Hokusai and Bamboo

 On Wednesday I met a friend to take a look around British Museum's, it's called 

The Great Picture Book of Everything  - which could be over playing it a bit but it does seem that in the Japan of his time he was pretty one of the go-to-guys for illustrating books

There's a lot of stuff that I got from the exhibition including that not having seen various things in the flesh does not rule out making illustrations (various animals).

The exhibition is of material held by the British Museum and chronologically visitors can see the work of the artist developing.


 Of course much as Mona Lisa dictates a certain link with Leonardo Da Vinci so 'The Great Wave is forever Hokusai - There are quite a number of prints from the blocks of the famous woodcuts The British Museum has 3 of them and the vintage of them can be seen by the quality of the print (older ones have bits missing)


Craft Week 


After Design week it' time for the Artisans and London had a week of craft kicking off on 4th October.
Having spent time in HK I could not resist the joys of Bamboo (It's used for scaffolding there - strong and light it has much to commend it in terms of a sustainable material ).

 The people at 180 The Strand - 'Crafts On Peel'  spoke about how the craft is being kept alive and showed examples of the work which are created largely without drawings and written plans.



 


























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 41 carving clay

Image
 On Thursday Uté gave some more on how we might proceed with the clay we had started forming the week before. One thing that was useful was using plan and elevation views and orthogonal views to help us decide how we could handle the removal of material by carving. we were able to use the clay to give us an idea of  the physical material we would use by making an outline of the projections. I was working on a 3D 'Hedgehog' and it was pointed out that this could be Kitsch and also that it at some stages  looked a bit like a hippopotamus - hopefully I moved away from this and was able to convey spikes by marking the clay with holes. Sitting the item on a plinth Next week we'll do some more work on our clay and also have some time to experiment with Cement Fondu - and plaster casts. I am interested to try and create something around a  beef steak to denote gluttony 
Read more

Day 13 - Behind the mask

Image
Monday 11th was another Fine Art day (aren't they all) with Heidi Some of the interventions identified    Masks were a big part of the art of Momento Mori & 'Behind the mask another Mask'   was a phrase we  reflected on from the 2017 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of the work where YBA artist Gillian Wearing  looked at the oeuvre of Claude Cahun   who lived a very individual life.  many artists have been involved in areas that confront themselves and the masks they construct.. Cindy Sherman, Leigh Bowery (painted as a nude by Lucian Freud) , Maurizio Anzeri  and Marlene Dumas   (I visited an exhibition of Dumas' work in 2015 ) ere used as starting off points.   Other artists mentioned were Turner Prize winner Lubaina Hamid and John Stezaker And the experimentation we looked at  was around working/intervening with an image of ourselves using the above artists as influences . I suppose the idea that...
Read more

Day 66 -Core Writing, describing and pitching and Rod's book

Image
 This weeks' core was about how words can be used and also Rod provided an insight into the enterprise behind his book - which seemed to be quite a mixed experience for him. Artists often struggle to 'sell' ideas or themselves - imposter syndrome can loom large. Practice and input from friends will help - manage your emotions as best you can.
Read more