Autumn Woman

This is a quickie because i'd like to share my Autumn Woman drawing with you (above), she's finally finished!! She's hurrying to gather her thoughts and collect herself for the coming winter and reflecting on the previous year.

The 1st pic is my painting (as yet still unfinished) of lisa Hannigan, even though it doesn't much look like her!

Actually, it's looking more like my friend Bernie, I'll have to send her a copy. xx

Martha and Lisa

I just love it when friends recommend new music to me that they think I might like and I end up falling in love! Thanks Spencer, for turning me onto Lisa Hannigan! I always loved her vocals on the Damien Rice album 'O', but I hadn't realised she's now gone solo.

I love her voice, so intimate and richly emotional, my favourite kind of vocals! She is also incredibly beautiful I think, a natural beauty. I have been trying to draw her from videos on youTube, so far without much success, I've just not 'got' her yet (see above for some initial attempts). Anyway, I'll keep trying and keep you posted!

Meanwhile you can see her on myspace here , her website here and there are plenty of vids on youTube too.

Also, I've finally finished the Martha Wainwright picture!! It's not at all how I imagined it, it seemed to have a life of it's own that just kind of took over! I'd something much more graphic and contemporary looking in mind. Comments greatly appreciated!

love and hugs xxx

Autumn in Kurihama

Another beautiful day here in Japan, I can't believe it's nearly december already!
Although I have a nasty cold bug at the minute I could not resist the call of the sunshine and fresh air. I was planning to go to Kamakura today to get my fix of Autumn colours and temples but I've postponed it until i'm feel better.

Instead I opted for a walk around Kurihama Flower Garden, no temples but plenty of lovely, subtle autumnal shades.

I also got some nice shots of the walk down by the river with all the reflections.

Enjoy xxx

The Waterbabies - Zena Holloway

I came across these wonderful photographs by zena Holloway quite by accident, don't you just love the internet!

They are from a book called The Waterbabies.

You can see her website here http://www.zenaholloway.com/zena.html

Enjoy

love Tracy xxx

An old song

I'm just posting a link to a song I've uploaded onto YouTube, click here to go to my youTube page, or stay here and view it from my blog! It's an old song that I wrote years ago when I lived in Wales, ah my hippie days!! I had long hair, patchwork trousers and multi-coloured laces in my big black boots. I didn't have a video camera then so now I just have the audio file. I have no idea yet how to make an accompanying video and until I acquire these skills I've just placed one of my paintings with it so there's something to look at while the song plays!
Hope you like it
Love Tracy xxx

Day out with krishna Part 3

After the wonder that is the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, which by the way I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in art and photography, we headed to Mitaka by train and the Studio Ghibli Museum by bus.

Studio Ghibli make the most wonderful anime films (my faves are My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service) and we'd both been looking forward to the visit for ages! The museum's really friendly and interesting, full of things to do with the films and studio. There are lots of original sketches, drawings and paintings, as well as interactive models of scenes from some of our favourite films. The bouncing Totoro's in particular were fantastic. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with epilepsy though because of the flashing lights.

Phew, what a day out!! :) xxx

A day out with krishna Part 2

After the Mika Ninagawa exhibition, which was far bigger than we'd expected, we went upstairs to view the exhibition from the permanent collection. The exhibition is called Black & white and features two Japanese artists, Isomi Teruo and Ozaku Seishi. It was a a strange contrast to the previous exhibition, as the title suggests it was completely monochrome and the subject matter was dark, moody, sometimes mythological in tone, sometimes nightmarish. The work of Isomi Teruo consists of woodcut prints where the grain of the Wood can be plainly seen and adds texture to the work. Out of the 2 artists his work was my favourite, they were a little less dark and were quite haunting.

Ozaku's work was the darker of the two, he works with etching and his imagery reminded me a little of Hieronymus Bosch.

The 3rd and final exhibition at the gallery was by a young emerging artist called Mashimo Yuki. I couldn't get any information in English about this artist so I'm not even sure of the gender but I'm guessing female. The 1st picture on this post of the girl and flowers, is by Mashimo. Her style is intricate, detailed and beautiful. I imagine each drawing takes a long time to complete. The above drawing was small but some of them were over a metre in length. This is most definitely a name I'll be looking out for in the future, the work is exquisite. I apologise for the lack of pictures but photography was not allowed in the gallery and I couldn't find anything to buy from the gallery shop:(

I got inspired enough seeing this artists work to go out today and buy some proper drawing pens, I'll let you know how it goes!

xxx

A day out with Krishna - Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery and Studio Ghibli

Yesterday Krishna San and I went to Tokyo for the day to see some art. A friend Of Krishna's had recommended the exhibition at Tokyo Opera city Art Gallery and we were not disappointed. The main exhibition, Earthly Flowers, Heavenly Colours, is by a Japanese photographer called Mika Ninagawa. It was a full colour riot for the eyes. The first few rooms focused on big prints of flowers and some landscape, I particularly liked the cherry blossom pictures. I thought that flowers were all we were going to see but then we walked through into another room (all rooms had heavy curtains separating each section so that each room and the contents therein was a complete surprise) and were stunned by the huge and beautiful portraits. Again very brightly coloured and highly decorative.

I'm already regretting not buying the book from the gallery shop, so next time I'm in Tokyo I'll get it and post some more pics! xx

Bubbles and blue skies in Yokohama

Yesterday I went to Yokohama to see some of the art in the Yokohama Triennale. I wanted to see the boy diving into the pool (by Elmgreen and Dragset) but I followed the bubbles and got sidetracked!!

The bubbles in question were an exhibit outside the Yokohama Museum of Art and I happened upon them by accident with perfect timing! The sun was shining, the sky was blue and never have I seen such a happy art exhibit:) Lots of bubbles, rainbow colours and happy kids (and adults), everyone smiling.

Please have a look at the short video I took on my digital camera (to the right of this post).

I've also added a couple of new vids from my youtube page, hope you enjoy them.

xxx