Wednesday, 3 June 2020

Selection of Woodblock Prints by Hiroshigie, Kunichika and others



Kunichicka 1835-1900

During this Coronavirus period 2 Dogs Art Space has put on a special collection of Japanese Master woodblock prints from Edo and Meji period via the internet.

These master Japanese artists through there print making systems achieved an outstanding attention to detail in colour, pattern, texture and movement within the figures, thus creating scintillating images to  visually engage with so please enjoy.  



Fuchu 1852
Ando Hiroshigie 1997 -1858



Takaido - Kyoka

Ando Hiroshigie 1997 -1858


Jimbutsu
Ando Hiroshigie 1797 - 1858

"Seki" series of Takaido 53 Stations



Kunichicka 1835-1900


Utagawa Kunisada  1786 - 1864






Saturday, 25 April 2020

TMT Exhibition (Texture, Marks and Traces) a Covaid-19 period internet exhibition


Kevin Robertson


Currently showing at 2 Dogs Art Space, Akashi, Japan is the new TMT exhibition with artworks from the early Edo by an unknown artist and late Edo period woodblock prints by Kunisada I and II - plus Sadaharu Horio's performance painting along with artists from Western Australia being Melissa Nolan McDougall, John Cullinane, Duncan McKay, Lynne Norton, Michael Doherty, Shelley Cowper, Michelle Green-Bourne, Kevin Robertson, Caspar Fairhall, Diokno Pasilan, Cynthia Ellis, Louis Moncrieff, Pippa Tandy, Ken Wadrop, Sally Douglas, Monique Tippett, Jurek Wybraniec and Sally Douglas

Monique Tippett

This TMT exhibition (texture, marks and traces) whether they be made from oil, acrylic, water colour or pencil etc..., it does not matter, what this show hopes to exhibit is the variety of TMT that has been achieved so far by these aforementioned artists.


Melissa Nolan McDougall



Sally Douglas



Shelley Cowper



Early Edo Period Japan artist unknown


Caspar Fairhall


Diokno Pasilin (top)

Michelle Green-Bourne


Michael Doherty


Duncan Mckay


Sadaharu Horio (left)     Jurek Wybraniec


Kunisada I  


Connie Petrillo  


Kunisada II





Lynne Norton





Pippa Tandy 


Ken Wadrop



Louis Moncrieff



Cynthia Ellis





Monday, 13 April 2020

Pre/Post Coviad-19 - small works on paper by Peter Davidson



 Magnified Pre Covaid-19
Kakogawa heavy Industry
Mixed media 
Waterford watercolour paper 300g
9 .5 cm h x 9 cm w

Living in heavily industrialised Hyogo Prefecture, Japan one may not tend to think of it as a beautiful place but for me it is and it was normal for me to drive around by myself through the back blocks of Akashi, stopping for lunch in the car before the state of emergency.

How often I would park the car in the middle of some heavily industrialized port-side area or within urbanised rice growing farming terrains, enjoying strange aesthetic sensations that resonated from geographies encountered.


Magnified Corona Virus Domestic View Nishi Ku Kobe no 1
Mixed media 
Waterford watercolour paper 300g
148 mm x 100 mm

Especially the winter/spring of Japan with the wonderful plum trees blossoming not long after the cherry blossoms start cascading over the parks, roads and footpaths with a beautiful aroma coming from the flowers whilst taking digital photographs that I use as an aide mémorie to create ideas for artworks back in studio, this was a normal modus operandi within my painting and drawing studio work.


All these aforementioned memories, coupled the state of emergency within the Hyogo Prefecture have now affected in some way or another what I choose to paint or draw nowadays and it appears into the near future.
.
Currently, I am trying to maintain my studio praxis through the taking of digital images from my small apartment veranda views, high above ground then magnifying them on my computer screen but things have changed, I can’t smell the flowers or say hello to people in the street in going for a walk at any time, no eating at restaurants or meeting people, so my normal routine has been altered.

However, I still hope to reveal the stunning kaleidoscope of subtle distant hues of Kansai landscape from this high rise position with its half tints, contrasts, and textures seen from buildings, islands, the inland sea, industry, urbanised areas, rice fields, mountains, clouds, sky, tops of trees in this Japanese spring, please enjoy the changed studio praxis.

Thursday, 26 March 2020

Pattern in Art - 100 year old Japanese woodblock prints juxtaposed Contemporary Western Australian Artists being Sally Douglas Louis Moncrieff John Cullinane Melissa Nolan McDougall Jurek Wybraniec


 Wood block artist unknown               Melissa Nolan McDougall


Pattern In Art

Sally Douglas Louis Moncrieff John Cullinane Melissa Nolan McDougall Jurek Wybraniec Juxtaposed Unknown approximately one-hundred-year-old woodblock prints from Japan



Now exhibiting at 2 Dogs Art Space Akashi are woodblock prints (most likely originating in the period of  the Japanese Emperor Showa,  being from 1926 - 1989) by unknown Japanese artists, that I bought from an antique shop in Kyoto, juxtaposed to these aforementioned prints are artworks by contemporary Western Australian Artists Sally Douglas, Louis Moncrieff, John Cullinane, Melissa Nolan McDougall and Jurek Wybraniec 

Pattern in art and how it exhibits itself through studio praxis has an extraordinarily long history within the art and crafts, the many galleries and museums stand testament to that idea, for human beings have been creating patterns not only to adorn themselves (clothes and jewelleries)  but on everyday utensils  throughout the antiquities of aesthetics, no matter what race, creed or civilization they belonged too.


Aesthetic designs with its endless flow of patterns now and in past times is always interesting to view, it often opens up more questions than it answers, why did people create such patterns, what was the meaning of the colour with the design etc ….

What kind of strange phenomena within human memory creates such designs all this I have few answers for, its an enormous field of study.  But in viewing human created patterns it does create the first common stand point for the viewer to find out for themselves, so please enjoy the unity and diversity of differing artist's aesthetics within this show from the Sister States being  Hyogo Prefecture, Japan and Western Australia thank you .


 Wood block artist unknown        John Cullinane


 Wood block artist unknown Sally Douglas 


 Wood block artist unknown  Jurek Wybraniec


 Wood block artist unknown Louis Moncrieff 


Exhibition at 2 Dogs Art Space

Monday, 9 March 2020

A selection of Two Master Women's Artworks from the Northern Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia - Lynne Norton & Sally Douglas



Lynne Norton - Kangaroo Paws
mixed media on Paper

Currently at 2 Dogs Art Space, Akashi there is a small selection of artworks by two women artists being Lynne Norton and Sally Douglas, who have resided in the northern coastal suburbs of Perth for most of their artistic lives.

These smallish artworks by Norton and Douglas tend to reveal an intensity of observation from the terrains they inhabit and paint/draw from of what one might call pedestrian suburban motifs that are transformed into artworks, through the phenomena of human imagination within their daily studio work ethic into masterful artworks.

The art space is fortunate to have these aforementioned highly talented Western Australian women artists with selected pieces from their life time commitment to studio praxis and who have exhibited locally, nationally and internationally showing in Japan.

Please enjoy this exhibition that is currently on exhibit only via the 2 Dogs Art Space Blog  due to the coronavirus, further exhibitions will be on show this way in the near future, thank you.



Lynne Norton - Sturt Peas
mixed media on paper


 Sally Douglas - Poppy Stem Illusion 
water colour on paper




Sally Douglas Wild Wisteria 1 
water colour on paper


Sally Douglas Wild Wisteria 2
water colour on paper


2 Dogs Art Space

Saturday, 7 March 2020

Peter Davidson - Plum Omomuki Paintings Rinako Inoue - Ikebana - Runa Gallery Kobe Japan


Omomuki Painting
(warm feeling)

おもむきは、風景の中で幸せに感じるものを観察すると、
暖かい感覚を意味する日本語の単語です。

Omomuki is a Japanese word meaning warm feeling when observing something that makes you feel happy in the landscape.

This series of artworks of the seductive and beautiful Japanese plum blossoms were constructed in the late winter in my Akashi studio, the memories are from around Akashi/Kansai ports, throughout the heavy/light industries, densely populated apartment/housing areas with its intermittent crammed rice paddies in the valleys between.




This recent experimental installation/collaboration between the Ikebana artist Rinako Inoue and my paintings at the Runa Gallery eventuated due to a conversation I had with a Japanese lady, for she related to me;

That in olden times before the Tokugawa period on walls of a castle various animals were rendered in sumi – e (Japanese ink painting) and one image was that of a monkey. And during those bygone times large flower arrangements would be placed within the building and the audience could walk around it and view it from various positions. In some of these views one could see the painted monkey on the wall looking back at them through the flower display.



This aforementioned historical sensation of the sumi - e monkey peering back through the freshly arranged flowers appealed to me, but in this exhibition, there is no wildlife only the hard/heavy industry terrains of Japan with its heavily populated areas of small houses and apartments, along with intermittent rice paddies around the Akashi region, along with the occasional ume (plum) in bloom on the very cold days at the end of Japanese winter, which when sighted always gives me this warm feeling (Omomuki).

These areas of industrial, fishing, farming environments around my studio in Akashi are not what one might called traditionally picturesque but they're to me, it is where my studio is located and it’s always a great joy to walk along and see the floral slices ume trees of what I consider great beauty.

I like the ume flower it doesn’t bloom so majestically like the cherry blossoms of Japan but it still has this unique aesthetic that I enjoy and want to paint, no matter where it situated in Akashi or surrounding terrains.  

This exhibition is my first collaborative attempt at portraying these ume flower sensations from Akashi with a ikebana artist, here are some of the results, which I can build on in the future, as currently I am thinking maybe a bigger installation both in painting and flower arrangement but  for now please enjoy these images, thank you










Wednesday, 27 November 2019

2019 2 Dogs Art Space - Akashi - Xmas Exhibition By Western Australian Artists


2019

2 Dogs Art Space - Akashi - Xmas Exhibition
By
Western Australian Artists



Study of Mum by Peter Davidson

Duncan McKay, Connie Petrillo, Caspar Fairhall, Kevin Robertson,
Cynthia Ellis, Peter Davidson, Michael Doherty, John Cullinane,
 Chelle Bourne, Lynne Norton, Diokno Pasilan, Linda Fardoe,
 Louis Moncrieff, Shelley Cowper, Monique Tippett,
Ken Wadrop, Melissa Nolan McDougall, Jurek Wybraniec, Pippa Tandy, Ron Nyisztor 

With special art works
by
Sadaharu Horio (Kobe) & Frank Norton (Perth)
Kobe City - Hyogo Prefecture is the Sister State to Perth City - Western Australia





 Sadaharu Horio and Jurek Wybraniec 

 
Ron Nyisztor, Louis Moncrieff and Monique Tippett


Pippa Tandy and Shelly Cowper


Michael Doherty, Lynne Norton, Peter Davidson and Sally Douglas

More images will be added in due course

Thank you