1 March 05

Things Japanese

Three things to report today:

1) I’m going to be leading a delegation of Japanese oiled wildlife experts around the Yolo Bypass tomorrow. I’m hoping for a good selection of ducks and a few early shorebirds. Yes, folks, I’m getting PAID to do this, to go birding.

Three rings by Rowan2) My brother’s jewelry was recently featured in the Capital City Weekly of Juneau in addition to Juneau This Week. His style has been described as a western intrepretation of Japanese wabi-sabi; finding beauty in the imperfect—simple, irregular, earthy. (To me his stuff always looks Anglo-Saxon or Viking, and draws also on his eye for shrapnel, honed while he played as a kid on Spanish Civil-War battlegrounds with his pal Barry, but what do I know.) Check out his work if you happen to find yourself in Juneau at the Juneau Artists Gallery: his name’s Rowan Law.

flowering quince
3) I drew a flowering quince for Susurra yesterday and the combination of birds (three white-crowned sparrows, an orange-crowned warbler, and an Anna’s hummingbird were all in this shrub while I sat on the pavement drawing), flowers, arriving spring, and seeing old friends walk by put me in a contemplative haibun-type mood. More to come, perhaps. (Along with a sillier one about all the eggs that must have fallen off the back of someone’s pickup by the creek here—the crows have been having a field day.)

Posted by at 03:32 PM in Miscellaneous | Link |
  1. Yes, I would have to say that Rowan’s jewellery has a Celtic/Anglo Saxon look about it. The artistic streak runs strongly in you family.

    — jenny    1. March 2005, 22:38    Link
  2. Pica, what media did you use to draw the flowering quince? What kind of paper did you use? It is a beautiful drawing… almost looks like Nihon-ga.

    — butuki    2. March 2005, 05:10    Link
  3. Butuki: These are the Derwent Signature Watercolor Pencils (but with no water added) on a sheet of Canson Mi-Teintes. The Derwents are great because they’re essentially pure pigment with a water-soluble binder.

    I’m very intrigued by Nihon-ga but suspect I’d need to study for years before getting anywhere close to the amazing examples I’ve seen online…

    — Pica    2. March 2005, 07:31    Link
  4. Thanks Pica. This is so much prettier than I even imagined.

    — susurra    3. March 2005, 13:58    Link
  5. Hello Pica,

    I have nothing to do with art except the admiration of the creation. The reason I am writing to this weblog is because I went to boarding school with your brother Rowan (Friends School Wigton). I remember your brother, please pass on my regards; just to remind him, I am Nassib’s brother. My memories of Rowan is the first concerts we went to together during schools breaks; Rush, ACDC, Queen, amongst others..Salute
    Nasser
    — Nasser Ballout    20. April 2006, 04:39    Link

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