New ACEO

Kinda goes nice with the last one I posted.
Click here to purchase!

New aceo

squeeee! A new garden bunny!
Click here for ebay auction.

Cute painting!

A cute little bun, inspired by my love of gardening.
Click here to bid

Romantic new artwork!

This should have been up yesterday, but work ended up being more hectic than usual so I was too tired to post this after I got home. I LOVE the way the misty pine-clad mountains turned out - it was fun to paint a little mini-landscape like that.
Click here for the ebay auction!



Later in the week I'll have a garden bunny painting up. It's the time of year to get the vegetables planted - I look forward to it all year!

Happy Victoria Day!

Today is Victoria Day in Canada, and it's a national holiday, so like most of the rest of the country, I'm taking the day off and will not be posting an auction today. It will be up tomorrow though! This long weekend is traditionally the time when we plant our gardens, since the threat of frost is officially over. I bought all my tomato plants and pepper plants yesterday, but I won't be planting them today - I'll wait until next weekend. In the meanwhile, I'll be doing a lot of weeding this week, and experimenting with different methods of keeping the neighbor's three cats out of the garden. So far the curry powder I sprinkled seems to be working! They do do a lot of damage, but it's hard to stay mad at them because they're just so darn cute. I'll leave a little bit of the front flower bed unstinkafied for their convenience.
=(^..^)=

New artwork

New ACEO - "an elegant vice". Smoking was popular during the Edo Era, with pipes being tiny affairs that were stuffed with tabacco shredded to threadlike fineness which provided a puff or two with each fill. Pipes and smoking accessories were incredibly elegant and luxurious, and smoking appealed to women as well as men - pipes are featured quite often in Ukiyoe being used by both men and women.

Click here for the ebay auction.



closeup:

New Artwork...

Click the image for a larger, crisper image.

This is a really beautiful fantasy portrait - she's looking for a good home!
Click here for ebay auction with BIN option.

New artwork...

New ACEO, "Catty"

ebay action is here.



Closeup (look at those teeny teeth!):

New artwork.

New ACEO - "Fuji Musume" for the Complimentary art and things group theme week.
Click here for the ebay auction.

Fuji Musume means Wisteria maiden and is a famous classic Kabuki dance.

New artwork

Here's something a little different. I've had this little box sitting around waiting to be painted for almost a year. I finally got around to it! I painted it to mimic Japanese lacquerware. It was almost impossible to photograph because it was so shiny.
Click here for the ebay auction. It measures approx. 3.5 inches at it's widest.

This is a back view:



Scan of the top:

New artwork

A new ACEO! I wanted to do something really pink and feminine. Mom holds her squirming kitten and says what I must have repeated about a million times to my own kids: Look with your eyes, not with your hands!

Click here for the ebay auction.

A sketch....

I've decided to do a seasonal series. First is Winter, 8x10. It will be all blue and cool colors. The object kitty is admiring is a kind of straw covering to protect peonies from the snow. I know it's a little early but if you're intrested in purchase please contact me at rbmouss@mts.net. Of course, there will be three more pictures in the series!
=(^..^)=

Japanese links list.

Here's my newest online "toy". It's a site that compiles your favorite links for you. I'll be adding links here almost daily for a while, so check it out if you're interested in Japanese culture. I'll be posting stuff on art, kimono, food, and culture, with a couple of other fun things. Best of all, I won't be losing all my links next time my computer crashes, they'll still all be online for me!

Click here for Japanese fun!

New ACEO

New card painting - Hagoita.
Click here for the ebay auction.

New artwork!

Here's a new ACEO for those of you who requested something non-Japanese for a change.Click here for the ebay auction.

Perfect for mother's day!

Cafepress merchandise...

I think I forgot to post links to these two designs at cafepress. Lots of cool stuff like tees and magnets, and gifts like mugs and notecards!

"Fuurin" (wind chime)


and - "Hanami" (cherry blossom viewing)

An old commission...

Boy, I started this one over a year ago. With the way things have been going, I just couldn't seem to finish it. The lady that commissioned it had bought my "inudoshi", and wanted a companion piece to go with it. She emailed me off and on over the past year, and finally I got around to finishing it. Both paintings are 5 x 3 inches. I should mention, these are in a different style than I'm currently working in. Here's the first one:



And the second one to match:





The kanji on the first one is the kanji associated with "year of the dog" in the Chinese/Japanese zodiac, and the kanji on the second one is simply "dog" (inu). The dogs are shiba inus, a Japanese breed.

Mini Kimono lesson...

One of my pet peeves when I see pictures of kimonos originating in the west is "hidari mae", or wearing the kimono with the right side lapped over the left. Kimono are always worn with the left collar lapped over the right, except on a corpse. The term "hidari mae" is also a colloquial expression meaning ebbing fortune or people facing bankruptcy. So it is very unlucky to wear your kimono "hidari mae", and certainly would give a Japanese person a sense of discomfort to see it!

The custom originated in the Nara period in the seventh century, when the Japanese court began to follow the Chinese fashion. For a while there was some confusion with people wearing their collars the old-fashioned way, or the Chinese way. Emperor Gensho (715-724) eventually unified the system of measures, and brought about many regulations, one of which was to conventionalize the method of dress - and from that time Japanese people wear their kimono left side over right.

This isn't a mistake a native Japanese person would make, but with the popularity of Japanese art and culture, many artists (including myself, occasionally) make the mistake and draw the collars incorrectly. There are a lot of people who enjoy dressing in kimono as a hobby, and often get this little detail wrong. I've seen it so many times, and every time it's just as jarring to my eyes.

A couple of examples:
This first from a fabric company. I've noticed that a lot of ukiyoe inspired fabric is offen drawn incorrectly. Actually, this first example is very cute, but barely recognizable as Japanese.

Second, from a book cover. Yes, I've read this book, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I've noticed the same thing with kanji, because often westerners can't tell which way the kanji should be, and seem to abitrarily flip their photots and post them any which way!

The Dance Lesson

Whew - I finally got this finished. It was worth taking the time - I'm thrilled with it, and the kimono turned out beautifully. Mom is dressed as an Edo era Geisha. Her kimono has a checked pattern with Sakura (Cherry blossoms) on it. Checks and geometric patterns were quite popular during this era. Her little kitten is dressed as a Kamuro, a kind of maid and courtesan-in-training. The butterflies are inspired by two butterflies from an ukiyoe of kabuki actors. I couldn't resist adding this little detail - I think they add a lot of whimsy and a sense of energy to the painting. This painting is available on ebay now - please click here!



Closeups:

Happy Easter Everyone!

I'm about an hour away from heading over to my parent's for a feast, but I thought I'd make a quick post just in case anyone's wondering why I'm so quiet. This week I should have much more artwork up - the last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic at work, with a lot of little unexpected hours thrown in here and there (as in, no lunch breaks and staying late!). So I've been pretty tired. We're working on our yard too, making the garden larger (I'm not doing without home grown beans and home made salsa this year) and cleaning up in general. The past three nights we've had a bonfire, just burning up scrap wood the previous owners left behind.

The weather here is fantastic, and I have the day off tomorrow - this should be a great week! So, happy Easter everyone! Don't eat too much, and have fun!