"The brushstroke," says Young Hi Lee, Chinese artist, "starts the universe. The white space of the paper, the negative space is not leftover space: it is intended space. Oriental painters say that the black ink "contains all the colours"; while the the negative space is "the beauty of the white blankness". In this work, if the artist makes a mistake, she can't correct it, but must start over -- to add another brushstroke would compromise the painting. Through practice the artist can naturally reduce the number of brushstrokes to the point where only a few are needed. There is a saying: "The apprentice uses too many strokes. A painting with too many strokes is like a snake with feet." - adapted from an article in Watercolour Magic magazine, Spring 2000.