Recent Paintings

Again, it has been over a month(!) since last update.
But, I was working through those days. Not lying (^^).
Here are my recent paintings for commission.

Flowering Tree #4 （花咲く木　４）
oil on canvas, 53cm x 53cm (21"x 21")

Flowering Tree #5 （花咲く木　５）
oil on canvas, 53cm x 53cm (21"x 21")

又々、前回の更新から1ヶ月も経ってしまいました。
でも仕事はしていたんですよ。ほんとです。
上記は最新作。ご注文の油彩画です。

Final Update of the Year

Today was supposed to be my last working day of the year, but the paint on the working canvas is not dried yet, which means I have to wait until tomorrow.
So I decided to update my last blog of this year.

Semishigure (Chorus of Cicadas)
蝉しぐれ
24" x 31 1/2" (61cm x 80cm)

Seseragi (Murmuring Brook)
せせらぎ
24" x 31 1/2" (61cm x 80cm)

As I always do when creating a painting, I took pictures of natural scenes which later become sources of my inspiration.
Images of these paintings are derived from landscapes in summer； Sun moves so high, everything is lush green, hot and sweaty but quiet afternoon in summer.
At times like that, cicadas suddenly start to sing, and a bleeze gently blows through on a brook which carries cold water.

I gave them Japanese title, because I wanted to keep subtle feeling of which the words of "Semishigure" or "Seseragi" hold; Small but a joyful discover in nature.

With best wishes for a happy new year!

今日は年内の仕事納めの予定でしたが、絵の具が乾燥していないので明日まで作業は延期。今年最後のブログ更新することにしました。

いつものように作品のインスピレーションとなる自然の風景の写真を何枚か撮りました。
この作品のイメージは、夏の風景から取っています。
太陽が高く昇り、全てが濃い緑色に覆われ、暑くてうだるような夏の午後。
そんなときにセミが一斉に鳴き始め、冷たい水を運ぶ小川に風が優しく吹き抜けて行きます。

これらの作品には日本語の題名を充てました。「蝉しぐれ」や「せせらぎ」の持つ微妙な感覚-自然の中の小さな喜びに満ちた発見-をそのまま生かしたかったからです。

良いお年をお迎え下さい。

New Paintings

New paintings.

Flowering Tree #2, oil on canvas, 16"x16"(41cmx41cm)

花咲く木 No.2、キャンバスに油彩、41cmｘ41cm

Flowering Tree #3, oil on canvas, 16"x16"(41cmx41cm)

花咲く木 No.3、キャンバスに油彩、41cmｘ41cm

I derived the image from light reflections in flowering trees.
By outfocusing the actual image of the trees, I try to depict invisible things existing between the object (trees, in this case) and me.

花の咲いている木に注ぐ光の反射を描きました。
対象となるモチーフ（木）のイメージをぼかして描くことによって、対象と私自身の間に存在する目に見えない何かを表現しました。

My show at Tokyo

I know I am toooo lazy to be a blogger, but I hope to be better in updating all of my digital diaries of this blog and FB.
Here are the photos in my solo show in Tokyo in Oct.

ようやく。。。個展の様子をアップデートしました。
最新作を含め約30点の展示です。
期間中いろいろな人に会えて、またいろいろとやる気になりました（＾＾）

Drop painting series

Drop paintings on right, Chrysanthemum paintings on left, and mini pastels on table

Chrysanthemum painting series

exhibited approx. 15 oil paintings and 15 pastels.

The gallery is in the 1st floor of this unique building.

New Small Work Finished

Been lazy to update my blog.
During that blank period, I was spending most of my time in my studio for painting, in my room for reconstructing my website, and in a gym in my neighbor for playing badminton.

Untitled, oil on painting, 13" x13"

A Small painting is finished. I derived the image from light reflections in trees.
By outfocusing the actual image of trees, I try to depict things existing between the object (trees, in this case) and me.

a week before completion

first day of painting (a month ago)

  I used gesso for the first time, since I usually apply foundation white for underpaintig. Although it seems to absorb more oil from overlayers, gesso makes me easier to even the grains of canvas.
Painting is always repetitive play and experiment for me. I had never satisfied 100% with my any work. Maybe I should say, the very next day after I felt pretty positive about a work and completed with signing, I start to feel something is still missing. Will someday be coming  in the future that my satisfaction will continue for long?
Anyway, it is so nice to play badminton for refreshing.

This work can be viewed at my show in Tokyo in Oct.　(To be announced soon.)

小品の新作です。1枚描くのに行ったり来たりであれこれ時間がかかります。
なかなか100％満足する作品はできませんが、一歩一歩前進していきたいものです。
制作の合間には趣味のバドミントンで気分転換しています。
※上記作品は10月の東京での個展で展示いたします。（詳細は後日）

Chrysanthemum3

Here is my palette of one day and finished work.

burnt umber, black, white, verditer blue, cadmium green pale, rose madder, burnt shienna, olive green, aureolin, rose violet, etc

Chrysanthemum 3,
oil on painting, 46cmx53cm (18"x 21")

I like neutral colors. In most cases, I add some gray or umber to any paints from tube. My color tastes are very much influenced by the climate of Japan; very moderate and humid. For example, sky is not really "blue", it is more like verditer blue, a bit grayish and whitish than cerulean blue. White flowers are either inclined toward yellow or gray. Soft sunlight here enables me to see variations of colors and that might be the reason that I like to play with colors.

「菊３」で使用したある日のパレットです。日本の気候のせいか、自然をモチーフにした絵なので原色よりも中間色を好んで使います。グレーや茶系を混ぜることが多いです。バジターブルー、カドミウムグリーンペール（クサカベ）、オリーブグリーン（ホルベイン）など、よく使います。

Chrysanthemum1 -working process 2

I have been working on the chrysanthemum painting for two weeks. I am expecting two one person shows in this year and it is for the one which comes first in Osaka.

Started working on the upper left section and bottom right section, which are supposed to have the same atmosphere but different brush touch and mood from other two sections.

Working details of flower and background.

I got in the middle phase of whole painting process. (I Hope!)
To be honest, I do not like this part of time;
Painting without any concrete idea on color or composition is like you lost in the maze.
It takes sometimes weeks until I get out from the maze. I believe that painting itself knows the right answer but it does not tell me that so easy.
It is like a waiting game between the painting and I.
I feel like I am tested by my own painting.

Seems a good color combination, but the background colors might be too similar.
I may want to change it later.
In any case, it is still far from the happy ending. Sigh.....

Chrysanthemum1 -working process 1

I have started working on  a new painting series based on the imagery of chrysanthemum, while listening to the radio for the quake and its survivers.

Chrysanthemum is not my favorite flower,since it is low-key and inconspicuous, but it is symbolic one for Japanese.

First, I made a sketch and traced it down on a white canvas.

Then I start to paint with white and black (actually low umber) to make light and shadow based on my sketch and photo I made for this painting.
This phase is usually called Grisaille, which means to paint in monochrome.

1/4 of first stage is almost done. I think this is fun part of whole painting process; Although I have to be careful about subtle change in light and shadow, this process reminds me of painting by numbers.

 Working on the second section.

In this painting, I divided the canvas space into 4 sections. I want to depict each section in slightly different taste but make it still look like one chrysanthemum flower.
This is my first trial to make a painting this way. I might give up but hope it will work. 
.

Pencil Drawing - Yellow Lilies

Lily is one of my favorite motives. I like lilies because of its variety of sizes, shapes and colors.
The pencil drawing below was yellow lilies with dark brown spots.

detail

"Lilies" 16" x 12 1/4" (41cm x 31cm)

I used to buy a small bunch of flowers at flower shop; when I feel down, when I want to work with light medium, or when no creative ideas come up in my mind and I do not have good motif in my studio.They certainly filled my empty hands and mind with comfort.
Many artist of all ages and cultures have dealt with flowers, and there are zillions of styles.
These days I do not deal with flowers as my painting subject, but I want to restart working with them, hoping to depict them in the style that only I can do.

Sky Painting

I have finished a new sky painting.
Here I want to share its creating process.

Before painting, I coated the stretched canvas with white paint three times in order to build smooth surface and dried it for a month. Then I painted foundation color, which is beige in this case. Sketch with white.

Theme was sky. So first color popped up in my mind was pale blue for sky and gray for clouds.　Maybe too common. But I stared with those colors anyway.

I love the sky at morning glow and sunset because of its subtle colors, although I always have difficult time to reproduce the colors in my mind.
Referring to the photos I shot for my work, I added some orange and cream yellow. Consider the composition.

Adding more colors and colors. This is most difficult time for me. The more I paint, the more I feel something is not right in the work. But I do not know what to do. So I just leave it for days and come back to paint. Repeat this process for a few weeks.

Still in the middle of struggling with paints.

Here I can see subtle sign of hope that the painting is close to finalize.

Title: Sky and Water - Sky#3
Size: 41cm x 41cm (16" x 16")
Medium: oil on canvas


Available on etsy soon.

Pencil Drawing - Rose Bouquet

I found some of my old pencil drawings. I created them almost 10 years ago, but because of the high quality of the paper, and good storage condition (i.e. proper temperature and moisture, no sunshine), they are not faded at all. I am happy that they remain perfectly same as the time I created them.

"Rose Bouquet" 16" x 12 1/4

 

detail

When I made these sketches, I was very interested in gardening. I lived in a small apartment by myself ( I was not married at that time) and maybe wanted something  to take care of.
I grew many kinds of plants and flowers in my little balcony. I continued to plant many including  mini-roses, daisies, anemones, tulips, etc, until I could not find any place to hung my laundries!
I watered them everyday before going to work and talked(!) to them when I came home. (I heard that talking to plants make them grow faster. Is that true?)　When they grew up, I took some into my room and sketched them.  It is my fond memories.
This was originally a potted mini-rose; One of my friend gave me when I moved in the apartment. As some of you may know, mini-roses does not live long; It usually gets sick and dies within 2-3 years after being planted. But I grew them from cutting over and over, it lived for 8 years.
I do not grow any plants now, but hope to do someday. I want to grow Japanese wild flowers and English roses together.


Work is available on ETSY


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My final ritual of painting

I finished a painting yesterday. or I should say that I hope it is finished.
Whenever I finished one, I leave it for a week and look at it later.
In some cases, I realize that the work is missing something and has not finished yet. Then I start reworking on the painting.
In some cases, I confirmed it is actually finished painting and sign on it peacefully.

In many cases, I think about the title after I finished painting. I am not good at naming and that truth make me hate naming more. Only in a few cases, good title pops up in my head while I am painting. But it does not happen so often. Until I come up the title, I have to continue thinking of it. Sigh... My mother used to tell me that I should do my homework as soon as I come home from school..  I hope to hire somebody to think of the titles for my work.
Most of my works are semi-abstract, so I want to give them something  poetic names. I can think of that type of titles in Japanese, but translation is not easy. Sometimes the message is lost.　One of the difficult term to translate is "Utsuroi"(literally meaning "transience"or"transition"). Utsuroi is a concept of my work which means the transition of shapes and colors of nature, or flow of time all of which represents the ephemeral existence of our life. "Transience" may be OK, but I do not like the sound very much. Do you have any idea?
At all event,it is nice that I  can have little relaxing tea time while thinking the title after I finished a painting.

Until the rain stops

When it rains, I feel low, but have peaceful state of mind at the same time.
When it rains, I feel like to be allowed to stay in my little nest without feeling guilty.
When it rains, it washes away everything; dirty air, dust, or dirt.
Rain makes me plunge in thought silently.

After The Rain, oil on canvas, 46cmx53cm(18"x21")

When the rain stops, I have to go out to the real world; The world full of refreshed realities. The world brought back from the silence is a bit scary for me, but filled with ray of hope.
Waterdrops from the past wink off reflecting the sunlight, waiting for the time to be transformed into a new life.

Winter Garden

I like winter light.
Soft sunshine in winter bring us the fleeting moment of warmth and happiness to forget the harsh season.

In The Beginning #11, oil pastel on paper

Trees In The Light II, oil on canvas (sold)

Winter Garden I, oil on canvas

I usually create these winter painting in summer or fall, and other spring or summer like paintings in winter. People always want what they do not have.  

Available upon request or at etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pleiadesstudio

Starting New Painting

It is always fun to start working on new canvas.

I am going to make some of clouds/sky series paintings and this is one of them.
On a canvas underpainted with a few layers of white and orchre, I made brief outlines with white paints,

then, applied pale blue and gray.
So far, so good.
I have no idea what it will be at this point as usual. It may be like daytime sky or that of dusk.
I will just allow my brush as it goes, and use any color as I feel right.
After few layers, the painting usually start to set up a situation for itself.
Until that happens, I just have to repeat my image trial with some colors and compositions, and  wait and see.

New Year, New Born Babies

One of my first assignment in this year is signing up the new works.

These are my new born twins I created in the last minutes of last year.

From my studio window, I can see sky every day.
One thing particular about sky/clouds in Japan I realized is that it is often very neutral and subtle in color. It is almost never real blue sky like that of California which I dreamed of when I was a child. For better or worse, sky above my head never be like that. I assume that moderate and humid weather here affects many things in me; my pallet colors, my personal character, or way of thinking.

Sky was not my motif until recently. It was not just my interest.
But since I moved to the present studio with big window facing to south, I started to see the subtlety of colors of sky and realized that many natural factors  affects them. The color is changed by just a minor factor in a minutes. I appreciate that ephemeral life of colors.

Available on Etsy soon.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pleiadesstudio

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