distilling, Japanese woodcuts, and changing your thinking

6x6 pastel

Oiso- Hiroshige

The hardest thing to do is to distill the landscape down to the elements that are most important. My movement towards a new interpretation of the landscape constantly challenges my habitual ways of looking and creating. It involves some trust to tear me away from my normal ways of working. The first big change is working in the studio rather than outdoors. I often get stymied and frustrated. Recently I find myself turning to the Japanese masters, especially Hiroshige.
So I will share with you my research and realizations. It's ironic how my road paintings are my vehicle to move in this direction. (heehee)

Kambara-Hiroshige

 During the later part of the 18th century the European artists were heavily influenced by the Japanese woodcuts.
The Japanese introduced a whole different way of looking at composition. Some of their devices were:
*the extreme vertical
*truncation  of major parts
*use of large empty space
*very high or very low viewpoints
 *a many paneled painting (while this was not new -think Giotto, Piero della Francesca or the Ghent altarpiece by the van Eycks)

In my next post I will talk more about these and the whys.  Till then....