ABSTRACT
When the artist gets deeply involved with the work in progress things inevitably happen that seem out of his control. The purpose of Cozens' blotscapes was to "free the artist from involuntary servitude to conventional schemes of landscape composition by making him relinquish deliberate control of his movements as much as possible in the beginning; the selective tracing of the blots is intended to redress the balance." Descriptions of the Chinese painters' methods influenced future artists in both China and Japan, emphasising individual expression and discovery in the use of ink and other mediums. The artist has an idea and the materials provide a resisting medium with mutual impact between idea and medium. The creative act would not occur if there were not a true conversation between the artist and his work. Throughout history, artists have cherished the ambiguous and the accidental as an opportunity to free the imagination and the self from internal limitations.
