Latest (Finished) Painting 最近できた絵

Morning Glories, Size F30 (72.7 x 91 cm), oil on canvas

あさがお、F30号、油彩

I completed this painting in the end of February, and later submitted it to be displayed at the Oita Museum for the 2009 Oita City Exhibition. The painting was commissioned by Benjamin Brown, one of my classmates from the Doshisha University AKP Program in Kyoto where I studied during my junior year of college. This was the first painting I've done in a while that I painted directly using photographs. As a general rule I avoid photographs and draw and paint from direct observation, but when observing morning glories last fall I realized how sensitive and ever-changing morning glories are. Being required to use a photo, now, I also had to address how to express the balance or continuum between focus and blur--an effect that comes so easily to cameras but turned out to be very challanging and practically annoying to me as the painter. Takashi Ono and I also discussed this painting when I went on his FunFanTime show back in March.

この絵は２月に完成したもので、３月の大分市美術展にも出品した作品。私が大学３年生の時に留学していた同志社大学のAKPプログラムで出会った同級生からの注文作品だ。写真を使って描いた作品としてはかなり久しぶり。原則として写真を使わないで直接観察した上で、あるいは観察しながら描くようにしているが、この場合の題材である朝顔をよく観てみたら、一秒ごとにその姿を変えているように見えて、やっぱり写真を使わないと良い絵は描けないな～と気づいた。しかし、いったん写真を使うとなると、ぼんやりしているところからはっきりしているところへの滑らかなグラデーションを表現することの難しさが出てくるから、これはまた私にとって腰に刺さった釘のようなものだった（日本語でも似たようなことわざはあるのかな？）。また、この絵は私が３月に出演した大野タカシFunFanTimeの番組でも話題になった。

Volunteer Work for "Mixed Bathing World" / 混浴温泉世界のボランティア活動

In between painting and cleaning up my studio and getting prepared for bamboo craft training and other things, I've also recently been volunteering to help put together a wall painting designed by Michael Lin on the second floor of the Beppu ferry building. This painting is one of several works that will be on display throughout Beppu for the next three months as part of the contemporary art festival "Mixed Bathing World." The painting is about 4.5 meters tall by 20 meters wide. Almost every day for the last two to three weeks about about 10 volunteers per day have been tracing patterns onto the wall and using rollers and calligraphy brushes to fill in the spaces with water-soluble paint. These pictures are about a week old; the painting by now is probably receiving final touchups in preparation for the festival's opening on April 11th.

竹工芸訓練支援センターに入るための準備をしたり、アトリエから退去するための片付けをするなど、多忙の日々を送っている中、なんとか、別府の国際観光港の二階にあるマイケル・リン壁画作品のボランティア制作補助に数日参加できました。これらの写真は一週間ほど遅れていますが、ボランティア達が壁に転写された花柄の輪郭線をそれぞれの色で埋めていく作業がいかに大変かお分かりになると思います。今は壁画はほとんど出来上がっていて、フェスティバル開幕日となる４月１１日に向けての最終段階としての仕上げが今なされているだろうと思います。完成した作品が楽しみですね。

Other Sodokai Exhibitions / その他の蒼土会の展覧会

２００８年の蒼土会デッサン展に出品した４点から選んだ２点です。左の方は、毎月第３木曜日に行われるヌードデッサンからの描写で、黒ペンで描いてある。第３木曜日以外の木曜日には、参加者は交代しながら中に入ってポーズをして他の参加者に描かれることになるんだけど、そういう会から生まれたケイトリンの後姿です。

These are two of the four total drawings that I submitted to the 2008 spring drawing exhibition held by Sodokai. The nude is one of the models we draw on the third Thursday of every month. For some reason, the two models that come regularly to our drawing class have unusual proportions--their arms are quite short. I'm not sure how obvious it is in this drawing, but it's a classic dilemma of reproducing images from life: should the artist idealize proportions or should the artist draw exactly as he/she sees? When the artist draws an unusually proportioned figure accurately, he/she may get on of two responses: "He's not an accurate drawer," or "Wow, her arms are short." I think it's how the picture is drafted that ultimately determines which one the viewer thinks, but I wish I had more time to investigate this topic.

The drawing below is of Caitlyn lying down. On Thursdays when we don't have models, we take turns posing in the middle--clothes on--and this was Caitlyn's turn.

Every year in early winter, Sodokai holds a small pictures exhibition at a private gallery in Beppu. I submitted this self-portrait to the 2007 exhibition. When I was working full-time for the Oita prefectural government I couldn't find much time to paint large or time-consuming paintings, so many of the paintings I did were small, one-nighters. Most I've thrown away because they weren't very good, but this one I liked enough to keep. I painted it one random night while in my apartment. You can see a shirt and a towel hanging outside on the veranda to dry. Size F3 (27.3 x 22.0 cm), oil on canvas.

毎年初冬に開かれる蒼土会小品展に出品した自画像です。これは２００７年作、出品。大分県に勤めていた時期は長時間、手間を要する絵が描けなく、この絵のように小さく、一晩で仕上げられる絵ばかりだった。ほとんど捨てきたんだけど、結局この絵だけ気に入っている。大分市敷戸町のアパートの一室の中である夜描かれ、外のベランダにはシャツやバスタオルが干してあるのが見える。F3号、カンバスに油彩。

2007 Sodoten Exhibition / ２００７年蒼土展

In the fall of 2007, the Beppu drawing group Sodokai held their annual painting exhibition at the Oite Prefectural Museum in Oita City. This is the one painting I submitted. It's called "hozuki" in Japanese, what Wikipedia translates as a Chinese or Japanese lantern plant, or a bladder cherry. In this case, I ripped off one of the "fruits," placed it upside-down on a cardboard box and pointed a flashlight at it's base. The shininess of the base surface is due to the box being covered by a glossy white paper (it's not exposed cardboard). Size F50 (117 x 91 cm), oil on canvas. The Sodokai group awarded me the New Member's Award for the painting.

２００７年の秋に大分県芸術会館で開かれた蒼土展に出品した作品です。これは「ほおずき」と題して、ほおずきの実を茎からちぎって段ボール箱の上に逆さまに置いて懐中電灯を当てて描いた作品です。油彩で、F50号。初めての蒼土展出品だったので、この絵で蒼土会新人賞を受賞しました。

最初の出品作品たち My First Submissions

２００６年の秋、別府のデッサングループである蒼土会に入会し、毎年春に行われるデッサン展に私が出品することになった。以下、その出品作３点で、どれも鉛筆で描き、それまでのヌードデッサン会（毎月第３木曜日に行われる）で制作したものだ。

In the fall of 2006, I started attending the Sodokai drawing group in Beppu. Every spring they hold a drawing exhibition, and in the spring of 2007 I was invited to submit drawings to the exhibition for the first time. I submitted three separate nude drawings in pencil I had done during the previous months, and here they are:

Back to the Beginning / 元に戻ろう。

I know I won't have much time to draw or paint once I start learning bamboo crafts in April at the Beppu Occupational School, and I realize it's a bit late in the game to start a blog about my drawing and painting activities, but I do want at least friends and family to see my most recent work of the last half-year, at the same time that I want others who are more interested in my bamboo craft endeavors to have an opportunity to see what kind of artistic background I have.

That said, I'm going to go back to the point in time where I moved to Oita prefecture after college graduation in the fall of 2006, and post my drawings and paintings in chronological order (or backward chronological order if you're starting from the top of the blog).

私が大分県竹工芸・訓練支援センターに入ることになったということで、２００９年４月から絵を描く時間がほとんどなくなることは分かっているけれど、最近の絵を見せたいですし、そして見せるなら、最近の絵だけではなくて、大分県に引っ越してきた時点から順番に見せたい気持ちがある。(大学の絵もあるけど、あまりにも多いのでここでは見ません。）僕はこれから竹工芸に熱中することになると思うけど、僕はどういう美術の世界から来ているか、興味のある人にはお見せしたい。僕の竹細工への取り組みは、今まで培ってきた美意識に無意識的にも影響されるだろうから、客観的な立場に立っている他の人こそ、目で観てその関係がお分かりになると思う。まあ、個性的で自由な竹細工が作れるようになるには相当時間かかるので、そんなに関係はないかもしれないけど、そういうことで、ご関心あれば、どうぞご覧ください。