Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spring Study

This morning I had a lovely breakfast of milk and tea with buttered toast with some homemade marmalade that my Etegami Sensei, Shoko, made and gave to me at our last class on Wednesday.  I decided to commemorate my morning meal and drew an Etegami to send to her as a "thank you".    

Char Solo: Toast, butter, marmalade
 Not being happy with my weird looking toast*, I went on to make a postcard for my mom in a subject matter that I'm more familiar drawing; a violet.  My mom and I share the fascination for plants growing out of seemingly impossible spaces such as cracks in the pavement.  When she was a little girl, she found a violet plant growing in an unusual place, and she pulled it up to replant it at home.  Whenever I see a violet I think of my mom as a little girl, and violets are in full bloom around here. The violet Etegami still doesn't have a caption, but I was thinking of something along the lines of "a lovely reminder..." or "sweetly reminded of you".  I'm sure I'll know once all my supplies are put away!!!
Char Solo: Violet

Below are the 2 Etegami that I made in class this week.  The first one is a weed that grows almost completely hidden in the grass.  I actually chose to draw this over the violet on Wednesday!  I'm glad I did, because I ended up revisiting the whole violet idea today.  The weed "suzume no yari" (I don't know the English name) is drawn on a thin paper that is used for calligraphy and I'll use it as stationery for a letter.  The second one from class is an oversized postcard with a camellia, this too has no caption yet, but I'll think of one eventually!
Class 4/ll:
"It's okay to be tastefully understated."

Class 4/11: Caption-less Camellia

*Here is a very beautiful example of baked goods by an Etegami artist who I admire Dosanko Debbie.  Debbie also just posted a thorough explanation of the Etegami art form on her blog.  I hope everyone checks out both posts.  

XOXO
Char!

6 comments:

  1. They are --each and every one-- beautiful!

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  2. The words for an etegami sometimes just jump into your head when you least expect it! Sometimes the words come first, it's a mystery. The violet is lovely by the way, it has more three dimensionality than is usual I think in etegami, something I tend to do. I would be interested to know what your sensei thinks about it as a traditional etegami?

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  3. Carole, I'll be happy to ask, and I'll message you what I find out. I think I'll be attending class next Tuesday! I've found that the Etegami I have been making on my own are starting to have a completely different quality than the ones from class (which follow the guidelines much more closely). Thanks for your comment! :)

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  4. i too love the three dimensionality of the violet. i have been trying to make my etegami have more of that, but it's rather hard.

    the weed: spectacular.

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  5. Thanks for your comment and checking out my blog, Alison! :)

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