perhaps he encountered a porcupine..

Degas’s horses are awesome…

instead of drawing at he zoo today our class went to Norton Simon for a change.  We looked at paintings to talk about picture making / composition.  During the break I walked around the garden area.  Tried to realize what I saw.  The first one may have been better just black and white.  The second one, the sunlit yellow part of the tall grass was just amazing.

 the other side of this tunnel is Kamakura.

where does your tunnel lead you to?

from what I remember.. this is kinda what I saw on the way home.

 got a weird jet lag going, but it’s time to get back into the swing of things. At the zoo this weekend, it was really nice with crisp cool air, less visitors, and bunch of animals all out and about.  It started to rain big drops on our way out and I got soaked. Still, rain is good!

The jaguar sketches and some paw/arm studies.

High light of my stay -
- 4 generation family reunion
- mom’s food
- Oga kazuo exhibit – I waited in line for 2 hours, and took 2.5 hours to go through the exhibit. It was a very substantial show- well worth it and inspiring to see the originals. www.ntv.co.jp/oga/
- Enoshima
- enoden – http://www.enoden.co.jp/

fun on the Enoden train – my sister and Matthew

my sister’s son is a year and a half – cutest kid ever!

time to head back home..

hopefully more to come – after I fix some

Dad had spent time organizing the family album – ancestor version. A lot of the family I’ve never met. One of my grand father was deceased before I was even born.

– great grand parents

– grand pa’s ID during the war

– grand ma as a young lady

I went to Asa-ichi with my Dad. Asa-ichi is a fish market held early in the morning where you can buy fresh fish right off the boat. Twice a month, the Enoshima fishermen opens the market to the local residents and stores. It was interesting to see the entire process from off loading their nets, sorting the fishes, weighing and recording the catch, cleaning process, and getting ready for the market.

– the boats

– sorting the fishes

the bird waiting eagerly..

people are lined up for this market.

I wonder what drives todays youngsters to become a fisherman, or a farmer for that matter. In the States, we have illigal immigrants who would work the laborious jobs for low wages. In Japan, someone has to do it. It is a problem where many are leaving the country side and abandoning the family farms, rice fieilds etc. So I was inspired to see some of the young fishermen working hard with pride at the Asa-ichi.
Coincidentally I found a phamphlet for people who wants to get into farming and fisherly. It’s called a U-turn phenomena.
note to self – web info of that magazine at http://web-iju.info

I was keen on finding older homes from the Showa era (1926–1989). Japan is modernizing rapidly and a lot of the street scenes are changing along with their life style.  With the disappearing houses are disappearing so called mom and pop stores.  The days when kids played on the streets and house wives gossiped at the store fronts are gone.  People don’t interact with neighbors and friends anymore.  It seems like it’s a phenomenon seen all across the world.  With the very uncomfortable humidity in the summer and cold winters, it is no wonder people are living in more modern houses and condos.  Who am I to blame those who want to trade in their old homes for parking lots and concrete buildings.  I think it is great to see some of these fragments of the past era still standing here and there.

  I actually went to Onari elementary school for 1/2  the school year. This is the original auditorium which according to their history was build in the 1930s.  the rest of the school was renovated.

(Note to self – the school website is http://www.kamakura.ed.jp/~narisyou/ )

mom and dad now lives in a condo right by the ocean over looking Enoshima.  This is a view from their balcony.

from LAX waiting for AA 169 NRT bound…

I believe this is the San Andreas fault

Monterey Bay – we flew along the central coast up to San Fransisco and headed towards the Pacific.

Even the long flights do come to an end.  We arrive in Japan – off the coast of Chiba prefecture.

a rough color lay in of a personal project – in progress

Atwater Village – where warehouses converted to studios and lofts, and the old residential houses co-exists.  Also the rail tracks, the LA river, the 5, the 2, the junkyards, the mechanic shops,  hole in the wall food joints….

After a long renovation period, the City Hall is open again.   I did a sketch from the court yard.

and colored it.

Spent a lot of time drawing the giraffe. Such a cool creature. They say that every aspect of the animal is there for a reason. what are those gorgeous eyes for? they walk so gracefully,yet when they run, they can run

deformation was solely for the purpose of fitting it on the page.

I attempted to color the lion I saw at the zoo. It came out so horrible that it only looks acceptable in the smallest size..

a sketch for a potential painting.  I always see mistakes after I post – like harsh edges in some places. But I think the feel of it is there.

this is a scene from oak grove park. It’s a study from a photo that Duncan took while he witnessed a fire starting. I omitted the fire.

this is a color study from a photo I came across on the internet – probably on flickr when I was looking for reference for work. Anyway, it had some weird colors although from nature.

with the left over paint, I do color experiments and check out combinations that works and doesn’t work. I guess I just hate wasting paint..

I’ve wanted to see this exhibit at the for a long time, and finally did on the closing day.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/oudry

Clara the Rhinoceros was the spot light – not just because of the shear size of the painting, but also because of the popularity of Clara back in the 18th century when she toured Europe and cause a “Clara-mania” sensation.
But my favorite was the leopard and the black buck.  His sketches and drawings were also very inspiring.  Now that I’ve been studying animal anatomy, I can see it all in his paintings.  I also liked how he painted the backgrounds and foreground plants.  His depiction of fur and feather were amazing.

Theses paintings were rolled up and stored somewhere for 150 years.  The restoration process shown in a short video footage was really interesting.  Don’t know how long the link will be active, but the info is at

http://www.getty.edu/museum/conservation/partnerships/oudry/

We also stopped in the West wing (anywhere with AC!!!) where they had european drawings from the 19th century.  Really nice Pissaro water color, Millet’s drawings, and more.  There was an actual pocket size sketchbook with a master study in it and some photographs of an atelier scene which made me think that it was just the same back then as it is today

the class met at the zoo today. We focused on just a few animals.

and yes.. it was HOT.. extremely hot..