Analysis of a Work: Togocho Fields
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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.
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A typical osechi feast |
My wife was at just such a meeting of friends. This left me with a few hours to kill. For those unfamiliar with Aichi, there are lots of rice fields. It is a defining feature of the area. It is quite common for a variety of rice fields to surround these groves of trees. They peak out over the fields, dotting the landscape like small mounds of wilderness, carefully ordered by the geometric rice fields around them. They also serve as a sort of windbreak.
Seeing as this was the beginning of January, a dreary grey sky loomed over much of the farmland. But there was still an explosion of color leftover in these groves from fall. I felt this made a great subject to capture. Many people feel these rice fields are endless, boring, and monotonous. So finding beauty and color hiding all across it was pretty enjoyable. On this day in particular it was raining quite a bit off and on. I had a neat little setup where I could slide the door of our van back and have a wide landscape view while being sheltered from the rain. I was really hoping to catch that last colorful gasp of fall as the darker winter colors begin to takeover.
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Another drawing from a nearby area |
This was not the only drawing I did back in Aichi. I was lucky to have the time to go out and explore my wife's childhood stomping ground. Certainly everywhere I go, pulling out a drawing board attracts a lot of attention. Sometimes the old folks working in the fields even come up and offer me vegetables. Often the younger people see a foreigner wandering around in the middle of nowhere and assume I am lost. It is always fun to watch their expression when you tell them you are here to draw the area. They never seem to expect that. You want to draw this? You can find beauty in this?
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