Trying out the zen enso circle, symbol of universality and the idea of beauty within imperfection. Small to medium fude for sho on single hanshi sheets. Working on the character nen – commonly translated as mindfulness or mindful, also attention or care. There is a balance needed between the two parts of the kanji. The […]
Tag archives: Shodo calligraphy
Sho calligraphy mark making
Making some marks with fude brushes and fudepen using Japanese sumi ink. Beginning practicing for a series of three Drawing and Painting Studio workshops. Experimenting with the brush stopping and flicking, speed of the marks and energy. In the first Shodo group the Kanji characters ten – heavens/ sky and shin or kokoro – heart/ […]
Traces of Time | 時間の足跡
Here are a selection of images of the show plus some Omotesando street views around Gallery 80 in Omotesando Hills building (Aoyama area, Tokyo). It was a very pleasant time of year with the Autumn leaves gathering and crisp clear blue nights…
Selecting artworks for Gallery 80, Tokyo
I’m getting everything together just now for the show in Omotesando Hills, Gallery 80 ( 12-18th November). There is going to be a series of 24 small paintings and several drawings, rubbings and printmaking, and will be my first show to feature photography with a series of ten works plus larger scale pieces, plus I’m […]
New piece for Roger Billcliffe Gallery
The Glasgow based Roger Billcliffe Gallery asked me for some work for their ’20:20 vision’ (Summer Exhibition 2012 from 16th june through july) and I popped round from the studio to hand in this small acrylic and Japanese sumi ink piece the other day. Titled ‘Fragmented’ I was looking at the dynamics and light through […]
‘Suibokuga’ ink landscape joint pieces
These works are joint-pieces, landscape project wide scroll like artworks by students I have worked with. The first piece was made at my studio in winter and the second was made on the inspiring Abernethy annual art excursion (Hamilton College) to the Cairngorms area, where I am fortunate to enjoy making artwork and doing some […]
Recent work and studies
Recent studies using mixed media on card, paper and sketchbooks have been leading to much more free and abstracted pieces that is the way I’m trying to push forward into more poetic, less pictorially restricted territory… ‘Flowing Through Space’ (top-left) was a bit of a breakthrough. Many of these pieces are moving fluidly through city […]
Wakabayashi’s Zen Calligraphy
This is my sensei Wakabayashi’s Sho calligraphy of zen master Dogen’s poem coming to terms with reality ’empty-handed’ after returning from China – ‘The eyes are horizontal, and the nose is vertical.’ This prompted my partner to tell me the story she read of Ikkyu (Rinzai zen master, 1394-1481) who placed a curving, twisted bonsai […]