Expression of Western Artist - Japan
Sankeien Gardens
copyright Paul Binnie
March
2005: Paul Binnie announced his latest design 'Sankeien' from the series of
'Famous Views of Japan'.
Here is the original text of the announcement by Paul
Binnie:
The Sankeien
Gardens in the Snow, Yokohama
As you may know, I have been working on a series of
landscape woodblock prints called 'Nihon Meisho Zu-e' or Famous Views of Japan,
of which three have been released already; Aka Fuji, Miyajima No
Torii and Himeji Castle. I
have now completed the fourth in the series, Sankeien, which is a view of the
famous Sankeien Gardens in Yokohama in the snow.
I visited the garden in April of 2004, and of course it was
cherry blossom time, which was extremely beautiful, but unfortunately Yoshida
Hiroshi did a view of these very gardens with cherry blossom (Abe 191), so I
decided to use some artistic license and make it a snow scene, in shades of
blue, lilac and grey-green, which tones well with the horizonal image of Himeji
Castle, also in blues: in fact, these two were conceived as a pendant to
one-another.
I have used gofun printed over the entire lower area to
make a very snowy white, rather than keep the paper blank as many printmakers
do, and I also have used mica to highlight the ice on the frozen edge of the
lake, which gives a silver sheen to the surface. One thing which you may not be
able to see in the attached scan, but which adds greatly to the effect of the
print, is a line of embossed footprints, walking past the lake edge, seemingly
compressing the snow underfoot. If the print is handled, or hung on a wall,
these appear in subtle shadow, and add an extra dimension to the design. As
always in this series, there is also the blind-printed 'Binnie' in the bottom
margin, and the format is identical to Himeji Castle: Dai-Oban Yoko-e, 29.5 x
40.5cm (11 1/2 x 16 inches). The edition is as usual 100, and the price
is the same as all the other Dai-Oban prints.
As always, I hope to hear reactions to the new designs, and
will be delighted to answer any further questions you may have either at my
website, www.paulbinnie.co.uk or by email onpaul@paulbinnie.freeserve.co.uk.
Paul Binnie
March 2005
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