I get to take an exciting class with painter Makoto Fujimura for the next 3 weeks called “The Art of Nihonga (Japanese) Painting!” Each day, we’re learning more about what the Nihonga process involves and while I can’t say I’ll be good with descriptions, I’ll try to post some images each day.
The first day, Mako spent most of the time going over some basic principles. We learned a little bit about the special paper we’ll be using (Kumohada “cloud skin” paper) and a quick overview of the rest of the materials, including a few notes on how to make our own “Nikawa” glue. The time seemed to go by really fast. Too fast!
sumi ink and some beautiful catalogs of Japanese paintings
some of our materials: two brushes, and some mineral pigments
It was a windy day with a lot of moisture in the air (aparently, not a good day for working with the special Kumohada paper) so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to “size” the paper
Meet Deborah: printmaker extraordinaire
Meet Laura: encaustic painter specializing in filtering Nikawa glue
Meet Jess: best draw-er around, with an uncanny fascination for forest fires