Nils C Johnson Fine Art

 Japanese paper is a personal fascination of mine. The soft fibers give it a unique and unforgiving surface to work on. It absorbs color and pigment deep into the fibers, making mistakes easily apparent, but also giving a vibrancy and saturation that other papers do not allow for. A while back, I had a chance to make my own Japanese paper (also known as washi ) deep in the mountains of Nagano.  Nagano is a remote mountainous province in central Japan. It contains 4 great mountain ranges and a number of Japan's largest mountains. In the old days, it could be quite a rough place to live. Farming was difficult with the harsh, long winters. People had to turn to other crafts and methods to earn a living. Forestry and silk manufacturing were both popular occupations. Paper making was also a way some of these remote villages earned a living.     Washi can be made from a variety of plants and fibers, but one of the most commonly used is the paper mulberry. The villag...

A farmer set up a blue tarp to block out some of the undergrowth  I would like to give a little depth into the story behind some of my works. I would like to start with a drawing I completed over the Japanese new year holiday. This drawing is from January 2020 that measures around 18x20 inches. It is pastel on Frabriano Tiziano paper. A typical osechi feast  Every year, in a massive exodus, Japanese people return to their hometowns. This holiday is the Japanese new year. People get stuck in hours of traffic, attempt to board sold out trains, and even hitchhike to reach their towns and villages far and wide. The holiday reaches its' zenith over the famed new year's meal of osechi . Osechi is a delectable spread of various small dishes that are precooked and everyone can sort of pick at over time. Lots of Japanese rice wine is drunk and general merriment is had. The holiday also allows for friends that have spread out across Japan and the world to come back and meet e...

 Like every skill, you must constantly exercise it to keep it fit and healthy. So today I would like to peer a little bit into my process for doing that.  For many artists, it can be daunting going into the studio every morning. So for that purpose, it's important to always go in knowing you have something specific to work on and get started. This is where my morning exercises come in to play. I like to do these small drawings as a warm up. They are about 4x4 inches square. I usually use a bit of charcoal and pastel. This particular set of drawings was done on handmade Awagami Washi from Shikoku. I visited the factory in person and was able to pick up a wide variety of steeply discounted paper. They make some of my absolute favorite paper.  The goal is not to have some great finished product, the goal is closer to what writers call free writing. The point is to just sit down for a moment and regurgitate some ideas to get your real work started.  I like to have ...

Notice the head melting?   I acquired the increasingly rare drink called Spirytus. Spirytus is a Polish 'vodka' that boasts a 96% alcohol content. My purpose was to attain something that would be usable as a hand sanitizer. Not everything is sold out and crazy here yet. Hand sanitizer is a bit difficult to find though. So we have to get creative. One way to get creative is to buy Spirytus. Mix it with a little bit of water and you have a nice spray. Consume it, and you have an incredibly potent sugar fire that is conducive to starting a blog.  So lets dig into Japan. At the time of this writing, Tokyo has issued a state of emergency. This actually means very little. The emergency is a suggestion more than an enforced fact. Which is ok. I notice people all around the world are begging government for stronger controls. This is a double edged sword. Japan knows this history well. Not too long ago, the Peace and Preservation Act was used to cut out dissent. Putting teeth int...