It's now Wednesday of the 3rd week here and I think I'm just about at the half way point of the residency. It's honestly taken the last two weeks to get settled here and now I'm feeling the pressure, that if I blink, the whole thing will be over before I know it. 

In all truth the main thought I'm having is HOW INCREDIBLY LUCKY AM I TO BE HERE! 

Now that I really feel at home in this house amongst the other artists and I've got past the initial learning of Mokuhanga, I'm really loving my time here. It's a very special experience; life is incredibly simple compared to life in London.  There is no commute to work and just a desk to work at (though none of the presses and equipment that I'm used to). However I do feel exhausted and the days are flying past. I start at 6am and I'm asleep by 11pm. I try to get a run in every other day down by the lake otherwise I think I'd get cabin fever in the house/studio - all being under one roof. I think I naturally prefer to work 10am to 8 or 9pm or later. Working into the night can be good and perhaps I'll do this in the coming week. But having said that, I also want to keep the same rhythm as the other artists, otherwise it would become a rather solitary experience.

I've launched into a new piece today, another landscape based on a photo I took at the lake. It's similar to the last print but more complex and I'm incorporating the water of the lake into the image. I'm going to try out carving/printing shadow to see if I am able to achieve definition and form within the mountains. Perhaps I've rushed into making this piece and not spent enough time at the drawing board, but I also just want to get on and make work at a faster rate. It's good to get practice with the carving knives and improve my cutting and carving. 

  

Yesterday we had a master printer come for the day to teach us. He isn't an artist himself, he just prints for other artists, Tetsuya Noda being one of them. He is a craftsman, and he needs to understand the artist's vision and try to create it for them. 

We had a translator for the day because he spoke only Japanese.  He told me that you can be more free with the work and paint with a brush directly onto the wood in a free and gestural way, then cut away the wood to reveal the brush stroke I've just painted. I can take a rubbing of whatever has just been cut out and transfer this to the next plate of wood. He corrected the way I hold my carving knife and made suggestions that were really helpful. He will be back again next week for a day to see how we've progressed and give further pointers.

Today I printed the new artwork that I started to carve yesterday. I have tried to depict water and that's a real challenge. It's a lot of fun developing the print, adding layers of colour and deciding where to add bukushi (the graduation of colour from light to dark). I started making the mountains yellow and the piece wasn't working, so I then added a layer of brown which knocked the yellow back making the mountains in the foreground of the print look as though they were casting a shadow onto the yellow mountain in the background. 

Tomorrow I'll come with fresh eyes and see how I can develop this print. I'll also print a new set and I'll try painting the woodblocks in totally different colours, and perhaps edit quite a bit of what I cut yesterday. There is huge scope for playing and refining the technique.

Following day - I printed the new landscape again and had more success in depicting the water. To create the ripples I carved each plate in quite a free style - I think the very nature of the shapes made by the carving tools look a bit like light on the surface of the water, when cut into wood. The next day I diluted the paints a lot so that the pigment was very light and transparent and I printed several of these loosely cut woodblocks over the top of each other. 

                             

 

It's Saturday morning here and Saturday means one thing, HOUSE CLEANING CHORES 

The first week I was allocated to clean the toilets and last week the kitchen, but this week I have the easy ride of hoovering the corridors, yup! hence I'm able to stay in bed for an extra hour to write this. 

It sounds strange but I actually really enjoy the cleaning duties and the others have agreed with me on this. I said in an earlier post that it's a bit like living in a commune and perhaps this is why we're enjoying the chores - we each have our own job that changes each week and we have to get on with it; we're a team and I don't want to be the one who does a bad job!  I know the other artists would very quickly call me out on it.  Afterwards I'm going to head off on the 30 minute walk to the nearest supermarket because I've offered to cook for everyone tonight.

Anna from San Paolo, Brazil is going to make Carparina, a Brazilian cocktail. I'm going to try to get Sato San, the course leader who has very limited English to give me a cooking course, but if that doesn't happen I'll do my 'go to' recipe of Putanesca because it's cheap and easy and always gets top results when I make it for my friends back home. 

Last Saturday we all ate together and I made the Japanese cocktail of Shodue (plum wine) whiskey with lemon and soda water. We all had a bit too much to drink and danced in the kitchen. Thank goodness Simon (from Holland) bought his speaker which has been very useful in both the studio and the kitchen for drunken dancing.  Again, I am so so lucky to be here with a wonderful bunch of people. 

                             

 

This weekend has been good for relaxing and catching up on some much needed rest and also great for exploring Kawaguchi. I now have an idea of the geography of this area and it's been great to really get to know where I am. I've must have walked for miles this weekend! It's a good job I stumbled across a second hand hiking gear shop and bought a pair of really good and very cheap, second hand walking boots. I've been wearing them in yesterday and today which will prepare me for the four day hiking trek that Tim, my boyfriend, and I have signed up to do in December!!  Tim is coming here in just over a week. I am so excited and can not wait to see him; it's been almost two months since he waved me off at Gatwick airport and this is by far the longest we've been apart in five years. He is coming here on the very last day of the residency which also happens to be my birthday - next Thursday 23rd.