Exhibtition preparations and more bird drawings

Time flies. I see it has been almost 3 weeks since my last post! We have been busy here with a double round of colds, a wedding and a family bus trip to Yokohama. No time for much of anything else. I missed the last round of the Ice Skating World Championship in Moscow. But not tonight! I'm tuning in and staying put. Gambare Nippon!

Just got the phone call no one wants to receive...the final quote from the framing shop ;-) !! Yikes!! Better get some sales! I'll have to rethink one or two things now. I was hoping to replace some simple aluminium frames on a couple of paintings with something more glam, but they may have to stay put. The postcards should be here next week. I would like them to arrive sooner, they're at the printer now, and then it will be sending out, handing out and drumming up interest time.

Meanwhile the studio is pretty quiet. I have been trying some new Gocco prints, but I'm not altogether happy with the results. I finally found a moment to scan some new space bird watercolours too. I've only got one commission to fill between now and Christmas, so it's time to focus on getting folks along to the exhibition and enjoying the show.

Oil on wood - Riverbank on night of many Bats

I went for a bicycle ride one evening in summer. It was fun so long as the sun remained, but it sets quickly here, and after it got dark the sky was filled suddenly with small bats. Some of them flew very close to my head and I worried that I might get bitten. I turned around and cycled back on the lower path which is grassy and difficult going, but the thought of bat bites kept me peddling! There was a full moon that night and the sky was indigo, the long summer grasses of the river bank being lit by the moon.

Oil on wood 30cms x 30cms, 2009

Small landscape number 3

Here is the last of three small landscapes measuring 10cms x 10cms oil on wood. There was another typhoon here last week, but the skies soon returned to their clear autumn blue. Today I could see the summit of Fuji from upstairs and the first snows have fallen.

Another small landscape painting.

Again, another painting measuring 10cms x 10cms, oil on wood. These are quickly executed and satisfying paintings to make. Small landscapes can be as powerful as huge canvases as they are easier to see; you can take in the whole scene in a glance rather than needing to look all around a larger picture plane.

Oil on wood - Japanese landscape

The Tonegawa river is only a few metres from my house. My living room looks out directly onto the levee. Here you can see the river as seen from the top of the levee in the misty colours of the rainy season. This is one of a series of 3 painted in oil on wood panels measuring 10cms x 10cms. These will be in my December solo exhibtion.

Some new bird paintings

More small works for my Not Everybody Gets to be Cute series. These are negative space drawings in Japanese watercolour on book pages. I have called them Space Birds. They are defined by the space around them, and maybe they themselves are a little spaced out as they wander awkwardly across the page.



Most of my art time now is taken up with small tasks leading up to the December exhibition. If you live in Saitama, do drop by, it will be on from December 9th to 15th at the Art Salon 5F Yagihashi Department Store, Kumagaya. The exhibition is weightier stuff, both artistically and physically, and I am currently looking for frames for the big pieces that don't weigh ton!

These birds are at Zibbet

Contemporary art in Japan - September JASM

The Japan Art Scene Monitor Vol. 3 Issue 1 for September 2009 is out now on the Australian Embassy website. It contains news about a museum closure in Osaka as well as opportunities for silkscreeners, designers, anime enthusiasts, photojournalists and upcoming festivals. It's in English. Check it out!!!
Space bird red. Mixed media on paper. 18cms x 23cms. 2009

Persimmon haiga - ink painting

Here is the larger version of the drawing blogged below. This will be in the December exhibition. Measures 35cms x 23cms. Ink on CP watercolour paper, 2009.

More persimmon paintings in watercolour and ink

Here you can see yet more persimmon paintings! This time with ink. The top one is a very simple brush and ink drawing with a pen and ink haiku of my own. I like the balance between the freedom of the brushstrokes and the constraint of the pen work. This was a smaller warm up drawing for a larger haiga that I will exhibit this December.

The lower drawing began as a not very successful watercolour that I then worked over in brush and ink, looking to widen my vocabulary of brush marks by using shorter, drier marks to convey the texture of wood and sticks. I need to do more practice like this to gain more experience of sumi-e styles.

Persimmon watercolor paintings continue

Here's another watercolour study of persimmons from the weekend. I was experimenting with tone as well as chroma here to push the space in and out. I usually rely mostly on line and shape to do this for me. It's not a bad result. I'm painting leaves a lot more this year; my earlier persimmon paintings had all bare branches. This one is in my Zibbet gallery too.