 2 weeks in autumn. I visited the garden several times -usually in spring- and this year for the first time in autumn. The photo's in this article are taken by Willem Radder, who has a specific interest in Zen and Zen gardens and some of my watercolors have been inspired by his own Zen garden.
Inspiration for Zen drawing
If you love to draw in nature and enjoy 'Zen seeing' -a way of looking at things in a very conscious way- a Zen garden is the perfect place. Being in the garden is a great experience, especially when you find a place to take a seat and draw. In spring the Azalea's are flowering in the most amazing colors and in autumn Japanese maples have the most beautiful colors too. However, since the garden is not that big and only open in a very short period in time, it can be quite crowded with visitors. It is therefor not hard to understand why this garden is only open to the public for a few weeks every year: unfortunatelty some visitors damage quite alot of vulnerable plants and trees. This autumn I found it quite shocking to see how some visitors were stepping on the moss to take selfies between Azaleas, damaging both the moss and the plants. I also saw people putting their heads on top of vulnerable branches and flowers, just to take the 'perfect' picture. If you want to be 'Zen' in such a beautiful Zen garden this comes with it's own challenges.
In a Japanese garden abstraction of nature and nature itself exist side by side. Visitors are challenged to take a look at the simple arrangements of pebbles, plants, trees and rocks, while at the same time they have to understand that the pebbles they are looking at are not pebbles at all, but represent the flow of water and that a rock symbolizes a mountain. Our restless western mind has some difficulty understanding this spiritual dimension of the Japanese garden, yet for the old Japanese people this has been understood for centuries. Where as we tend to conquer nature, the Japanese garden wants us to be still and medititive. It wants us to look in silence at the quiet pace in which nature moves and which reflects the inner peace we all are looking for.
The Japanese garden on the Clingendael estate dates back to 1910, when Marguérite M. Baroness van Brienen (1871-1939) undertook several voyages to Japan to bring back plants, stone bridges and stone lanterns for her garden. Willem took the photo's below during our autumn visit and show the wonderful warm tones the Japanese maples have during this season. Luckily Japanese gardens based on the same principles and with similar plants like the one in Clingendael can be found all over the world, but if you are planning to visit one, make sure you pick the right season!
I always carry my small watercolor kit and a bottle of water with me when I go out in nature to work. This way I can work any where and any time. I love to work with watercolor, because for me it is the perfect way to capture the still and meditative nature of the world around me in simple paintings. Except for the red bridge below, the other three watercolors were drawn in Willems' Zen Garden and show my grandmothers Azalea (now planted in his garden), his Japanese lantern and his maple.
