Arty Days

We sometimes need to feed ourselves in order to create something. I recently visited two museums, Yabuuchi Masayuki Art Museum in Yamanashi to see the original illustrations for Gamba series, children's stories about adventures of rats and otters, and Yokosuka Museum of Art in Kanagawa to see Ukiyoe prints.



Stunning male red-flanked bluetail we watched in Yamanashi. 
ヒヨ吉さんが、冬期休館に入る前に滑り込みで薮内正幸美術館に連れて行ってくださった。今年の後期の企画は「ガンバの冒険三部作」で、動物画と絵本や児童書の挿絵をやっているわたしにとっては、見なくては、という展示だった。
八ヶ岳の麓でついでに少し鳥見をしたら、ルリビタキの成鳥に出会えた。中野泰敬氏が、「ルリビタキの雄はきれいな青色になるのに3年かかるが、小鳥の寿命は短く、1、2年しか生きられない事も多い」と説明したあとに、「だから、青い個体に出会ったら、よくここまでしっかり生きたね、と労ってあげてください」とおっしゃっていたのを思い出した。
Masayuki Yabuuchi, who did the original book illustration for Gamba series, was a wildlife artist.  So even though the stories are fiction and rats are riding shearwaters and having a party, they really look like real animals, drawn anatomically correct, which reminded me of C. F.Tunnicliffe's Tarka the Otter.  



At Yokosuka Museum of Art, I joined a workshop on Ukiyoe print! A printmaker from the Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints came to show us how they print the famous Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa.  It has eight layers.  



And we could also try printing the first layer called Omohan, which is the outline. Above image is the one I printed using the block remade by the carver from the institute for educational purpose.  The key is to move the baren horizontally.
Inks for Ukiyoe print are special and more liquid than those for normal block print. They go into the fibers rather than sit on the surface of paper.



Near the museum, we encountered this special nature spectacular, wintering Powdered oakblues gathering on a leaf!