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Kachō-ga

This week's demonstration painting is a kachō-ga, the literal meaning of which is birds and flowers pictures. It gets its translated name from the kanji characters used to write the word, but the subject matter of kachō-ga can be nearly any kind of plants, grasses, and trees. Blossoming flowers are by far the most common plant subjects. The "birds" may really be birds, but they can also be invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals as long as they are paintings of living creatures. Two subjects that are not part of kachō-ga are humans and landscapes or settings.

My kachō-ga demonstration is winter jasmine and hummingbird.

Jasmine is widely cultivated for the beauty of its flowers which are mostly white or yellow. Some can be slightly reddish. Various species can have from 4 to 9 petals. Here is a closer look at the blossoms of the South African Jasmine.

Most jasmine have a strong fragrance, but the great majority of jasmine used in the perfume industry comes from two species.

Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum)

My primary painting subject this week has yellow blossoms. The winter jasmine occurs naturally in China, but Japanese are familiar with it. Its Japanese name is ōbai, and it is mentioned in Japanese poetry.

The blossoms come out in the late winter before leaves begin to appear. Its Latin name, J. nudiflorum, literally means naked flower because of that characteristic. It often has a falling cascade look as in the photo above, but it can also be trained to act like a climbing vine.

That is snow on the ground.

Here is another view of winter jasmine with abundant blossoms.

Blossoms go away after 6 to 8 weeks, and leaves finally come out.

Here is a close-up view of winter jasmine leaves.

This is a closer view of winter jasmine blossoms. You can see from the side views of some of them that the blossoms' petals flare out perpendicularly from narrow tubes roughly an inch long.

Here is a much closer look. The number of petals varies between 5 and 6 per flower.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are native to the Americas, from Alaska to the southern tip of South America. There 366 hummingbird species in 113 genera. Most are located in Central and South America. They are the smallest birds, with the adults of most species ranging from 3 to 5 inches in length. The smallest hummingbird is the Bee Hummingbird; only 2 inches in length.

The largest is the Giant Hummingbird, up to 9 inches in length.

This Green Hermit hummingbird's wings move so fast that they are a dimly seen blur.

Hummingbirds and some other birds like kestrels can hover in place, but only hummingbirds can sustain hovering for more than a few seconds. As noted in the video, only hummingbirds can fly backwards.

Some hummingbird species have coevolved with some species of flowers so that they become pollinators in the act of feeding. One example is the Purple-throated Carib hummingbird.

Many hummingbird species are highly colorful; especially the males. This and some other specialized characteristics like long tails create some striking differences in the appearance of some hummingbirds.

Here some colorful examples.

This White-Necked Jacobin Hummingbird is another striking example.

Among the long-tailed varieties. the Marvelous Spatuletail is especially impressive.

With about 34 million individuals, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the most populous hummingbird species in the United States and Canada. The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the bird I have chosen for my demonstration painting.

All hummingbirds make very tiny nests. Ruby-throated Hummingbird nests are little larger than half a walnut shell. These eggs may seem very tiny, but they are large compared to the size of the mother. Most hummingbird clutches have two eggs.

Only females participate in nesting and feeding hatchlings. Nests are usually bound together with spider silk and lichen which allows them to expand as the babies grow. Incubation usually takes 14 to 23 days depending on the species and other factors.

Mothers feed babies by regurgitating digested food directly into their mouths. Babies leave their nests in 18 to 22 days, though mothers may continue feeding them for a few days longer. Mating begins when hummingbirds are one year old. Most Ruby-throated hummingbirds die within their first year. After that, 3 to 5 years is typical. Instances are known of them living as long as 9 years in the wild.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds can fly 30 miles per hour, but when diving, something done during courtship, they have been clocked at 60 miles per hour. Their resting heart rate is between 200 to 250 beats per minute, but while flying, it can rise to 1,200 beats per minute, or 20 beats per second. Hummingbirds take about 250 breaths per second when resting. When feeding on nectar, their tongues flick in and out between 10 to 15 times per second. All this rapid activity requires a fast metabolism, so they are capable of digesting the sugars in nectar in 20 minutes.

Hummingbirds are remarkable animals.

Artwork

There are no hummingbirds in Japan, so I wasn't expecting to be able to find Japanese artwork featuring them. To my surprise, Ohara Koson (1877 – 1945), a prominent shin-hanga (new prints) artist, did paint a hummingbird in a print titled Hummingbird and Green Beans (1912). The bird is a little different than typical hummingbirds, but considering that Koson was unlikely to have ever seen one, he is excused.