I'm not dead…

…I just don’t really have time for my blog any more. Nor anything much that is post-worthy!

I’m still writing for the Art of Punk series on Colin’s Punk Rock World (a post about logo designs was published today). I also write reviews sometimes, such as the lengthy gig review for Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls at Alexandra Palace that was posted last week.

In more visually creative news, I linoprint-ed some Christmas cards the other weekend. You may or may not remember my designs from last year – check them out here too. I think I like this year’s little reindeer more than last year’s design.

Miniature Calendar

Yes, it would seem that I now post on my blog so rarely (I’m just too darn busy!) that when I do it is almost certainly Japan-related… well, the artist behind these is Japanese at least.

Tatsuya Tanaka has been creating these stunning miniature dioramas each day since 2011! The images form a calendar – the miniature calendar. Although I have hardly skimmed the surface of the calendar, I’ve picked some of my favourites from the last few months (plus some others that I nabbed off of Bored Panda) to share.

Starting with today’s miniature.

This is my favourite.

Cats & Japan

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Japan’s love for cats was a fairly new thing, with cat cafés and Internet cat sensations such as Maru (the adorable chubby cat who likes to get into cardboard boxes) and Nyan cat (the animated cat whose song you won’t be able to get out of your head – plus ‘nyan’ means ‘meow’, by the way). But Japan has been a cat-loving nation (mostly) since the animal was first introduced to the country, from China, in the 6th century. One place where cats have had a significant impact on Japanese culture and lifestyle is in art – from pre- ukiyo-e to the modern day.

Tofugu (a wonky Japanese language and culture website) blogger Linda Lombardi has written a great piece on this very subject entitled ‘Printed, Painted, and Sculpted Kitties – Cats in Japanese Art’:

Cats are an obsession in modern Japan. Most people have heard of cat cafes by now, but did you know there are cat shrines and even cat tourism?  Tama the cat was appointed stationmaster of a Wakayama train station and revived the local economy by attracting tens of thousands of tourists a year. There’s a tourist-magnet island overrun with kitties. February 22 is unofficially Cat Day because nyan-nyan (the Japanese “mew-mew”) can also mean “two-two.” 

This may all seem like particularly modern craziness, but in reality it’s just the 21st-century version of something that goes way back, as we can see by looking at the history of Japanese art. Whether ink on paper or pixels on a screen, depictions of cats have been popular for as long as cats have been in Japan.

Read the full article here.

The Anglian Wolf Society’s art and photography workshop

I have had the most incredible day in the company of two beautiful wolves at the Anglian Wolf Society in Bedfordshire (literally less than 15 minutes away from home!). Observing, drawing and photographing them, as well as learning all about what the society does to educate the public and raise funds for conservation. I even touched one of the wolves, Kaya – although through the wire fence of course!

The Anglian Wolf Society is a non-profit study group case in North Bedfordshire and run almost entirely by volunteers. Although our site is not open to the public, you can visit us and our wolves by booking a visit in advance and becoming a one-day visit member. You can adopt one of our wolves or become a full or associate member of the society and enjoy a number of extra benefits.

In the wild, environmental erosion and persecution by humans have brought wolves to the brink of extinction in most parts of the world. It is only by improving people’s understanding of the wolf that public opinion can be shifted in favour of relieving the inhumane and environmentally dangerous pressure on their species.

I visited the Society today to attend an art and photography workshop, rather than a regular one-day visit. The art side of the workshop was run by Victoria Parsons who is a wonderful wildlife artist, specialising in highly detailed watercolour pencil pieces – I won’t share any specific artworks of hers, but here’s her website.

I learnt a lot, drawing techniques wise, and really benefitted from the fact that there were only four of us (well, there were five in total but one was only interested in photography). I’m ashamed to say that, although I’m obviously still a creative person on a day-to-day basis, I haven’t really done much hands-on drawing or painting recently. BUT apparently that wasn’t a problem as I’ve still got the skills!

This drawing is in the A4 sketchbook that we were kindly provided. Drawing from a photo.

And this drawing (obviously still a work-in-progress) is on larger, higher quality paper.
Still drawing from the photo but starting to colour, afterwards, observing the real wolf, Kaya.

Of course, I’m sure you are eager to see the photographs that I took throughout the day. And so you should be, as there are some pretty good ones! We were lucky enough to catch them during feeding time when they each had a rabbit. For some reason they were both pretty slow eating their dinner so I was able to snap a lot of photos. I also captured some howling action later on.

 

The woodcuts of Ray Morimura

Ray Morimura is a Tokyo-born artist specialising in beautiful woodcut prints. His work primarily features landscapes, often with Japanese buildings and structures – such as temples, bridges or torii gates.

He has a slightly different approach to his art than your typical landscape artist, focussing on geometric shapes, repeated patterns, distinct colours (mostly blues, greys, pale greens and red) and textures. So, rather than capturing a like-for-like copy of a particular landscape, he instead creates stunning interpretations of iconic Japanese scenes.

The Way Combined Collection