The Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai is famously known for his woodblock print called “The Great Wave.” 

 It is Hokusai’s most celebrated work and is considered to be the most distinguishable work of Japanese art in the world.

 Hokusai drew many variations of the wave throughout his career. But it wasn’t until 1831, when he was in his early 70s, that this masterpiece was created.

 Throughout his entire life he played with this concept. He honed his skills and tinkered with the composition, but the subject, a boat in the midst of a storm, remained the same.

It was a life’s work. A life’s passion.

 In his postscript to his work One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai wrote: “From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.”

Hokusai knew that quality takes time and effort. Skills evolve, there is always more to learn.

 Perhaps you’ve not yet stumbled onto your great wave. Or maybe you have a great wave you’ve been working on for years. Mastery takes time. Like Hokusai, all you can do is continue learning, continuing growing, and continuing painting.

If you would like help with the process of mastery, we’re always here to help.