Watercolour and pen

On Wednesday, we spent time in London and visited the Illustration Cupboard in the evening to meet Lisbeth Zwerger! Some of her original watercolour paintings were exhibited and it was so wonderful to see them.
The next day, of course, I was tempted to pull out my watercolour, taking a break from linocut and rubber stamps.



Snow Bunting（ユキホオジロ）



Kestrel（チョウゲンボウ）

I'm sleepy...

Somehow I become already sleepy before ten o'clock these days!



Let's go to bed and wake up early tomorrow...

ピート

Peat for fuel
燃料用のピート（泥炭）の山。土壌生態管理学の授業で出てきたやつだ！　今思えば農工大時代は、生活する中で出くわすトピックをいろいろ勉強した。こうやって現物が見られるのはやっぱりうれしい。
ピートは、低気温の湿地帯では、いまも燃料として使われている。燃やすと燻製のようなおいしそうなにおいがして、大地を感じる。ただ現実的には、泥炭は年間1ミリしか堆積しないので再生可能なエネルギーとは言い難く、しかも泥炭が固定していた二酸化炭素を一気に大量に放出することになるようだ。ローカルにちょっとずつ利用している分には、許容される範囲なのかもしれないけれど、なかなか難しい問題だ。

水鶏堂Paper Bird アオバト

いつもお世話になっているバードウォッチング専門店、ホビーズワールドの創業10周年記に、水鶏堂からもアオバト・モビールを制作し参加させていただいています。



10周年を記念して、10羽のアオバト。10個限定の特価販売なので、欲しい方はお早めに！



卒業展で飾って以来、わたしの部屋にも10羽が飛んでいる。リノリウム版を彫るのに疲れると、横になって眺めるのが、最近のわたしの日課だ。

ご自分で作る工作用紙版もバードフェスティバル等で販売予定です。

Inks and colour paper

I had been using the left over inks that I brought back from printmaking room before I graduated but now they are almost over and also getting dry. So I finally got a few colours on my own the other day, telling myself that I won't buy anything else this week! They are quite expensive!
The inks I got are water soluble ones. Although they are not as strong as the oil-based, real printmaking inks, I found them very easy to handle especially since I work in my room with butter knives and a cutting board. Now I am happily printing!



But I really miss the selection of colour paper in Japan. Even art shops in London don't have much variety in type nor colour!

September, the beginning of a new season

After the course I had not been able to start a new project for ages. Maybe I needed a little push. Perhaps I was still in a holiday mood.
The summer is now over and the light and the air of September sometimes reminds me of the first time I saw these scenery in Cambridge. I feel so strange to notice that I am not going back to school this time. But I shall start making a new story!

In Love with Gannets

Gannet is certainly one of my favorite birds in UK! I will never get tired of drawing them.





Because of the wind, there was one point at the edge of the cliff where Gannets always soared still for a few seconds with the same posture. I tried to practice drawing flying birds.



gannets



a gannet



and more gannets!

Sketches

From my recent sketchbooks. The 15th A5 sketch book in Britain is over...I need to get another one!



Grey Seal （ハイイロアザラシ）



At the Blakeney Point.



Grey plovers　（ダイゼン）



Green sandpiper　（クサシギ）

Heather moorland

My Japanese friends came to visit me and we traveled up to Yorkshire moors together. Heather was in full bloom.



Ilkley Moor
We wandered around the moor for hours.

"it’s just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep.”
“I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it,” said Mary.
from The Secret Garden

ハワースから「嵐が丘」の館が建つ場所だとされるTop Withens へも雨と濃い霧の中、ムーアをハイキングしてきた。一瞬、霧が晴れたけれど、スゲの荒野の他は何もない。キャシーとヒースクリフの亡霊がさまよっていると言われれば納得する景色だ。廃墟は羊たちが我が物顔にしていた。



カラフトライチョウのイギリス産亜種であるRed Grouseがたくさんいた。
We often scared red grouses and were surprised by them flying off suddenly.



Keighley steam engine train station to Worth valley. It looked exactly what you would imagine as a railway station in literature!

Fork in the road

Nothing lasts forever. And sometimes we say goodbye at the fork in the road. Because we choose to walk on the way that each of us wants to be. But you never know, the roads may cross each other again sometime.