Reduction Lino puffins

I know that this week was one of the last few free days in Cambridge for me but I decided to go antisocial and stay at my room to work. All the artists have this phase, I suppose. And this is what I came up with!



Puffins from Farne Islands in reduction linocut. Limited edition of 10!

　

版を彫って刷ったあと、同じ版を彫り進めて別の色で刷る方法だ。どこかで間違えたらそれまで。そのスリルもまたおもしろい。
Reduction linocut really requires you to plan ahead about layers and colours but once you start it, no going back.

Bumblebee

Yesterday, my landlady came into my room and handed me this poor bumblebee dead on the driveway. "I thought you might like it," she said.
She knows me too well!   And I feel very lucky to be living here. You could easily be kicked out of a house when found to have strange collections like insects and feathers and a skull of a vole (which I cleaned using a drop of her bleach).



Buff-tailed bumblebee.（セイヨウオオマルハナバチ）

Northumberland Coast

I went up to Northumberland for a few days, seeking for more seabirds!  
The main purpose of the trip was to visit the Farne Islands and we did go on the Inner Farne in spite of the extreme wind condition we had up there.  One day, it was 40 mph and, of course, the boat didn't run that day.  



While waiting for the boat time, I sketched Bamourgh Castle from the sand dune north of Seahouses. Oilseed rapes were still in bloom up in north.



ニシツノメドリが繁殖するファーン島に渡る船が出るSeahousesは電車が通っていないので、Alnmouthまで電車で行き、そこからバスに乗り換えた。帰りの電車の時刻まで、Alnmouthの町をぶらつき、エスチュアリをスケッチ。

I did a lot of sketches of puffins, eiders and arctic terns but I accidentally send the sketchbook back to Japan.  Very stupid of me!  So you have to wait for a few more weeks before I put them up here.

Field of buttercups

Sit in a field of buttercups and enjoy the moment is one of the best things to do at this time of the year in Britain.  



ケンブリッジの街の中心から数十分歩いたところにあるグランチェスター・メドウ。カム川沿いに、この牧草地をのんびり突っ切っていくと、グランチェスターの村に出る。村とはいっても、パブとお茶ができる果樹園「オーチャード」があるだけ。とくに目玉となるアトラクションは何もないけれど、ぶらぶら歩いて、牛やコブハクチョウやマガモを眺めて、お茶をして帰ってくるのがイギリスの休日だ。
Whenever I have a visiter in Cambridge, I always take him or her to Grantchester.  The walk can really tell you what I love about England.  

 And this time, I finally visited Hampstead Heath, too.  I had been wanting to visit there because of the paintings by Constable, Turner and other famous painters.  A Japanese writer, Soseki Natsume, is said to have often walked in the park when he was in London in early 20th century.  



I could see the top of the Gherkin from there.

While I was in London, I visited the Ravilious exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery with my friends. It was really inspiring!  The show was mostly about his watercolour works.  But I though I could tell that he was sort of thinking in a printmaker's way.  He applies colours as layers.  And the use of hatching in watercolour really makes his works unique.  I secretly tried watercolour hatching in the sketch above...I need to practice a lot to get neat parallel lines.

birding days

Some more British birds!



Avocet lino print from the sketches at Cley.



Yellowhammer. （キアオジ）



I love it when a bird comes back to a same twig or branch again and again. I don't have to set my telescope again but to look and start drawing!



Linnet. （ムネアカヒワ）



Grey-lag goose. I like those quick sketches if it works but the problem is you can not recreate it!



It was far far away but a nice Whinchat. （マミジロノビタキ）



And look! I had another nice session of drawing perching hobby.

R is for Raptor

On bank holiday monday, I visited Raptor Foundation with two of my friends. It's always nice to be able to see birds in close up and draw them without worrying about them flying away.



I had just finished reading "H is for Hawks" by Helen Macdonald so it meant more to see the staff flying the hawks.  The book was really interesting as I could visualise woods in Brekland, places in Cambridge and refer to books like "Once and Future King" and "His Dark Materials".  It seems that falconry is a totally different world from loving birds and watching them.  Helen wrote that she almost became a goshawk by practicing it and quoted the scene when Wart were turned into a merlin sitting next to Cully, the goshawk. That was the scene inspired me when I was writing my "Snow in Summer," an story idea about the world in a snow globe. 



It was pity that the raptor foundation didn't have a goshawk in display but I sketched the saker/peregrine falcon instead, thinking about the prologue of "Silent Spring Revisited," another book I am currently reading, which talks about J.A.Baker's "Peregrine" and possibility of his peregrine being a saker falcon lost by a falconer.



I had to draw the little owl, too!





And this is what I had been working on these days!



Hobby print from the Minsmere trip!

ワイバード通信 2015年夏号

ワイバード通信の夏号ができあがった。
New YBIRD travel agency's brochure for tours coming in summer, autumn and winter.



こちらから全ページを見る事ができるので、ご興味のある方はぜひ。

Minsmere

Last Sunday, I joined the RSPB Cambridge local group's field trip to Minsmere. I can not believe that it's been four years since I first went there.  I remember that particular field trip very well because it was the one pulled me deeply into the birdwatching world in Britain.  And Minsmere reserve amazed and amused me as much as the first time.



On the first trip to Minsmere we went to Westleton Heath rather than Dunwich Heath on this trip but all the same we watched the stunning birds like dartford warblers and stonechats.



Little terns and an incubating avocet.



I was sitting in the Bittern Hide for long time watching marsh harriers and hobbies flying and a bittern flew across. And a hobby perched on a tree right in front of the hide!



Asmodeus Poisonteeth!

Pied Flycatcher

I am enjoying my life in Cambridge for sure!
It's very important for me to have time on my own and create works on my own.  And it needs lots of time to be inspired, motivated and to actually work on it.  



This is a little linocut image I made after the Devon trip.

東郷まどかピアノリサイタル2015

伯母が数年ぶりに横浜でピアノリサイタルを開きます。



I design this leaflet for my aunt's piano recital in June in the image of Bartok's Szabadban, Out of Doors... or rather Rapunzel?

ご興味のある方はぜひ聞きにいらしてください。わたしはちょうどイギリスにいて逃してしまうのですが！
チケット： ミリオンコンサート協会、e+、CNプレイガイド。

またニューヨークで活躍されている大谷宗子さん率いるカサット弦楽四重奏団と伯母が共演するコンサートも船橋市内であります。