Category Archives: Process

Abstract Petal.


An abstract flower pencil drawing.

This recently-finished pencil drawing is to be a reference for a dye sample/swatch I’m gonna be working on next, that is for the newest of my Dyed Threads series, “Spider Lily Red” project. The line-oriented approach you see here is of me teaching myself a new trick, that I think would best capture the extreme curliness of the spider lily petals.

An abstract flower petal drawing.

The said petals start out fairly straight-edged. As the blooming progresses however, they go into this full-on abstract free-form red wavy anarchy that feels more like a perfectly-choreographed theater. Petals themselves are quite tiny but hold within so much passion, that’s how I sense them anyways.

An abstract flower petal drawing.

The project is gradually gaining momentum so swing by again when you get a chance.
Thank you for your visit.

持て余すほどの情熱ではちきれそうな彼岸花の花びらをモチーフに創ってみようと思いたったのは何故だったのだろう。
メインストリーム的人気のある桜の花などに比べるといわばカルト系な彼岸花たちにある日河原でそそのかされたのであれば大変光栄な話だとおもう。
そうやってご信頼いただいたからには何か新しいやり方を試してみたいと考えたのがこのドローイング。
これをもとに染め見本を作るのが当方の『Dyed Threads』シリーズの通常の手順。
通常といえばいつもは句読点をつかうのだが今日はなぜかその気になれず。
にもかかわらず最後まで読んでいただきどうもありがとう。
ぜひまたお越し下さい。

Biofluorescents.


An Ivory Sea Shell textures.
Sand dollar, inner part.

Lately, much of my evenings I spend visiting fireflies.
Early summer rice fields, the plants are already at their full-height. They host a small family of the delicate insects come alive each evening as Twilight falls.

Test painting on silk.

In the pitch dark their fluorescent yellow lights draw weightless lines visible only to my mind’s eye.
Flashing on, off, on, off….I stand amidst the invisible web of Organic Elegance and say to myself:
I get it, it’s that Pulse again!!

Just then in distance a Wave breaks one more time, with its most wholesome assertion Sea replies:
it’s our Heartbeat honey, yours and mine.

The Night then trembles, suspended in time.

An wavy sea shell textures.
A flower petal study sketch.

Photos are of various beach finds and a dye test swatch for my “Spider Lily Red” series.

The last photo is of a new pencil drawing, incomplete, of a petal of the said lily, for the said series, trying something different from how I usually painted with dyes.

Additional note on April 10, 2019:

This post was originally titled as “Bounds melt. Time stands still.”.
For the reason I do not disclose (i.e. not that interesting to you) I removed this post from this site for a while.

I revived this under a new title and with revised text on April 09-10, 2019. The reason being:

The red lily petal dyed on a silk (the photo in the middle) was the first dye test for this project “Spider Lily Red”. I painted in the same way as all the previous Dyed Threads series (example). And it didn’t quite work.
The bottom drawing is what I came up with as the alternative. The rest of photos are the main sources of inspirations. The drawing – of the same petal, had progressed into 2 part series (references: drawing 1, and drawing 2) – are both completed now. I thought it would be kinda neat to show you how it all started.

Lily Progress Report

Actual lilies, spider or otherwise, are long gone, but my study continues on.

A flower petals pencil drawing.

Not that I planned it that way, but each spider lily drawings somehow brings out different characters of the blossom.

A flower petals pencil drawing.
A flower petals pencil drawing.

This is for a dyed piece I’ve been working towards tentatively called Spider Lily Top. For those of you who are here for the first time (welcome!), may I refer you to the previously dyed items here.

I am at the stage where I study the, in this case, quite complex shape of the subject. Until I can sort of ‘CAD’ it in my head. That’s my usual plan that is totally subject to change. Stay tuned.

Red Lilies Returned

Yesterday I heard the last cicadas sing.
And look who arrived on the scene just about the same time.

A red spider lily blossom.

Studying the shapes of the subject is not the most exciting phase of the dye project. Sluggishness sets in more often than I wish to admit. The insect scene outside shifting from my beloved cicadas to crickets doesn’t help neither.

A colored flower drawing.

But before I had a chance to zombify myself, spider lilies turned up, slightly earlier this year, in much like a bull fight fashion.
(Red works for me too!)

Resuscitated, now I’m back on a river-side path where I fell in love with those lilies a year ago. A lady with a dog greeted me back (“I was wondering whether you’d show up this year”). Nice to be remembered as a lily-fanatic with a camera.

Red spider lily blossoms.
Red spider lily blossoms.

Red. Unrest.


A spider lily petal drawing.
A spider lily petals drawing.

Listen
until you hear the Waves roaring in the petals.

Sea surface.
A spider lily petal drawing.

The drawing is of spider lily petals, colored pencil on paper, 38 x 54cm, a continuing study of the blossom for my upcoming dye piece.
Currently going through bouts of overwhelm at the sight of the bold red challenge. Too late though, I’ve already seen, and heeded, too much of what they have to unveil.

Small adjustment made on texts in the middle on 17Sep21

Lily sans Red.

Flower pencil sketches.
Flower pencil sketches.

Study on spider lilies continues on.

Flower pencil sketches.

Getting more detailed, developing a somewhat specific direction compared to the ones I did a bit ago.

すべて彼岸花。
子供の頃地獄花と呼んで怖がった、と昨秋満開の河原で撮影中に犬連れの女性が話してくれた。心に残る一期一会。2つ前の投稿の続編。

Spider Lily Red

Red spider lilies in Japanese farm.
Sun lit clouds.
A red spider lily blossom.

Spider Lily is the kind of flower that makes me feel like I am looking at something I should not.

Flower pencil sketches.
A red spider lily blossoms.

All, except for the drawing, the first study of the blossom, were photographed back in Autumn 2012.

abstract artwork with a lily and a shell.
2021.09.28 – Stir.