I can’t believe we are going to Singapore on Sunday. I haven’t felt this sad to leave a place since we departed Reykjavík last October, and for the same reason: I feel there is so much more I could create and learn here.
Since the last time I wrote, we’ve visited more temples, parks, and gardens, some of them famous. We’ve gone to a sushi party and met new people. I went to the baths last night just before midnight, and I spent this morning at an antiques market. And there will probably be similarly fun activity in the coming week, along with all the usual errands that seem to pile up right before we leave a place. But at the moment the only thing I want to show you is my drawings. Here they are in chronological order.
15-minute sketch of Kamogawa (Kamo River), done to pass the time before a haircut appointment
Sketch (in stages) of the view from the Zen sand garden at Ginkaku-ji Temple
Sketch (in stages) of a flowering ume (Japanese plum) in the Imperial Park
Sketch (in stages) of the fir tree next to the ume
I’m still not sure whether it was a good idea to add the trunk.
Sketches during the sushi party
With watercolor pencils and waterbrush, in a new sketchbook
With brush pens, in a Moleskine given to me by Bri before we left last year (same book I used for the other sketches)
adventures with ink and brush
One of our new friends came over today and was kind enough to bring over calligraphy supplies for us to play with. (Also kinako cookies.)
I did take a calligraphy class through Chinese school when I was probably about 10, but I never got the hang of it. But our friend said to just make whatever we felt like. Then she taped everything up in the courtyard. “Garden gallery,” she said. (Anyone want to guess which pictures are mine and which Erik’s?)
She also brought a big piece of fabric for me to paint on. I think it’s cotton muslin. She and a friend put it up for me (and tied the little tree’s branches out of the way), and then turned me loose.
I’ve never painted anything so large, though I’ve been wanting to for months and months. The corrugated wall made for an interesting painting surface.
Our friend and her friend pronounced the painting wabi-sabi, which makes me very happy. It’s still hanging in the courtyard as I type this; I can see it through the glass panes in the sliding doors.
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
Absolutely love your sketches, Lisa! It looks like you have been having so much fun being creative in Kyoto. I am sad that you are leaving too.
Thank you so much, Sherry! Kyoto — and the people I’ve met here — has given me so much space to think and make and be. I hope to bring that feeling with me when we go. And I intend to come back!!
I haven’t been on your blog in ages! Look at you! All of this is so wonderful! Thanks for sharing the stages of your sketches too. Love it all!
Ahhh, thank you, Alison!! 🙂 I don’t know why I never thought to take pics of my sketches in-progress before. It’s good for me to see the stages too.
Love the big painting! And glad you are using those moleskines–they look really ivory compared to the other paper. Huh!
Thanks my dear! The Moleskines have come in handy — I brought one with me to Europe, and this is the second one. Moleskines always use rather ivory paper but I don’t mind. 🙂
Love, love, love your sketches and that big, gorgeous painting! I’m sad that you’re leaving, but look forward to seeing the beautiful things you’ll share from Singapore!
Ah, thank you, Stacie!! Kyoto has been very very good to me. 🙂 Singapore will be quite the change in mood — it’ll be interesting to see how I feel once we get there!
It’s so much fun to see the progression in your sketches! So interesting to me that you put the ume blossoms first, and then the branches and trunk!
And I very much like your first large painting. And the corrugated wall sure makes an interesting effect. I like it but when I stared at it too long it started to look like a crying face with mascara running down. 😐 But I really like the top mountains that are a lighter gray. Maybe not as much of the mascara effect on those.
Tanky! I had to do the blossoms first or I would have been drawing them on top of the dark lines of the branches, and then they all would have come out bisected or similar. ;b But it did make for an interesting challenge, trying to draw the branches around the flowers.
Hehe. Our friend was over here last night trying to explain what she liked about the painting, and she said she thought the corrugated effect was so interesting — gesturing and making a sound to indicate the corrugations. 🙂
I love this. Beautiful and inspiring! Keep creating!
Thank you so much! I’ll do my best. 🙂
Hi creative lady, I am so glad that you create again (your sketches are great!!! well done!!!). it really looks like Kyoto is one of your soul places. Big, big hugs and stay creative
Thank you thank you, dear Aga!! Big big hugs to you too. ❤ ❤ ❤
Oouf, I left a comment, but it disappeared.
So, again…
– The first one is excellent – the two tones, black jittery lines vs gray spots, treetops vs trunks, and the fast feel.
– fir tree: no doubt japanese.
– Canvas – excellent! so great to have to opportunity to draw fast and big! love the fence texture on the cloth!
Thanks so much, Dov!! Our friend gave me another big piece of cloth, so I will be painting large again at some point. 😀 Not till I get home (I mailed it since there was no room in my luggage), but I can’t wait to try it. Japan was a very good place to think about black ink drawings/paintings — such a long history of them there. 🙂
Wonderful experiences you are having! And great drawings Love the big canvas. Moleskine sketchbooks for watercolor paper is white 🙂 expensive books but I like them Carla
Hi Carla! You must be going through my archives. 🙂 I haven’t had a chance to work really big since this piece in Kyoto but I am hoping I’ll get to do that here in Boston — my neighbors in this artists’ building all have work outside their doors and most of it is bigger than my usual, so it’s inspiring me to go big too. Then I’ll have to figure out how to get the big pieces home, but we’ll cross that bridge, etc. 😉
[…] envious of people who can readily sketch their surroundings – take Lisa of Satsumabug for example. Alas, I’ve little patience for sketching and limited aptitude for […]