I have some new prints for sale at Sakura Sunday, as you can see, and I finally got around to putting them up on my Etsy store. Here’s what they look like:

It was a great day, and again thanks to everyone who came out! I’m looking forward to seeing you again next year!

If you’ve been paying attention to my Facebook page, you’ve probably noticed that for a while I was getting 1 painting done per week, until March. Well, that’s because I’ve been wrestling with this painting all month long, and finally I am happy with the results. The level of tiny detail is pretty intense in this one, and it looks great full-size on paper.

I’ll be selling this print and some others at Sakura Sunday (April 14 @ the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center). Hope to see you there!

Spring View of Shofuso (松風荘庭園の春景色)

Some time back, I mentioned how I was rebooting my “100 Famous Views of Philadelphia” series with a view of doing all 100 prints and putting them into a large, full-color book like I did with Night Parade last year (Oh yeah! And it’s just 1 year now that Night Parade has been out too!). Well, I have been working night and day on the new images, trying to get one done about each week.

If you’ve been following me on Facebook/Twitter/Google+ then you know that I haven’t been totally silent; only silent on my blog. And you’ve probably seen the images of the finished pieces as I’ve been getting them done. And you’ve probably heard me apologize that I don’t have prints available yet. Well that changes today!

I just created a bunch of prints of the first four images in the new 100 Famous Views of Philadelphia series! Check them out:

These paintings are all now available on my Etsy store. Prints are signed and matted, as always, and they come in 2 different sizes.

I hope you enjoy them, and stay tuned for more new views of Philadelphia coming soon!

A few years back, I worked on a project I called “One Hundred Famous Views of Philadelphia.” It was essentially a parody project, taking images from Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous View of Edo (and a few other artists’ works) and re-imagining them in Philadelphia. It was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of good feedback from it, but when I moved to Japan for obvious reasons it became harder to paint scenes of Philadelphia. As my wife and I will now be spending a few years in Philadelphia, it’s a great opportunity to dive back into this project and try to actually paint all one hundred views.

I posted a few new sketches to my Facebook page over the summer, and you may have seen them if you are following me there. I just completed the first new painting in the series, which you can see here:

シティーホールの夕暮れ

If the border looks a little weird, that’s because it’s 8 different scans layered into one image, and while I blended the overlapping parts of the image I didn’t bother blending the white border. The piece is about 20×30 inches, done in watercolor, watercolor pencils, and ink. Anyone who has done watercolor will know how easy it is to mess everything up with a single bump. I was nervous doing such a big watercolor the entire time, but never as much as I was doing the lettering on the title… but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

I won’t be working at such a large scale for the rest of these images I think… while it’s nice for the detail, it’s not good for my nerves when I have to be careful not to touch or smudge or ruin anything after so many hours of work. I’m going to be working on these paintings for a while now, and hopefully I’ll be able to launch a Kickstarter this spring to print and publish a book with a ton of Philadelphia ukiyo-e prints in it! |

これは数年前から行っているプロジェクトで、フィラデルフィア名所百景です。広重による名所江戸百景（他の絵師の画からも影響をうけました）に影響を受けて描いているものです。

このプロジェクトは以前より好評であり続けたいと思っていましたが、日本に移ってからはこのフィラデルフィアの現地が見られないため描くのが難しくなっていました。この秋からまたフィラデルフィアに戻り、しばらく滞在する予定ですのでまたこのプロジェクトを再開する絶好の機会となりました！滞在中に１００の名所を描く予定です。

私のページをフォローして下さっている方々はご覧になったと思いますが、今年の夏に新しいスケッチ画を私のフェイスブックページで公開してきました。最近ようやく一つ完成させる事が出来ました。それがこちらです。

シティーホールの夕暮れ

これは約２０×３０インチのサイズで、水彩・水彩ペン・インクを使っています。水彩画を描いた事のある方は良く分かると思いますが、一滴落ちただけで全ての絵が台無しになってしまう非常に気を使うものです。これまでにここまで大きな水彩画を描く事はなかったのでとても気を使いました。

大きい画はディテールが綺麗にでますが、時間もかかるうえにかなり神経を使う仕事になりますのでこれからの画をこれと同様の大きさにすることはないと思います。。。このフィラデルフィア名所百景プロジェクトにこれから取り組み、翌年春にはKickstarterプロジェクトを立ち上げて浮世絵スタイルのフィラデルフィア風景が詰まった本を出版したいと考えています！

Springtime at Fairmount Park / フェアモント公園の陽春

If you haven’t had a chance to get out to Fairmount Park in early April, do yourself a favor and go! The trees really are something to behold, and the Japan America Society’s Cherry Blossom Festival is quite awesome.

Now, you should go out and see the real thing, in Fairmount park! You can learn more about the Japanese House and Garden at www.shofuso.com, and you can learn more about the Cherry Blossom Festival at jasgp.org/cherryblossomfestival (as well as buy my prints — you know you want to).