Week 13
Demonstration Art
Calligraphy, Sketches, & Demonstration Painting
Calligraphy
The Japanese characters below represent kogarashi. The word translates to wintery wind, but a more literal translation could be "withered tree". The koga part is in kanji, and the rashi part is from the hiragana phonetic syllabary. It is shown here for those who want to practice their calligraphy.
Sketches
These relatively simple sketches are for practice. The first pair represent trees in a moderate wind. The second pair are experiencing a stronger wind.
Demonstration Painting
For most of the Edo Period (1603 - 1868), ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) mostly used people for their subjects with the exception of kachō-ga (birds and flowers paintings). Ukiyo-e landscapes were virtually non-existent. That changed in the mid to late Edo Period when artists like Hokusai (1760 - 1849) and Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) came along. They can be said to have invented ukiyo-e landscape painting. Even then, people were almost always included as tenkei in their paintings; minor elements to enhance interest, represent scale, or as in the case of paintings like mine below, to further illustrate some effect, like a strong wind. The tenkei person below is pitting his strength both against the slope of the hill and the opposing wind.
