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The
greatest number of Wise's paintings were done in gouache, an opaque,
water-based pigment with a gluey thickener. This was his favourite
medium, and the one that friend George Woodcock considered to be his
best (George Woodcock, ArtsCanada Winter 1975-6, 10). Gouache allowed
Wise to achieve his distinctive blend of calligraphic strokes with
rich colour, especially in his mandala pieces, as oil paints are much
thicker and weightier and watercolours more pale and subtle. Not all
of his works used what would be considered paints. He experimented
with ink made from mushrooms, that Stephen Cummings recalls later
sprouted inside framed drawings (Stephen Cummings, "Jack Wise:
A Personal View", Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1999, 12).
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Untitled
Jack Wise
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Brushes, the
cherished tools of all calligraphers, were valued in Wise's studio.
He explored the nuances of all of his brushes, gathering intimate
knowledge about how each one responded to the movement of his hands,
the paper and the inks and paints. He kept many brushes, noting that
each had "a unique singular voice" (Rimmer). Wise continued
this musical analogy, speaking of his brushes as musical instruments
and his paintings as musical compositions. He explained to many people
that, "sounds very often in my mind are forms or colours".
Diane Carr, a
friend of both artists, spoke of Chien-Shih’s frustration with Jack’s
love of fine brushes.
Jack really liked good brushes, and both Jack and Chien-Shih were
absolutely poor as church mice. Jack bought $150 brushes, and Chien-Shih
was absolutely horrified, almost angry. He then went and got his dollar
fifty brush and told him, “Don't buy expensive brushes. It doesn't
improve your work any.” (interviewed by Angela Andersen, 03/01)
Wise often used a brush he had crafted out of cedar bark for his calligraphy,
but a favourite was given as a gift from his friend and teacher Lin
Chien Shih. Bristled with cougar hair, it had belonged to Lin Chien
Shih's own teacher in China. With such tools, the artist could experience
"this wonderful surge of the brush having danced something quite
wonderful." Wise made the comment that, with the proper attention,
"the brush will tell its own story." (Ibid.)
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