Edo and Postman Pat

Hello friends.
Last year i spent alot of time developing color palette, and also in study of the German silhouette film artist Lotte Reiniger. I mostly fell in love with silhouette film work because it embodied those things that i found fascinating about my childhood watching clay-mation type cartoons like Postman Pat in England. (circa 1980)



But today, i want to look to other influences that have always been there but i've never really addressed, one being early japanese manga, woodblock prints, and learning how to incorporate those styles even more to my work. I also find it interesting to look at the turn of the century and how there was a strong non-verbal dialog between european artists and asian art, and how i believe we are witnessing a "NEO-Japonisme" of today, or a new "Japonisme" of today.

A picture of Hiroshige, and a similar painting by Van Gogh
PLEASE CLICK IMAGE TO SEE THE SIMILAR VAN GOGH PAINTING :: surely
inspired by Hiroshige




So with that, i'm starting to witness this in myself more and more, and i will be looking at artists of the Edo period such as Katsushika Hokusai, Hiroshige,Katsukawa Shunshō, Kanō Masanobu, and many more i'll be researching in the coming weeks. I am finding it particularly interesting to study flowers in their works and also metaphoric meanings in dreams of tidal waves and its relation to spiritual realms.

Some images from the Edo period....
The Great Wave off Kanagawa





I recently finished three new pieces for an upcoming show at Opera Gallery this fall, and begin now, on my body of work for Open Studios in San Francisco. This is a departure, as it was last year too, for me, in that, i plan to delve into a study of Hokusai flowers for a bit. Not sure how many paintings i'd like to do yet, but i find his works amazing, beautiful, and iconographic in many ways.

I also, want to take a step away from painting people over these next few paintings, develop my skillsets in other areas, and focus my detailing on other objects but still maintaining color palettes and techniques found this summer. Doing all this, as a study, so that i might incorporate this learned and developed styling into future paintings, landscapes, and exploring all this within continuing to work with acrylic paint.

Much love friends....to anyone reading.. :)
jenn