Emily Mason: The Alchemy of Paint and the Art of Letting Go.

I have in mind this image of Emily Mason in the bright daylight of her Chelsea studio: the painter looking at her vibrant palette of colors poured into tiny cat food containers. She is getting ready. She will work with or without brushes, canvas on the floor, on the wall or held by a corner. There is no one way. Everything is possible.

For Mason, painting was an exploration of the alchemy of paint and the art of letting go. Sometime in the late 1960s, she began eliminating the superfluous to free her paint from any burdens. This was a lifelong quest; it came to define her art. Her powerful, lyrical abstractions were the results of minimal gestures. At times, Mason barely seemed to touch the canvas. Pigments and oil float, veil, stir, and move across the pictorial space without resistance. In her best pieces, nothing came between Mason and her canvas. The whole process looks like a natural phenomenon, activated by forces that are beyond the artist. This is what Taoists would call being in flow with the universe. Mason would say: “I feel as if I’m a conduit, but of what I don’t know until the paintings are finished.”[1]

[1] Lona Foote interview with Emily Mason, May 27, 1975.

To achieve suppleness, flow and unhesitant mark making the artist fostered a calm and centered studio atmosphere. She had a regular meditation, yoga and calligraphy practice. The latter’s demanding principles of directness and flawlessness were something she understood from her experience of oil paint. Mason’s wisdom was that she intuitively knew she was at her best when she stepped back and welcomed the flow. The results are contemplative works of rare beauty. Their power resides in Mason’s strength, one that came from her deep knowledge of paint and bold readiness to forget what she had learned. Her approach often reminds me of Lao Tzu’s words:

“In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the pursuit of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.
True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It can’t be gained by interfering.”[1]

[1] Lao Tzu, “Unlearning,” Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell, (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000), Chapter 48.

Dr. Barbara Stehle Los Angeles, October 13th, 2023.