japonisme: letting in the light

04 December 2006

letting in the light

i love these prints so much; i can't say why. the first on the right, here, is by margaret jordan patterson. she was a student of arthur wesley dow. i was fortunate enough to find a calendar a while back with this in it, so i've had it on my wall for many years. i could stare at it forever.

this one is actually a contemporary painting by a man named thomas paquette. it fascinates me that he never saw mjp's image, never even heard of her. his work is one of the only painter's work that i can see the influence of japanese prints in the technique, not necessarily the subject matter nor even the style, exactly. it's the distinctness of each color, as though, or actually, outlined. something about the ways he uses color, i've seen only in shin hanga before; the translucency of the colors, the transparency of solid objects -- that he achieves this with oil or gouache is amazing.

walter j phillips was an etcher who grew dissatisfied with working in black and white. in the studio, he read of the woodblock prints being distributed and done in europe, and decided to give it a try. a trip to europe several years later where he met with other printmakers, japanese and european, filled in some fine points for him, and taught him about japanese papers.

isn't it ironic that the shin hanga artists made prints the way they did at least in part due to the fact that it was what they knew they could sell, and in so doing went on to inspire generations of artists as to how a landscape could be.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love clouds and can see what you mean in Thomas Paquette's painting, well said.

xx

05 December, 2006 06:06  
Blogger Dominic Bugatto said...

Ther ARE very nice .

I've always had a soft spot for lanscapes that have a very high or low horizon line . That little strip of land running along the bottom of these make them that much more alluring to me.

05 December, 2006 12:09  
Blogger Unknown said...

THanks for sharing these! THey are beautiful indeed!

06 December, 2006 11:30  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

florence--thanks for the feedback--i'm glad i got the idea through--wasn't sure....

dom--interesting! now, one of the many things the japanese prints are known for is a high horizen, but i usually do a low one in my photos. and i agree--just clouds just isn't the same. thanks for making me more aware.

and i'm so happy you like them, alina. thanks for commenting.

06 December, 2006 13:31  

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hi, and thanks so much for stopping by. i spend all too much time thinking my own thoughts about this stuff, so please tell me yours. i thrive on the exchange!

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