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

New work in progress

A short and hopefully sweet post to share with you what I'm currently working on. The first two pics are of the Tanabata festival held here in Japan during July, the festival centres around the tale of star crossed lovers who get turned into stars separated by the milky way and can only see each other once a year. The temples and streets are very colourful at this time as children make brightly coloured banners and write their wishes on strips of paper that are then tied to a bamboo branch.

The first picture, which I'm tentatively calling Autumn Girl, is a spontaneous, unplanned painting which, if I'm honest, I'm not sure what to do with next! Any suggestions?

xxx

September in Japan

Hello everyone this weekend I survived a typhoon and an earthquake!!! ok, ok, it was only a small earthquake and the typhoon passed me by while I slept, but still!

The weather has cooled a little now and I plan to go for a walk soon, I just wanted to add some new pics first of some nice books I bought a couple of days ago in the bookshop at Yokosuka Chuo.