The wood star light I designed for lightstylelondon features in their new A/W catalogue, which you can see here. Ah, Christmas is on the way already. Need to start thinking of Christmas card ideas…
my desk
I’m working from home, as alot of us are now, and I thought I’d do a little show and tell of how I’ve set everything up, and the things I surround myself with that inspire me…
my birthday
For the first time ever I couldn’t have a birthday party, so I decided that I would host a zoom with my friends around the world, and it worked out pretty well!
I actually had zooms for different time zones, and some of my friends who didn’t know each other finally met, and I loved seeing everyone’s faces! I also enjoyed a homemade cake and some wonderful gifts. It was a lovely day!
walk to work
Almost every day for the last two and half years I’ve walked to my studio in Tokyo, and while I enjoy it, I’ve never stopped to photograph the things I see on the way. As my time at this studio draws to a close, I’ve been appreciating the little things I now notice more and more. Here’s a selection of my photos from the last few weeks. Everything’s a little grey, as it was either raining, or just about to…
I love looking out for the weeds that sprout up in the summer, finding little nooks and crannies in walls to add a dash of beautiful green to the world.
And I really love this particular blue wall, and with the yellow crate, it’s perfection!
Japanese Paper Company
My friends have set up a new online store in Scandinavia selling Japanese washi paper. If you’re based anywhere in Europe, it will be a great resource. They came to visit us in Japan and went to visit all sorts of interesting paper manufacturers, big and small (I went with them to Ogawa, see one of my previous posts) and really got to know washi. They have featured some of my mokuhanga work in the gallery section of their site, and you can see some of the most interesting works with washi that I’ve made over the years…
sketching - indoor plants
I took part again in the first wednesday drawing day, and focused on our indoor plants. Here’s the plucky tomato plant growing from a little yoghurt pot…
and two leafy plants growing happily next to each other…
I drew it twice, once in pencil and once with watercolours…
It’s relaxing to stay in and draw for a change!
The Standard HK newspaper
The COPE COVID-19 picture book I illustrated was featured in the Goodies section of the HK newspaper The Standard recently. It’s really great that the message is going out to all the young people there!
Looks like there’s a pen that you can use that speaks out loud! I wish I could try it…
Hope you’re all wearing face masks and staying safe out there!
trees
I’ve been continuing my online art classes with my niece, and we spent 3 sessions working on watercolour techniques. We both drew trees. Here are a few of my progress shots:
I used watercolor for the background and tree trunks, and then decided to add colour pencil for the foliage…
The lessons are a great excuse for me to pick up actual tools and get away from photoshop!
St Lawrence University art collection
I’m happy to announce that two of my mokuhanga works have been acquired by the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery of St Lawrence University in the US for their permanent collection. Both are pieces from my Gardens series: the first is this accordion folded print entitled Into the Garden (blue).
The second print is my most recent, Night Garden, in pink and green. This was initially a back sumi ink print, but I did some experiments with colour, so this is a unique print.
They will also be available to see in the University’s digital archive. I hope mokuhanga students of the future will enjoy them!
first wednesday drawing day
I’ve been participating in the first wednesday drawing day that a group of wonderful artists and illustrators do in the UK. Everyone gets together in one place and draws, and then share the results in a fun discussion at the end of the day. I went to one in person last year, but since the lockdown, everyone has been drawing on their own, and then sharing the drawings over zoom, which meant to I could take part from here in Tokyo!
The first theme was ‘view from the window’ and I spent time drawing the Tokyo skyline visible from the living room…
The next theme was ‘food’, so I spent time in the kitchen drawing the shelves and loving the details on the packaging…
Unfortunately, due to the time difference I haven’t managed to stay awake to join the zooms yet, but we’ve been putting our drawings on the firstwednesdaydrawingday instagram, so we can share and enjoy our drawings. Take a look if you’re interested!
The next theme was ‘outside’ and I sat by a different window and tried some loose ink painting sketches…
This month was again ‘outside” and I went to the only open outside area near us, the Aoyama cemetery, and drew the overgrown tombstones and incredible greenery, and then this storage area for the buckets and brooms for cleaning the graves:
I was a quite bitten by the early summer bugs in the cemetery, so I might need to find somewhere else to draw next time! It’s always so good to get back to doing some real drawing with paper and pens, after such intense weeks of working on the computer…
COPE COVID-19
Today we launched the newest COPE book! It has been endorsed by unicef, who will be distributing it in the Asia Pacific region. Author Martha Keswick and Editor Tim Sim spoke about the project on a live webinar in Singapore, and were joined by Marc Ruben of unicef.
The book was written with advice and input from a variety of university professors from around the world, and will be distributed in the currently badly coronavirus-affected regions of South East Asia. It features the lock-down diaries of children in various countries, speaking about their experiences during this global pandemic.
This is a difficult and confusing time for children everywhere, but we tried to show the positive attitude and resilience that we all need to successfully navigate these times.
The book will be available to download for free on monday, from the COPE website. Stay safe everyone!
Night Garden
I’ve been working on a mokuhanga print for a while, much more complex than my usual, and it took weeks for me to complete the carving. It’s a floral, entitled ‘Night Garden’, and is made as a repeat pattern.
I designed it to be printed with sumi ink, for a collaborative project with the mokuhangasisters collective. It will be part of an eight print scroll. With the prints that didn’t quite make the cut for the final edition, I made some hand-bound sketchbooks, using the prints as the covers.
I’m very happy with this edition of prints, it just felt so good putting the final prints together and sending them off.
I did some experimental pieces using the offcuts of the prints, trying a bit of weaving and collage…
And then I printed the block in a variety of greens, to have some versions to frame for my exhibition later this year (hopefully). And made some more little sketchbooks! I’ll be selling these at my show too…
anniversary
This month was my 7th wedding anniversary. I made an embroidered card to showcase wool, as the traditional gift for this year.
We couldn’t go out for a meal, so we made ourselves a special afternoon tea at home. We dressed up and had our own private anniversary with cakes, scones and chelsea buns!.
Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend at home too.
COPE Cyclones book
The newly launched COPE Cyclones book has a trailer!
So happy that it’s now out there in the world. You can go to the COPE website here, and read it! These are the books we’ve done so far, with more on the way.
I’m working on a special book about COVID-19 next. Watch this space!
WIA longlisted!
Very excited to announce that two of my recent projects have been longlisted in the WIA competition. There are 500 entries on the longlist, chosen from over 4,300 entries. Hurrah!
One of my projects that is nominated is my COPE floods illustrated picture book…
And the other is my HK Willow Pattern ceramics collection in green and gold. You can see the entry here.
The shortlist will be announced in June. Fingers crossed!
the Amazing Jungle colouring page
Together with my nieces, I’ve designed a page of black and white drawings that can be coloured in. You can click here for the pdf download. It’s A4 size, but should also work for US sized paper.
My favourite drawings on the page are these tarantulas. See if you can find them!
Please send me pics of your coloured pages, I’d love to see!
skype lessons
Before they took a break for the Easter holidays, I started doing art classes with my two nieces (ages 5 and 8) over skype. I’d never done this before, and have been learning all about how long their attention span is, what they’ll focus on, and how much they can take of their aunt talking at them! Here are some of the lessons that went well.
We looked at Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, and discussed the shapes, colours and textures…
I took it back a step and we drew fruit from life, focussing on the shadows. I wanted them to experiment with different softnesses of pencils, and grasp shading…
…which led to looking at Cezanne’s apples, and again looking at shadows and colours. Without realising it they’ve taken in 3-dimensional drawing. Yay!
We switched to watercolour and looked at shape and colour and light. I love how they’ve interpreted this painting! Monet would be proud…
I’ve been thinking of more lesson ideas and looking forward to starting up lessons again!
* credits: top left, famous painting, top right, me. Bottom left, Sascha (6), bottom right, Isla (8).
sakura season
Even during this ongoing pandemic in the world, it has made me happy to watch Spring arrive, and here in Tokyo, the cherry blossoms bloomed for a beautiful few weeks. I couldn’t go far, but managed to find many sakura trees within walking distance of our home. Here are some of my favourite shots of the cherryblossom this year.
I even made a pie, and covered it with sakura blossom pastry. Here’s a photo of it with the cherry tree underneath our balcony in the background!
There was a weird day when the temperature dropped and it snowed intensely for a few hours. Sakura and snow!
Hope you’re staying safe and staying indoors. Take care!
HK MTR station
I’ve been redoing my CV and going through old folders in search of obscure things I can’t remember, and I found the link to this book about the Art in MTR stations in HK. Here’s the page about me and my work for Cheung Sha Wan station. You can download the whole book here, and see all the other projects too!
I hope that when we can all start travelling again, you’ll make it to HK and see the actual station. Here’s a picture to whet your appetite…
my exhibition postponed
Unfortunately due to the current COVID-19 situation, I’ve postponed my exhibition. I’m hoping to hold it in late summer/early autumn. Fingers crossed we can get through this all safely. Hope you’re staying at home and staying healthy.
