Hokusai

I don't know much about Hokusai, but I think most everybody would recognize his "Great Wave at Kanagawa."

Thats a woodblock print aye?

wow it feels like it was just yesterday when I tried doing a copy of it in my art class...........at the start of the year......it feels like it was just.... oh nvm<--wtf?

my art teacher got all angus, cos I took some carbon paper and proceeded to trace the picture onto my wood block...I was like "wtf?" cos he was like "unless you wanna pay money over copyright laws and blah blah blah and whatever.... then please go ahead and trace it" I just said sorry and walked off saying to myself wtf?....how much could it be? wtf? (this was when I knew nothing about art history)

Its copyrighted aye?..cause if it ain't....then wtf?

Slightly off topic:

I've been thinking lately that Japanese waves are more aggressive and personal than waves drawn by western artists.

I'm not sure aye....
I think its cause they like to capture the....umm.....the umm.....the something I don't know how to say it...

either that or they do it since they're used to stroking their brushes all the time when they do calligraphy..

But yeah like I said I'm not sure...I just think thats how they learnt to paint waves.....

I can tell if a painting was done by a Japanese artist by the way the waves were drawn......

In the 70's, a manufacturer of drapery material duplicated the wave pattern and it didn't take long for me to do an entire house in it.

A friend of mine suggested that perhaps
the Japanese waves are influenced by
Japanese Artists who are very aware of
living on islands surrounded by an
active ocean.

I don't think the waves are especially more aggressive than western painters - there are some pretty dramatic and scary paintings of storms in western art.


These were images of the landscape they knew in their own style, affected by their own art history. The first time I saw a documentary on the area I realised that the stylised mountains were really shaped like that! and absolutely beautiful

I love his work but know nothing about him as a person or his background I have to admit.

re: copying - it won't be copyright any more ..... but why copy? why not do your own images? much more satisfying and creative.

Perhaps from my Western point of view, the Japanese waves seem more like stylized power than Western waves do?

stylised power? absolutely spot on description

Noddy - You mentioned elsewhere about living in St Ives in Cornwall - I lived a bit further north and the wild seas swept in off the Atlantic - the huge waves fascinated and terrified me as a child with the smooth beautiful glassy underneath rearing above your head with the light shining through, terrifying in its power ...... and then it would crash down with terrific force.

I loved the beach but my parents said I always had nightmares after going - overimaginative child I was!

Oceans are powerful!

The only painter I know that does contemporary depictions of stormy seas is Seikichi Takara, another Japanese artist living in Hawaii. I have one of his originals:



"Distant Moon"

Kurt Jackson and many British artists paint wild and stormy seas - wilder than this one! but I can't find an image I can lift to link here. He lives near the coast in a very wild part of Cornwall and paints in all weathers and seasons. I love his work. As an island I suppose we are more aware of the sea.

That image is one of his quieter scenes! He has produced paintings of the open sea that border on abstract expressionism which could definitely make some sea sick.

Couldnt name any artists but som epainting from Victorian/ye olden days era have seriously impressive sea storms, with ships being thrown about.

My husband and I just saw the Hokusai exhibit at the Sackler (Smithsonian Museum) this past week. It was phenomenal! We own a Hokusai...a view of Mt . Fugi and we amazed at the colors that remain in the prints and wall hangings. We also own Hiroshiges, but Hokusai was the master. The exhibit does not last beyond May 14th, so if anyone is near DC, do try to see it. It is so worth the while.