Angler Fish In A Kimono acrylic on canvas 9 x 12 x 1.5 inches 2020 In private collection.
Paper Prints:
https://society6.com/product/anglerfish-in-a-kimono_print?sku=s6-13780197p4a1v45
Canvas Prints:
https://society6.com/product/anglerfish-in-a-kimono_stretched-canvas
Some close ups of the painting.
I did this small painting in-between breaks when I was away from my large paintings on vacation (to the UK) or away at my in-laws. I don't like to go a day without painting so I carry a small one with me anytime I need to go anywhere. Production was over the course of several months, maybe about a year of just working on it a little bit here and there. I took my time with it adding in all the details, the flowers on the kimono, the reflection lines from the watery environment. Red and pink is one of my favourite colour combos. I also like the contrast of the angler's natural resting bitch face against the soft tones of her floral kimono. Angler's put out their headlight to attract prey before they gobble them up, in this case though this sophisticated angler is an art collector highlighting a favourite work of art of hers..
The great famous wood block print, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai. This is something I frequently do, add depictions of famous art into my own artwork. I think it adds context to my influences and I looked at so much art from books in public libraries growing up, it allows me to revisit my favourite pieces of artists past. It's a shout out and if a viewer recognizes it, it's always lovely meeting another art fan, giving us something further to remember and share in. Plus it gives me to opportunity to ramble on about my favourite artists:
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai, 1829 - 1833, colour wood block 10.1 x 14.9 inches. In several private and public collections worldwide.
Katsushika Hokusai 1760 - 1849
Japanese artist, painter and print maker of the Edo period, most famous for his woodblock print series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji in which The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is included. Hokusai produced this print when he was 70 after some intermittent setbacks including paralysis and misconduct from a grandson which left him in financial ruin in his later years. Having some success in his middle life, this painting in particular helped him gain back an eternal notoriety. Done during a domestic travel boom and inspired by a personal fascination of Mount Fuji, this series of prints introduced the new synthetic pigment, Prussian blue to the art market affordable enough to be used in prints for the first time. His father (an uncle who adopted him) was a mirror maker and his mother, possibly a concubine, Hokusai began painting around the age of six from his father whose work included painting designs around mirrors. He went by more than 30 different names during his lifetime and although this was common among Japanese artists of the time, Hokusai went through more aliases than any artist, marking the different prolific periods of his artistic development. Although a life in the mirror business would lead him to what would be thought as life among the upper class (metal mirrors would soon be replaced by silvered glass mirrors imported by the Dutch) he decided to find work as wood carver. Hokusai relocated 93 times throughout his, never an avid cleaner, he would let the grime in his studio pile on before setting up shop elsewhere. At 12 he worked in a bookshop and lending library, at 14 he worked as an apprentice wood-carver under Shunsho. He had two wives both who died soon after and between the two, had three children. When Shunsho died, he began exploring other styles of art including European, French and Dutch copper engravings he acquired. A short time later he was expelled by the Shunsho school due to his studies from a rival Kano school. Hokusai went on to explore different forms of art and subject matter from courtesans and actors, to landscapes, to daily life of Japanese people of different social levels, to portraiture and brush painting. Known for antics of self promotion, he sometimes did public displays of painting with brooms dipped in buckets of ink and once won a painting competition painting a giant blue curve on paper then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint, describing the image as the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating. He also did illustrations for books of fiction and poetry, how-to drawing manuals, illustrated board games, paper lanterns and cut out dioramas as an easy way to gain quick income and attract more students. In 1814, he drew his first Manga (meaning random drawings) a precursor to the modern day Manga, which consisted of studies in perspective, thousands of drawings of animals, religious figures and everyday people with funny overtones which later developed into 4 frame cartoons illustrating the humorous ways of the wealthy. In 1839, his studio was destroyed in a fire and his popularity began to wane as younger artists began to take the stage. These circumstances did not deter him however and he was given refuge by a wealthy farmer who invited the then 80 year old to stay with him where he continued to paint and never stopped. He completed his painting, Ducks In A Stream at 87. He left behind a staggering 30,000 works of paintings, drawings, woodblock prints and picture books in total that would inspire generations of artists after him worldwide. During his lifetime, Japan had enforced isolation practices that deterred tourists from entering and citizens from leaving but when Japan opened its borders after his death in the 1850s, Hokusai's work crossed continents and landed in the hands of Claude Monet who acquired 23 of his prints and Edgar Degas who admired his sketches of the human figure. In the Western world he was known as a unique artist combining the use of Western-stye vanishing point perspective with the flat colouring wood block printing techniques native to his home Japan. Asian artists of the time mostly depicted far-away objects just higher on the composition. On his death bed, at 89, he is quoted, "If only Heaven will give me just another ten years.. Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter." His tombstone bears his final moniker, Gakyo Rojin Manji, which in Japanese spells, "Old Man Mad about Painting."
