Julianne Paintings, music and musings

finally....

2010-07-19T12:45:00.004+09:00

It's been quiet up here, I haven't painted much the past year or so, more focussed on music and other things. But it's time to brush off the cobwebs, as I'm off to Italy in August for a month of outdoor landscape painting at the Jerusalem Studio School summer program, headed by Israel Hershberg and his co-teachers. We'll be staying at and painting the landscape around a former monastry on top of a hill just out of Siena, Tuscany, as well as weekly day trips to see some of the artistic treasures that Italy holds. I'm sooo looking forward to 4 solid weeks of doing nothing but being outdoors with paints and easel again, not to mention the joy of getting my painting butt kick-started back into action by the master teachers there!

In the class I did in France with Rita Natarova a few years ago, I really loved the way of working with colour shapes (or 'colour spots' as she called them) that Rita teaches; she studied with Israel Hershberg and I'm pretty sure we will be working in a similar way - of placing one colour shape next to another. With Rita we worked indoors with the model, so bringing this to the landscape, my real love, in a learning situation is going to be truly wonderful!

Lake Illawarra sunsets

2009-02-08T16:19:00.011+09:00

I'm currently in Australia enjoying the wonderful weather! Here's a couple of paintings of Lake Illawarra.

Last Light, Lake Illawarra; oil on linen
First painting for 2009!

Day's End, Lake Illawarra; oil on linen
The light ran out before I had finished this one, but I don't think I'll do anything further to it, I'm kinda liking it the way it is.

Some from 2008... part 3 Oz

2009-02-08T15:18:00.011+09:00

Last September I was in Australia and had the fortune of taking a plein air landscape class in Grafton with Clayton Beck, a wonderful artist and teacher who was vising Oz from the US. It was my first outdoor class, and first landscape class, and I absolutely loved it. Clayton's a great teacher, I learned a lot. Although I'm still pretty new to landscape painting, it's definitely where my heart and soul lie. There's nothing like being outdoors painting!

A couple done during the class:

Clarence River - afternoon, oil on linen

Cloud studies, oil on linen

I also managed to sneak up to Brisbane to do a couple of days of Clayton's Head Studies class. I'd love to do his 5 week summer class in Chicago one of these years. Here's one of my studies.
(This photo's pretty crappy, I'm travelling right now, but will take a better pic after I get back and replace this one. )

Contemplation, oil on linen

After my time in Grafton I headed north and hung out with some good friends near Byron Bay. This was painted on a friend's property where I was staying in Wooyong.

Malachai Morning, oil on linen

Below is a quick sketch painted one morning, at Lake Illawarra down on the NSW south coast, a hop, skip and jump away from my sister's place.

Lake Illawarra, morning; oil on linen

Some from 2008... part 2 Chiba area

2009-02-08T14:16:00.009+09:00

The Dreaming Boat, oil on linen
Last July I started living part time in Chiba, on the coast. Summer out there was bliss.
This is the early morning view out my bedroom window. (apologies for the glare in the photo).

Oshibi Afternoon, oil on linen
Quick oil sketch at the end of the day of the 'back yard' view from the house of the rice fields. The smell of the rice growing is amazing - it hits you as soon as you go outside.

Mikado lotus, oil on linen
Had fun painting this, the first time I'd seen white lotuses.

Some from 2008... part 1 florals

2009-02-08T14:06:00.003+09:00

Catchup from last year!

Bursting Forth, Sakura, oil on linen
This was painted in two sittings at Inokashira Koen last April.

Sakura, oil on linen
done one bleak windy afternoon near Kawasaki.

Iris, oil on linen
Korakuen's iris garden. Tripods and easels weren't allowed, so I sat on the path and painted with the canvas on my lap.

Natural Journeys - exhibition

2008-12-09T16:59:00.005+09:00

I'm excited to be having first solo exhibition in Tokyo, at the Shiba Park Hotel, in The Fifteens gallery space. It runs until 10th Jan 2009, and is open from 3pm-11pm daily.

There are around 40 paintings, mostly oils, mostly painted from life. Please pop down if you're in that neck of the woods. For those interested in combining a gallery visit with live music, I'm also going to be singing jazz at the hotel on their Friday jazz nights in December and 24/25, and also 9th January. Further music info can be found here on my website.

The opening night was a real blast! To celebrate I performed my own music to a nice cosy crowd of friends. The band - some of my favourite players - Andy Bevan, Jeff Curry and Andy Matsukami were smoking hot and so much fun to play with, plus a couple of wonderful musician friends sat in with us (thanks Katherine, Bruce and Chris!) It was quite amazing to have my music and paintings all happening at the same time! Everyone had a great night and I look forward to my next show opening!

It's been a long time between posts! Over the coming weeks I'll be uploading some of the paintings I've done this year, better late than never!! - so please come back again soon.

Catching up.....

2008-02-09T02:44:00.000+09:00

Being the middle of winter seems like a good time to catch up a bit from the summer...

Here are some studies I did during the month long class I did with Rita Natarova, last summer at Argenton Chateau in France.

Rita Sleeping, oil on taped canvas, approx 24 x 20cm

This was my favourite figure painting for the whole month, the very last one I did - an oil sketch of Rita herself done in about an hour and a half. At around 4pm on the final day she and posed for the few of us who were left. The pefect model, she didn't move at all (actually, she lay down promptly fell fast asleep!)

This next one is of our model....
Study of Eliza, oil on stretched canvas, approx 55 x 46cm

This was the final 'official' classwork we did, I think I did about two or so days work on this one. I enjoyed the right-brained focus of the method Rita was teaching us. The main focus wasn't perfect drawing but to work on getting the colour shapes right. The class was fantastic, and I have plenty to go on with on my own once the weather warms up and I start yearning to pick up my brushes again.

Below is a shot of some of my studies all together. Some of these were done in 25 mins, some were done with just palette knife and limited palette, some were done over two days, using glazes on the second day. We did lots of quicker studies to get us focussing on the big shapes, beginning with palette knife to stop us trying to get into details too early. Then we started to work larger with longer poses. Rita's principal was always the same - nail the big colour shapes first, placing one colour spot (or shape) next to another, whether the painting is going to take 25 mins or 25 days!

About a month ago I returned to playing around with some inner landscapes, using gouache, and more recently oils. I made another stealth kit for painting in breaks at gigs, this time with gouache and a waterbrush and some watercolor paper. It works great, whether I want to sketch or simply do some colourful doodling.

But apart from that, there hasn't been much painting cos the main focus of late has been music. Since early January my life has been 'taken over' by a 12 week online mixing/mastering class I'm taking at Berklee Music College. I'm doing my best to demystify the world of EQ and dynamics and effects processing, something up till now I've never been able to do. The course is great, very intense and for me very challenging! I have no ambitions to become a mixing engineer, my own goals are simply to be able to get a better sound in my home recordings and understand it all more deeply. Funny how so many of my musician friends find this stuff so easy to grasp without needing to take any courses to learn it! But for whatever reasons my brain ain't wired that way, so I have to go over and over the lessons and examples again and again as I struggle on....

I recently began playing around with song ideas on my sketchpad computer-based 'studio', for the first time in a long long time. I'm really excited about what I sense I'll be able to create musically with today's technology, and it'll be great if I can also improve my engineering 'skills' along the way. It does feel like I'm about to enter into a new phase of songwriting/composition, and that's very exciting!

End of summer lotuses

2007-09-27T00:47:00.001+09:00

Lotuses, oil on taped linen, 21 x 26.5cm

After returning to Tokyo from my travels I was still able to catch the tail end of the lotus season, to my great joy. This was painted over 2 sessions at Shinobazu-ike, the lotus pond down the bottom of Ueno Park, though the photo is from the end of the first session. The changes are pretty subtle from this version.

I notice that a lot of outdoor painters tend to spend one session on their paintings. I find that - for me, anyway, some paintings need more than one session to complete them. Weather and location permitting, I really enjoy returning to the 'scene of the crime' more than once to work on a painting. In those times, since most of the painting is already down on the canvas, I find I tend to work a lot slower and more meditative. I find myself 'listening' quietly, allowing the painting and scene speak to me, telling me what needs to be done (or what needs to be left alone). Sometimes this may only require a few subtle dabs of paint. Sometimes it's more.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is to know when to stop. It's probably a lifelong process that one gradually gets better and better at. But I find the more deeply receptive I am to what the painting's trying to say to me, the better I am at knowing that moment.

In that way it's like writing music or improvising - if you're writing you have to constantly listen inside to what's trying to come through, or if you're improvising, you need to be constantly listening to the music and the other musicians around you. Once you stop listening, you kill the music by enforcing your own. Or (with improvising) you kill the beautiful communication and energy between the musicians. Every musician knows what it's like to jam with others where there's at least one person who isn't listening but is off on their own tangent. It really kills it for the rest.

Lately I find I'm starting see more and more similarities between music and painting. They tend to complement each other well and often cross over into the other, even blurring the boundaries at times. Having spent a lifetime working with one craft, I'm now finding there are skills I've learned musically that are really helping me with my journey into painting and seeing. It's quite fascinating, and also interesting to note that many artists are also musicians and vice versa.

Two Argenton landscapes

2007-09-26T22:57:00.000+09:00

Balcony View, oil on taped linen, 35 x 16cm

This was the view from our back balcony of the place we stayed in France while doing the portrait figure course with Rita Natarova. Every morning I'd wake up to those lovely white cows when I looked out my window, so one morning I decided to try and paint it. It's my first attempt at painting buildings and animals. It took around 2 hours, the painting seemed to paint itself.

The studio was situated in the gorgeous rural medieval village, Argenton-Chateau, about 45 mins drive south-ish from Angers. Maybe 2 hours from the west coast, and toward the south of France.

I had also been eyeing a couple of fields of haybales on my walks in the nearby countryside, so a few days before it was time for us to leave I snuck out of my class for a couple of hours to attempt painting them. Here's the outcome:

Haybales, oil on taped linen , 32.5 x 19cm

It was quite a challenge due to constantly shifting light. The still, clear sunny morning which seemed like it would go on that way all day long decided to call in the clouds. I had begun at a leisurely pace in the sunshine, blocking in a basic underpainting and basic composition and then, as I was beginning to work the light on the haybales, the clouds turned up and began playing dancing games with the sun. This went on back and forth for awhile until eventually the sun disappeared altogether, and at one point there were even a couple of spots of rain, with the sky remaining overcast for the rest of the day.

I may still crop this a weeny bit. I still have a lot of canvas mileage to clock up before I feel able to take full command of (or complete surrender to) a situation of such changeability to its success! But.... I also need to add that producing high quality work when painting outdoors is really only icing on the cake. The process of just being out there, becoming one with the land and the day is really where it's at for me. Painting is an excuse for me to justify spending some quality time hanging out with nature. There's something so special about this process, something there are no words to describe, perhaps it's a secret that outdoor painters share.

A touch of England

2007-09-20T14:56:00.000+09:00

English Roses, oil on linen

I'm back from my adventures in France and England, still catching up on posting here, there's a lot more to come, so stay tuned. I was away doing a one month painting class in France at Studio Escalier with guest teacher, Rita Natarova, (more on that in a future post). Afterwards I passed thru England on my way home, and spent a week in the beautiful scenic Box area, where I went for long walks in the countryside, did a bit of painting, hung out with some friends and sorted out some music publishing at Realworld Publishing.

Singer/songwriter Carole Rowley, who I'd only met once years ago, happened to be in town and generously invited me to stay a few nights with her in nearby Corsham. The roses were in the back garden, begging to be painted.

Here's the setup:

While in Box I also decided to test out my new portrait-painting skills and did a quick oil sketch of Realworld publisher and friend, Rob Bozas as he relaxed reading on his verandah one lazy Sunday afternoon.

Reading the Muse, oil on linen

Although not quite as bold as I had originally envisaged, we were both quite pleased with the likeness and I actually don't mind the quiet vibe.

I'll be uploading more paintings in the next few days so watch this space!

It's been awhile.....

2007-05-05T22:00:00.000+09:00

Just back from a wonderful 6 weeks in Oz, including close to 3 weeks in the Byron Bay area. What a magical time and place! I was in Byron partly holiday and partly to do a 5 day portrait painting workshop with New York artist David Kassan.

The day after the workshop, I went out plein air painting with another participant and fine artist, Mac Robertson. This quick oil sketch was done one sunset in the Goonengerry hills after a day of shower storms.

We had a wonderful day. Lots of fun driving around scouting locations in an area we'd never been before in his van that was totally decked out for painting. It was totally fun to paint outdoors with like-minded company and, for me especially, in the beautiful wide open vistas of the Australian landscape that I have dreamed to return to.

I could easily have spent a week or more just driving around painting, but alas that will have to wait for some other time. It's still early days for me with outdoor landscape painting, next trip to Oz I will definitely make time to get out there again more than once. I've now got a basic oils kit to take out with me that I'm leaving there waiting for my return.

I also wound up recording vocals in Goonengerry on several tracks of a CD project for Israeli composer/musician Avisahi Barnatan, co-founder of internationally renowned world music group, Sheva. I can't wait to hear what he does with it, the music is lush and inspiring, and it was a total joy to sing on it and work with him.

There seems to be a wonderful creative network of people in the northern rivers area inspired, no doubt, by the stunning country with it's hills, rainforests and miles of beaches. I have a feeling I'll be spending more time there in the future.

Quick Study

2006-12-22T17:25:00.000+09:00

approx 47 x 35cm oil on taped linen

Finally had time to get back to the life painting class, first time since early September, nice to pick up the oils again.
Closeup:

DJ 19

2006-12-03T19:32:00.000+09:00

Caran d'ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons and waterbrush, watercolor paper, approx 16.5 x 16cm

This was done last Friday at the studio working on a new Ambrozia song. It's been a long time since I sketched purely for myself, and I must say it's been very nice to pull out the ol' sketchbook again. Been too busy to paint much, aside from spending an intense October working on sumi-e style artwork for the soon-to-be released novel, Accidental Christ (which, I also did website music for). I went straight from that via a quick trip to Kyoto and Tenkawa (in Nara prefecture) to spending the last 3 or more weeks madly writing lyrics and recording vocals for the third Ambrozia album, due to be released in March. The second Ambrozia album, Real 4 Life was newly released a few weeks ago, the CD release party last week was a real blast! Here is DJ 19's site, for those interested.

Finally my life seems to be slowing down enough for me to think about doing a few sketches and maybe even paintings once more.

I'm very pleased with the way the Accidental Christ artwork has come out - it was quite an undertaking - over 25 images will be used in the book, some images popped out easily and quickly, while others needed to be coaxed along a little more before they were willing to reveal themselves. It was nice to return to the world of sumi-e, I've not done any traditional sumi-e painting for a long time. The portable sumi-e pen-brush / waterbrush kit I've been playing around with the past few months was a perfect foil for the project - allowing me to work quicker than if I were just working with traditional sumi ink and washi paper alone. The book is due to be released in the US in late January.

All the recording I've been doing lately has reminded me how much I absolutely love recording and has inspired me to start thinking again of upgrading my humble home music-sketchpad studio with some better equipment to get me started exploring again. I tend to simply throw on my Microtrack recorder with a stereo mic while playing keyboard and singing song ideas, it would be nice to take those further on my sketchpad studio, something I haven't done for a long while. Hehe, I have a bit of a backlog waiting to for further exploration!

I'm also keen to start on a collaborative project with shakuhachi playing friend, Bruce Heubner. We have been trying to tee up each other's schedules for nearly a year now, finally it seems we are going to have some time to get together over the next few months. I will keep my fingers crossed. Apart from working with Ambrozia I've had a bit of a sabatical from music projects this year, having found myself immersed in the world of the visual arts. It feels nice to start thinking of returning to creating music again from a new perspective.

Candela farewell gig sketches

2006-09-21T12:08:00.001+09:00

About a month ago I went to a farewell gig for longtime friend/musician, Robbie Belgrade, who has gone back to San Fran with his family after 18 years in Japan. The evening was a real blast. It's always great to see Candela live, and it was a joy to sit in with them and even jam on one of my originals with them and the other great musicians who sat in that nite. It was also just nice to see and hang out with a bunch of musician friends who I usually don't see unless I'm working with them. I spent all my time sketching when I wasn't jamming on stage.

These are all done in a watercolour sketch book using Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble wax crayons and a waterbrush. I love this medium for stealth sketching. It's so nice to be able to use colour with the waterbrush.

Andy Bevan hitting it on flute

Mark Tourian and his beloved bass

Robbie, the man himself, chopping out on the tablas.

Robbie on bass clarinet

Robbie on Riq (yeh, I know, the hands suck.......)

Chris Hardy, wonderful percussionist who I almost never get a chance to play with cos he's so busy.

Jonathan Katz chopping out on the pianica

Jonathan on piano - I still have to fix the colour temperature of the neck.

Bruce Huebner playing his unique brand of wild jazz shakuhachi - he moved very early on, so I couldn't finish it.

The only downside with the Neocolor crayons is that you can't really do lights over darks, I may eventually add a few light colored contes to the mix, or perhaps some of those Holbein water-soluble pastels. I do like how there's no dust mess to deal with while stealthing.

Joni, an oil sketch

2006-09-12T14:07:00.000+09:00

oil on taped linen, 24 x 32cm
Singer, voice actor and good friend, Joni passed thru town from Vancouver. I took the opportunity to christen my stealth oils kit after we all ate too much delicious carrot cake at Good Honest Grub in Hakajuku. The stealth kit worked a treat, though I might need to make it even more stealthier by working smaller if I were somewhere where the people running the place didn't know me.

The life painting classes and all the painting I've been doing latley must be starting to pay off - it's a long held dream of mine starting to come true, I've always wanted to be able to do oil sketches like this - done casually, loosely and quickly (took maybe around an hour or so), capturing the likeness and essense of the person. Working in darker lighting also helps find the values easier, though the colors aren't always what I'd expect once it's under proper lighting. But that can make for some interesting surprises.

Lotus Bridge

2006-08-30T10:06:00.000+09:00

oil on prepared paper, 18 x 24cm (approx 7 x 9.5")

This was done over two sessions on location. I was painting with a friend and was struck by the sweet composition with the bridge in there. Usually I'm so besotted with the flowers and leaves I tend to hone in up close, so it's a nice change to do something with distance in there. It sold to a passer-by before I was able to take it off the easel. It might be fun to try a larger version at some point, though I'd probably want to do another small location study first.

Here's a shot of the actual scene, with my improvised wet canvas holder on the easel...

Lost in Lotus Land

2006-08-24T11:15:00.000+09:00

oil on linen, 21.5 x 27cm (approx 8.5 x 10.5")

The past few weeks I've been on a summer lotus-painting marathon at Shinobazu-ike, in Ueno Park. This painting is probably my favourite so far. It's what I'd call a kinda sumie style oil sketch. It was done pretty quickly (for me), and I'd just finished packing up my gear when a heavy downfall of rain decided to hit. Whew, well timed.
This photo was hard to get the colors and tonal values right, the background may (or may not) be a tad too much toward the yellow and/or a tad too dark on your monitor.

lotus season

2006-08-02T00:17:00.000+09:00

Okay, okay, I know, it's not a painting, it's a photo that I took yesterday. But hey, it's the beginning of August and the lotus season is now in full swing. I've been too busy to get down there very much but this month I will be getting there to paint as much as possible.

train sketches

2006-07-17T20:33:00.000+09:00

It can be a lot of fun to sketch on the trains. Sleeping passengers and people engrossed in doing email on the mobile phones are good candidates are they're unlikely to move much. The challenge is to capture them before they get off or before someone stands in the way and obscures my view.

"Long Day" sumi liquid ink on watercolor paper, 19.2 x 24cm
Done recently.

These others were done last month.
I started sketching this guy just after one stop and he suddenly woke up and jumped off at the next stop.

"Cat Nap" sumi liquid ink on watercolor paper, 14 x 18cm

A friend says this next one reminds him of Jackie Onassis,.... but this Jackie is male, happily doing email on his mobile phone, headphones hanging around his neck....

"Jackie" sumi liquid ink on watercolor paper, 14 x 18cm

contes on the boat

2006-07-14T02:08:00.000+09:00

Summer is here and it's a great time to be out on the water. Thought I'd post a couple of conte sketches I've been doing in gig breaks at my Friday nite boat gig. The breaks are short, and I never know when someone is going to move or get up and walk away, the usual story with sketching, except for Greg, the barman, who was kind enough to pose for me. Even still, he was moving around a bit, but at least I knew he wasn't about to walk away....

"Yukata" - conte on toned paper, 33.5 x 24.5cm (approx 13.25 x 9.6")

"Thank God It's Friday"conte on toned paper, 33.5 x 24.5cm (approx 13.25 x 9.6")

"Greg, A Quick Sketch"conte on toned paper, 33.5 x 24.5cm (approx 13.25 x 9.6")

The boat runs back and forth from Hinode pier to Odaiba, doing 3 circuits during the evening. For those who aren't local, that's in Tokyo Bay, crossing under the famed Rainbow Bridge. The boat itself looks like a spaceship and was designed by a well-known anime artist (whose name escapes me). It looks way cool. I'll have a few more weeks worth of sketches and after that the musicians will be rotated so I will be landbound once more. There's a lovely view from Odaiba pier at night in the summer with all the traditional party boats floating on the bay all lit up in many colors. If I can find the time I'd love to go down there one night with my oils and paint them. In case you're wondering what the boat looks like, here are some pics on a blog I happened upon called frangipani. And a daytime "promo shot" in case that wasn't enough for you.

"Curvy Bow"

2006-07-01T11:37:00.000+09:00

liquid sumi ink on watercolor paper approx 9 x 16cm (3.5 x 6.25 inches)

Last week I had my first chance to play piano and sing with an orchestra at an Australian cultural event. This is a quick sketch I did of one of the violinists at the rehearsal before I had to get up and play.

rainy season Dreaming: Ajisai

2006-06-26T02:46:00.000+09:00

oil on canvas paper, 12 x 17cm (approx 4.75 x 6.75 inches)

I love hydrangeas, especially when they're in their blue/violet stage. These flowers epitomise the rainy season for me, I've been wanting to paint some for a few years now.

This was painted during a quick window of time that I found myself with.

lotus leaves - quick sketch

2006-06-25T02:15:00.000+09:00

liquid sumi ink on watercolor paper,
23.5 x 19cm (approx 9.25 x 7.5 inches)

I recently passed through Shinobazu-ike in Ueno Park and had a chance to do a quick sketch of the growing lotus leaves with my portable sumi-e brush-pen/waterbrush setup.
Just managed to catch a couple of leaves before it got too dark and then I had to dash off to work. (Apologies for the badly angled photo).

The lotus season will hit full swing during July and August and, time permitting, I hope to spend a lot of time out there at the pond doing more sumi-e style sketches and working in oils.

Fun at Mandala

2006-06-24T23:24:00.000+09:00

A couple of conte sketches of composer/producer/arranger/multi-talent and friend, Akira Inoue at his recent Cafe Criteria Vol. 3 gig at Mandala in Aoyama.

This first one was done very quickly, just had enough time to get the basics before the band took a break. (believe it or not he's actually playing keyboard here!).

conte on toned Muse paper, approx 23.5 x 30cm (9.25 x 11.75 inches)

It was quite dark in the venue. When it's like that I'm never quite sure how something's going to turn out, it's a good exercise in working tonally.

The sketch below was done in the second set where I had a bit more time with this one, still I feel I captured more of his "Akira-ness" in the previous sketch.

conte on Canson Mi-Teintes, approx 21 x 32cm (8.25 x 12.5 inches)

The gig was a lot of fun, assorted music of the kind that's right up Akira's alley.

Akira is responsible for the wonderful viola da gamba/flute arrangement on The Last of Lovers on my album Timeless. He also ran the koto session for the recording of Fuji-san, played some kool keyboard tracks on several songs and offered helpful advice and sharp ears for various aspects of the project.

I've known Akira for years. We started out doing demos of some of my songs way back when in the hope of attracting a record deal with him at the producer's helm. Although he never produced the album it was a good beginning and I've learned a lot from this man.

He is also humorously known in certain sectors of England as Akira "20 minutes" Inoue due to his (un-Japanese) fashion of living on Brazilian time.

His lovely wife, Sumi is also a wonderful singer.

2006-06-10T00:54:00.000+09:00

I've finally taken the plunge and joined a life painting class in order to sharpen my drawing/painting skills. Here's the first attempt, oil on canvas.

Thursday night

2006-05-28T23:43:00.000+09:00

It's been awhile, so I thought I'd just post a coupla quickies here. These were done last week in my short breaks at a hotel gig. Cartridge sumi ink and water, 20.3 x 12.7cm (8 x 5") cold pressed watercolor paper .

This was from the week before, slightly larger, paper not quite as nice....

My experiments continue with the sumi brush pens and waterbrush. Finally starting to get the hang of it. I like the latest watercolor pad I'm using on the first two sketches, definitely the best paper I've tried so far. With these brush pens I need to use paper that doesn't absorb the ink too quickly so that I can use the waterbrush to get decent gradations. If I was using a real sumi-e brush that could load multiple gradiations on the same brush, washi paper would be fine to use, but washi just doesn't work so well with this portable setup.

"Waiting to Soundcheck"

2006-05-16T01:46:00.000+09:00

conte on grey paper, approx 33 x 25cm

A few weeks ago I wrote about a gig I did with the band, Fuse. Here's a quick sketch I did of some of the band members while we were waiting to soundcheck. Note the Mac powerbooks Gary and Lorenzo brought along with them. But hey, we knew it would be a long afternoon (that's why I brought my sketchpad, hehe). Apologies to Lorenzo on the far right - this doesn't look like Lorenzo! He kept moving around too much to catch him. I'm grateful to Kaleb and Gary for hanging longer in one spot.
I've always wanted to do a sketch or paint a series of Tokyo musicians.

An Unexpected Sketch

2006-05-14T02:16:00.000+09:00

"While I Was on the Phone"
conte on toned paper 24 x 33cm

Yesterday was one of those drizzly cold days that are just made for chilling out at home. I wound up on the phone for several hours with friends and family. I didn't mind, I was sketching at the same time. I hope they didn't mind, (no-one protested when I told them). My weathered and worn ol' ugh boot happened to be lolling around nearby begging for me to sketch it, so what could I do but comply.
If I hadn't sketched I wouldn't have been on the phone very long at all cos I was chomping at the bit to be painting, so I had the best of both worlds - relaxed conversation, which also provided valuable distraction from thinking too much about what I was sketching.

There were a couple of times when I couldn't switch zones fast enough - where I found my thought processes moving faster than I could speak, or perhaps I was speaking faster than I could think. At any rate I found myself stammering and falling over my words and needing to regroup. I guess my brain was in "right brain" mode rather than "speech" mode, though my listening was just fine. I was happy to listen more than talk, hehe, made me a better listener than talker for a change.

Later on in the evening I watched a DVD of the wonderful artist, Robert Johnson doing a rose painting demonstration. I am in awe of people like him who are able to talk so articulately while painting such beautiful and complicated works, while here I am doing a mere light sketch, but still stumbling over the odd phrase! I remember Kristin Newton telling us in our drawing class that this inability to talk while painting or drawing is very common with artists. I'm assuming that the right brain temporarily overrides and shuts out the left brain faculties. Some people may be more "brain ambidextrous" than others, though even with Robert, there were times when his commentary trailed off as he was obviously drawn deeper into his painting, especially in the latter stages of the demonstration. I know if I'm deep inside a painting I definitely don't want to have to come back to thinking mode. It's kinda like being rudely awoken out of a wonderful dream and having to suddenly be wide awake and fully functioning.

As for the ugh boot itself: a coupla minor issues that could use fixing, but - could I be bothered? I think I'll paint it in oils instead, what a fun subject!

"Childhood Memory"

2006-05-11T02:26:00.000+09:00

Oil on canvas paper 12 x 17cm (4.75 x 6.75")

When I was a kid my aunts used to give my sister and I those little trolls. We wound up with quite a flourishing community of them. They were superbeings that could do anything and tended to get involved in whatever activities we humans were into at the time.

A friend visiting Tokyo recently dragged me into Kiddyland to get a couple of troll moneyboxes for her nephews. I grabbed one too just for fun (it has a slot in the back).

Man, it was hard to paint! But I'm happy with how it turned out, quirky proportions and all! I really learned a lot doing it. The hair was pure fun and the imperfect proportions just add to it's charm as far as I'm concerned. At any rate, here I was more interested in applying the paint than perfect drawing.

Edit: my mother saw this and informed me that she too was troll crazy and provided us with the little ones (the pencil holder / keyring size). Apologies for missing this important credit!

Some song musings

2006-05-02T00:56:00.000+09:00

I've got a couple of new songs on the boil.

One of these I've been playing around with recording whatever words (and chords) happen to pop out that day into the dinky little stereo mic on my Microtrack recorder. I now have about 4 different versions of lyrics.

Although I don't always work this way I do enjoy letting a song unfold and take it's own shape in a different way than it would if I were working on manuscript paper and writing everything down as I go. Eventually the lyrics will tell me what they want to say with a more focussed clarity and my 4 versions will become 1 version.

Sometimes a song idea will pop out of nowhere at one of my "no-pressure" gigs, often when I'm least expecting it. I enjoy following its unknown path while performing live cos, even being a no-pressure gig I literally have to come out with something that makes sense musically.

How nice to just flow with it and see where it goes. I can't just stop in the middle to try and figure out some chords for a bridge, I have to keep going no matter what. I've birthed at least a handful of songs this way, including these new ones I'm currently exploring.

I love living inside the energy of a song, feeling it work its magic within me, speaking to me in some deep mysterious language, changing me forever in some way through its very presence in my life. Sometimes a new song will shroud me in its aura for days, even weeks, as it works its changes upon me.

First post: "Red Flowers" brushwork and colour explorations, plus a bit about my painting background

2006-04-27T05:54:00.000+09:00

oil on canvas paper 12 x 17cm (4.75 x 6.75")

Last Friday night, I was playing at an event gig with the funk/pop band Fuse at the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo. Afterwards the wonderful guys who did all the flower arrangements were kind enough to let me take home as many as I could carry. I told them I wanted to paint them. "We'd rather people took them than just throw them away" they told me. I'm forever grateful to them. The theme of the night was red, so I now have a mini jungle of lush red blooms in my front room. The above painting is of a couple of them. If I'm able to find the time I'd like to paint these again a little larger.

For the last few months I've resumed lurking at the wonderful online art community, Wet Canvas, yearning to paint but not quite getting it together until recently. Inspired by the "small stuff" threads in the oils forum I decided to try my hand at creating small works in oils on a regular basis. Folk up there of varying painting experience (from newbies to 30 year painting veterans) have all been reporting that doing these small works regularly has been a wonderful enhancer for their painting in general, not to mention the fun of doing them!

For myself, apart from the pure enjoyment of it, I want to use this format of painting to hone my oils skills further. I'm still really only at the beginning of my oil painting journey. Since this is my inaugural first post here, I'll provide a bit of background. I've painted perhaps around 15 paintings in oils since my first one in 2000. Before that I'd only dabbled in water based media, including 6 years of studying sumi-e painting (6 months with Tousui Tanaka and the rest with Ilan Yanizky).
Sumi-e teaches all about capturing the essence of the subject, and Ilan's inspiring style and way of teaching also allowed me to discover and express my love of bold, expressive brushwork and colour. All of this has had immense influence on my painting style. Indeed, my mantra (or perhaps my zen koan) when I paint seems to be "what is the essence?"

I eventually quit the sumi-e class after doing two Betty Edwards' 5 day courses within a month of each other back in 1999 - Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and the follow up Colour course, both taught by Kristin Newton, which basically teach artists' perceptual skills, thus everyone doing these courses tends to make quantum leaps in their ability to see and thus draw (or, in the latter, paint) what they're seeing. This was the first time in my life that I was able to produce anything vaguely realistic, and the Colour course changed my life forever as it allowed me to reach a childhood dream of learning how to mix whatever colour I see, something I had been incapable of in the past. As a result of those classes I found myself wanting to paint more realistically compared to the more symbolistic approach in the style of sumi-e I was studying.

Had I been living in the west, after this I would have gone straight to some kind of art school or regular painting class. However, being in Japan this was more difficult due to the language barrier. So my learning since then has consisted of a couple of drawing classes, two 5 day oil painting workshops in Australia, and lots of self learning from experience, books, DVDs and at art sites such as Wet Canvas.

It's so wonderful to return to painting again after such a long lull. While I was in production for my CD Timeless, it was impossible for me to focus on anything else but the music (and the album artwork, though that was all in the digital realm). When I get caught up in big musical projects like that, or simply busy music work periods, I find it impossible to get into the headspace needed for painting.

It's sometimes odd to feel so passionately inspired about something I might want to paint, and knowing the way I want to paint it, and yet at the same time feel fettered by my lack of technical skills to express myself with paint as powerfully as my spirit yearns to, in the way it's already so accustomed to doing musically, where I'm able to effortlessly sing/play a song from the depths of my soul.

The creative spirit feels strong and reasonably well-honed while my hands-on painting experience is still in the early stage, thus there is quite a bit of catching up to do. At any rate I have definitely fallen in love with oils - I love the sensuality of the medium and it totally suits the way I want to paint.

Regular Sketching, Good For the Soul
For the past 4-5 weeks or so, in my breaks at work, I've started sketching people in the venues I play at using conte on grey paper (the paper I'm using comes in books). This has been so much fun and great practice. After filling my first book with sketches, I'm starting to see some improvement. Once I get a few on the computer I'll post them here.
About a week ago I discovered ink-filled synthetic sumi-e brushes. These are like regular ink pens which are filled with ink, except there's a sumi-e brush on the end instead of a nib. I've always known about the black ones, but I have now found grey ink as well - so I've started playing with those as the grey allows me to get the gradations that I so loved about sumi-e. I've started using these ink brushes on white watercolour paper around postcard size to do quick sketches of people on the train (or wherever). I'd still like to add a lighter grey for increased tonal value, so next time I get to the big art store I'll see if I can find one of those synthetic brushes that I've seen which can be filled with water instead of ink. I think they're meant for use with watercolours, however I would use the "water brush" to lighten the grey ink of the other brush. At any rate, all great stuff for honing seeing and drawing skills, though I doubt you could buy those brushes outside of Japan, (except maybe other parts of Asia).

Just to end this post off I've put up another small work that I did last week. More red flowers....

"Red Flowers, White Bowl", oil on canvas paper 17 x 12cm (6.75 x 4.75")