Week 34 - Ukiyo-e woodblock

Vermillion, Petrol Blue, Sap Green & Deep Grey

This week starts with Monday’s super blue moon, a bit of a rarity with the moon being very close to earth and aligning with other celestial bodies. You can ready more about this rare event here. With the special moon in mind I chose to feature a full moon along with the aqua theme in this week’s #coloricombo prompt.

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) is Week 34’s highlighted artist. He was a highly influential American creator and educator known for promoting Japanese art principles as well as his contributions to the Arts & Crafts movement.

Born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, he trained in Boston before moving to Paris in 1884, studying at the Académie Julian. He lived there for five years, immersing himself in the community of artists of the time before returning to Boston in 1889.

Here he began to study prints by the artist Katsushika Hokusai and the Japanese art of ukiyo-e woodcuts, creating his own woodblock prints from design to printing, predominantly landscapes of Boston’s north shore.

Dow emphasised the importance of composition which led him to develop his own three principles emphasising line, colour and notan (a Japanese concept of light and shade) as the foundations of art. He published Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers in 1899, a seminal textbook that influenced art teachings in the 20th century.

Dow held several prestigious teaching positions, including at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, the Art Students League in New York, and later as a professor of fine arts at Columbia University. His methods influenced many artists and educators, including Georgia O'Keeffe (one of his students) and his approach, encouraging creativity and self-expression, laid the groundwork for modernist art in America.

Read more about Dow here and here and take a look at his book Composition here.

“August Moon”, Five colour woodblock print on paper, Arthur Wesley Dow, ~1905 (source)

Colour Combination

The colours for this weeks prompt are Vermillion, Petrol Blue, Sap Green & Deep Grey. Use the #coloricombo colours along with any neutral light and dark colour to create an artwork in any medium and style. 

August’s theme is “Aqua”. You can use this as topic and create in any way as you wish, using the week’s colours in any medium and style.

I love to see what you do with the coloricombo colours. If you'd like to share your work, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod on social media. Have you joined the exclusive Facebook group yet? Have a look at what get posted by others in the Coloricombo community int the Creative Prompts group.

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