Kyoto

I spent the last week in Kyoto, exploring, hanging and then taking down my show, and enjoying a few days rest…

I walked around the rainy city, loving every single fallen momiji leaf, and marvelling at the beauty of the ordinary life there.

I also finally made it to Saiho-ji, the moss temple in the West of Kyoto. I made a reservation by postcard several months ago and was granted access for a few hours to the incredible bright green gardens. It took my breath away. The moss alone was spectacular, but with the autumn colours on top of that, it was sublime.

The yellow gingko leaves and red momiji leaves were everywhere in Kyoto, and I felt saturated in colour.

I’ve never spent much time in Kyoto, and now I want to go back and experience it in different seasons…

Sumi-Fusion Mokuhanga exhibition

I’ve just spent the last week in Nara, Japan, attending the 4th International Mokuhanga Conference. There were talks, practical demos, visits, and a wonderful juried exhibition of mokuhanga prints from around the world.

My newest print ‘Summer Blooms’ was selected, and it was great to see it hung amongst so many wonderful pieces.

Our Mokuhanga Sisters collaborative scroll ‘Borderless’ was also on display. Here’s a picture showing both my pieces.

It was truly a gift to be able to attend the conference in person, and I’m sad that no-one from outside Japan could travel in, but the online conference made up for it a little. Hopefully the next one will be in person!

I also participated in the online Open Portfolio, which can be seen here. Hope you enjoy looking at everyone’s amazing work!

Kyoto show

Yesterday I helped install our mokuhanga group show in hip bookstore/gallery Keibunsha in Kyoto.

It’s a group of five printmakers, and the work is eclectic, and I think it looks pretty good together!

I’m showing mokuhanga prints I made in the last couple of years, plus some greetings cards and postcards that feature my mokuhanga work.

Some mini cards carved and printed by Kitamura san’s apprentice carvers are also on display and available to purchase. Mine is the tiny blue teapot, I love it! I’ve never seen my work interpreted by someone else, so this was a great project to be involved with.

The show is up for a week, and I’ll be there on monday the 6th December for a few hours before taking the show down. Hope to see you there!

kapok ceramic box

I designed a special ceramic jewellery box for kapok, my favourite store in HK, for their 15th anniversary. They invited 15 designers they’ve worked with over the years to create a product.

I sketched the HK harbour and surrounding areas, to show all the kapok store locations. I originally chose bright acidy colours, but then switched to more muted ones, to match kapok’s 15th anniversary branding.

I then drew little icons of local HK buildings and characters, to go around the sides of the box. I especially enjoyed creating a little portrait of kapok’s founder Arnault.

Here’s the final simple and modern design, I love it!

It’s a super adorable box and can be purchased here on the kapok website.

Ojika Island

From Shin-Kamigoto, we took a short ferry ride to Ojika, a smaller, less mountainy island with a peaceful fishing village vibe. We hired electric bikes for our stay, and with the help of the incredible staff (thank you Victoria!) at the tourist office, started our perfect three day visit.

We explored the whole island, cycling over the gentle slopes and having picnic lunches. We wandered in the main village near the port, sat on beaches with turquoise waters, and watched glorious sunsets…

We stayed in a restored kominka and I loved this particular room with the tatami floors and lovely view. I sketched in the house, and used the large table surrounded by windows as a temporary illustration studio.

There was so much inspiration everywhere, I felt like I could keep drawing forever. Here’s my first sketch in the town, drawn while sitting on the steps outside a temple.

I particularily loved doing the local pilgrimage ‘stamp rally’ where you collect stamps for specific locations. I love these Japanese location stamps, and doing the rally meant we found places we might not have done otherwise. We got lost, but loved it!

This was honestly one of the best and most enjoyable places we’ve ever stayed in Japan, with many, many years of Japan travelling under our belts. It wasn’t that the views were spectacular, or famous, but that the atmosphere was truly special, the local people so welcoming, and the feeling of experiencing a genuine rural Japanese life. They’ve really gone out of their way to preserve something unique, while keeping up with modern times. I loved that there were no convenience stores, only local shops, and that the pace of life was just that much slower. I miss it already…

You can find out everything you want to know about going to Ojika here. I wish I could share this place with everyone.

Goto Islands

After having cancelled our planned early 2020 Kyushu trip due to the pandemic, we finally made it to the Goto Islands a few weeks ago. It was magical, and everything we hoped it would be. We took the ferry from Nagasaki and arrived at Shin-Kamigoto, picked up a car, and started exploring the island.

First stop, the hidden and peaceful Kashiragashima church. It’s one of the twelve Hidden Christian monuments in Nagasaki recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can’t photograph inside the church, so I drew a sketch of the pretty ceiling structure and let the atmosphere sink in. We were the only visitors.

We spent the next few days visiting different sites around the island, watching sunrises and sunsets and sampling the local delicacies. The water was beautiful (but a bit too cold to swim in) and the views of the sea at any time of the day was spectacular.

I sketched the first sunrise we saw, the light was neon pink and orange over the sea…

This is one of the beaches we visited, we almost always had them to ourselves. The water was turquoise and the sand was soft. Incredible.

From here, we took another ferry to our next destination - Ojika Island…

BEYORG 'Book of Organic Wonders' project

I created an illustration for BEYORG’s 2021 special Christmas ‘Book of Organic Wonders’, which is a sort of advent calendar containing organic cosmetics from Australian brand A.O.R.

I love how the illustrations are spread out onto the separate drawers on the box!

Here you can my sketches for the illustration, from stage one to the final stage before I start doing the actual artwork. In between these two stages the client made revisions and requested more animals and flowers. I designed the illustration to be partially pen and ink (animals and people) and for the botanical elements to be painted.

The illustration has also been used on a lovely tote bag.

I think it would be lovely, once you’ve used all the cosmetics and eaten the jam, to reuse the box for keeping things in!

You can purchase the box on the BEYORG website here.

Nagasaki visit

Last weekend we went to Nagasaki for one day and managed to do an amazing amount!

We visited Dejima, the island where the first Europeans who visited and traded with Japan lived. It’s in the process of being restored as a historic site, and the museum and buildings were fascinating.

And then we spent the rest of the day eating the local specialities (Turkish rice, champon, castella), wandering the streets, and riding the awesome old trams!

Nagasaki totally charmed me. One day was just not long enough. Can’t wait to visit again!

Art Biotop

I just got back from a wonderful week in Tochigiken, staying in an airbnb and working from home, but taking time out to go for walks in the mountain air and visit a few local spots. One of those spots was Art Biotop in Nasu.

It’s a water garden designed by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami. It was truly magical. I wandered around the pools, admiring the reflections of the trees and watching tiny frogs jumping and hiding in the mud at the bottom of each pool…

I sketched a little, sitting on one of the carefully placed rocks, and marvelled at the balance of everything.

A beautiful white heron flew in and walked right past me as I sketched, totally unafraid. If you’re ever in the area, I really recommend a visit!

art auction 2

I’m extremely happy to say that my newest mokuhanga print, Pink Anemone, raised US$210 towards women’s rights charities in the US through @stillwerise.

We need to help each other, however we can! Thanks, as always, for your wonderful support, Mariko x

art auction

I was super happy to donate a little etching to @artiststakeaction when I was in California, as they are raising money for all sorts of important causes. This week it went online and there was quite a bit of bidding over the print and I really hope the winner will love it! I wonder if they are someone who likes to sew…

I have also donated one of my newer mokuhanga prints to the upcoming auction by Still We Rise, who raise money for alot of women’s causes. It starts on monday, and more information can be found on their website and instagram.

Every little counts, and I hope my artwork can make the world a tiny bit better. M x

a trip to the countryside

After a succession of grey rainy weeks in Tokyo, it was a pleasure to take a few days off and visit the countryside. We stayed in 2 cabins, the first near Karuizawa, the second in Gunma. I sketched a little…

…and spent the rest of the time walking, taking photographs, and eating many, many different kinds of apples.

I already can’t wait to go on another trip…

Illustrator's Fair

I’m extremely happy to be taking part in the online Illustrator’s Fair again this year. It aims to promote the work of over 100 contemporary Illustrators as part of the London Design Festival.

I’ve added lots of lovely new prints to my online shop especially for the Fair, including some of my recently completed Dusk landscape prints, as well as many of my florals.

You can find out more about the Fair here, and I do hope you’ll take a look around, both at my website and shop, and those of all the other great featured illustrators.

COPE Wildfires book

This summer, to coincide with the California Wildfires season, we launched the new COPE picture book.

For the first time, the COPE team visit two different locations to study a natural disaster…

They go to South Africa first, to look at the effects of the large wildfires that happened in Knysna…

…and then move on to California and the Sonoma fires. I was especially pleased and honoured to get the chance to draw a portrait of San Francisco’s Fire Chief, who supported the book.

It’s always hard doing the research for the books, these disasters are getting more common due to increasing climate change, but I hope that they’ll save the lives of children who’ll be more prepared and know what to do in they find themselves in the midst of an emergency situation.

As always, you can read the books for free on the COPE website. Be prepared!

daily constitutional

It’s that funny time of year in Tokyo, as summer ends, when it’s occasionally sunny and hot, and then the next day it’s raining and cool. I’ve been walking every day since I got out of quarantine, taking photos of the local area. I love this mix of urban and green, and there are always so many interesting details to be found…

I love finding the growing things in the nooks and crannies of buildings, and the little pots of plants that line almost every narrow street.

Korean Beauty Secret

Korean beauty products have become all the rage, and my friend Karen in HK has her own store selling them, called Korean Beauty Secret. She started with a tiny, tiny store, and then gradually, as her products became more popular, she upgraded into larger and larger spaces until finally this year she opened two new specially-designed stores inside shopping malls.

The original logo I created for KBS had a lady with a flower on her head, and then I added another lady with a spotty ribbon, who took over as the main logo image. I used the flower lady to create an illustration for KBS postcards and mailers, which has now been used on the store hoarding, and instore, on picture walls.

Here’s a detail of the lady in gold foil stamping on pink, that was used on a large paper shopping bag, and some pink satin ribbons.

This is one of the newly opened stores - you can see my illustration on the wall behind the cashier, and the revamped logo above the door.

Hope the brand continues its success from here!

sustainable editoral

Here’s a pen and ink illustration for the cover of Grocery Business Magazine that I completed recently. It’s about Kroger, a supermarket chain in the US, that is making efforts to be more environmentally sustainable.

It was really interesting to do the research for this piece, and find ways to create icons for all the important elements of this subject. You can read the article here. Every little helps!

I love seeing how art directors and designers use my illustrations in websites too…

afternoon tea week

This week is Afternoon Tea Week in the UK, celebrating this great British tradition. I love making the treats for afternoon tea, especially cucumber sandwiches (no crusts) and lemon drizzle cake.

These photos are from last year, but they show off my ceramic cakestands nicely - both the red and white Hong Kong toile version, and the award-winning green and gold Hong Kong Willow version below.

There are a variety of cakestands with my illustrations available from faux in HK if you’re looking to get one for yourself or a gift.

Edition Basel residency

I’ve just completed a virtual artists residency with Edition Basel in Switzerland. I was in California, and worked on mokuhanga prints, and then we all got together on zoom every evening from all over the world and discussed what we’d been doing.

We collectively chose the theme of ‘Übergang’ for our residency, a German word meaning transition/change/boundary. I made a series of prints of the view from the balcony, looking at the dusk/sunset/twilight skies. And then made them into accordian-fold artists books, that show a different view depending on which angle you view them from.

This weekend a show is being held at the Basler Papiermuhle in Basel, with everyone’s work, either in person, or on screens for those of us participating from abroad. I managed to send in some of my flat prints, but also showed the finished folded pieces on a screen.

It was lovely to meet so many new printmakers, and take part in some lively conversations over the course of the week.

These are some of the experimental prints I made, using 4 blocks and a variety of colours…

I haven’t really tried to use the whole paper like this for a very long time, and I had fun inking up the blocks in random painterly ways, and not worrying about making exact editions!

I set up a low table for the residency and spent the whole week here, carving, designing, printing, cutting and glueing…

I spent the first day of the residency seeing if I could design, carve and print all in one day - turns out I can! I made this small series of bird prints, that can be viewed from any way up.

One day I hope I’ll be able to visit Basel and the amazing Druckwerk printstudio in person…

Tokyo Summer exhibition

I showed three new mokuhanga prints in the Summer Mokuhanga Fair organised by MI-LAB in 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo last weekend. I wish I could’ve attended!

Everyone who exhibited was invited to try some new washi papers from Ozu Washi, and one of Holbein paints new seasonal paint palettes. I really enjoyed this part if it, trying materials that were new to me.

I’m hoping to make many new works with these materials and continue exploring the theme of gardens, flowers, and how we see them.