The Waters of March - series in progress 2023/24

‘Kajikazawa Kai Province, from the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’ Katsushika Hokusai

This new series came together while living in Japan in 2023.
I augmented my practice with ceramics and continued a series of landscape based works on copper plate, that began with French and Tasmanian landsapes.
It is hard to put into words the extraordinary impact Japan, its people and its culture has had on me. The excellence and refined elegance in every single aspect of life, but especially in craftsmanship where patience and care with process is not just intrinsically honoured but imbues it’s own special properties. I feel forever altered by a new angle on which to view all things, and it came as no surprise there is a Japanese word that encapsulates this aesthetic. Shibusa is an enriched, subdued experience of intrinsically refined quality with economy of form, line and effort, producing a timeless tranquility. Shibui objects appear to be simple overall, but they include subtle details, such as textures, rough or smooth, that balance simplicity with complexity. This balance of simplicity and complexity ensures that one does not tire of a shibui object, but constantly finds new meanings and enriched beauty that cause its aesthetic value to grow over the years. Shibusa walks a fine line between contrasting aesthetic concepts such as elegant and rough or spontaneous and restrained.
May I strive upward and onward to shibusa in all things.
This sampling of ceramics and copper plate paintings are from Japan, Tasmania, Pays Basque and Normandy.