An artistic September

Little_G_Fish, 2017 ©

My best fish painting from the Japanese Ink Painting Workshop at the NGV

A month of portraiture, documentary, photoshop and shooting for clients social media.

Made a trip to the Melbourne Botanic Gardens to look at plants, to base a series of drawings on botanicals.

I was very excited to do a Japanese Ink Painting Workshop at the NGV with Japanese Artist Junko Azukawa. I always like the discipline of Japanese ink brush painting, to look intently at something and then commit to the paper.

I went to the workshop on Saturday 9th September with about 20 others, we worked trough two exercises to draw bamboo and a fish. We began by looking at differing types of rice paper and their relative slipperyness, the ability to hold or let ink run and how quickly or slowly ink is absorbed by the paper. Then we worked on how to create the ink, a stick of dried ink a bit lie a charcoal stick was ground in a circular motion on a stone and water slowly added. Brush quality is of great importance to give a consistent result and also minimises loose bristles being left behind in the tone your've painted.

Above. some of the brushes I got to see of Junko's at the workshop.

Above. endlessly practicing bamboo and the fish. Learning how to control the brush, my hand and arm movement and amount of ink on the brush and on what side of the brush the ink is on. As it is generally done while standing the arm movement is paramount.

Began preparing my drawing entry for the Linden Art Gallery Postcard Exhibition and submitted two entries, two drawings.

Reading : The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, (very relevant today, if only more politicians read this. :-), being a great lover of history, particularly Roman history, I enjoyed this book, especially in the descriptions of how the Romans in order to conquer or persuade a new territory would research the local political structure and adapt accordingly. And not always using force but often diplomacy. they would look at the current ruler, analyse their ruling style and then support or exploit that to their own advantage or the peoples.).

Watching : Game of Thrones Session 7

Listening : Sam Cooke

Eating : fresh oysters