An art show in Sendai

 As I left my apartment, I noticed that they were hard at work on repairing the earthquake damage to the river bank. I will be glad when they finish this because about half of our little park is off-limits because of the construction.

 This was art class day and, after class as we usually do, most of us went out for lunch. It was noon time and the place was crowded so we sat at the counter that is mainly used at night. All around the counter is a continuous grill made from large, thick sheets of metal. At night they do teppanyaki, the food is fried on the grill in front of you. The food here is quite good and very inexpensive so we often eat here.

 After we ate, we went next door to an art exhibit. I did not think most of it was very good, but this was impressive. It is a room-size ikebana.

 Here is another picture from a different angle. It looked very Christmasy - all the red and green.

 

 Outside in the arcade, they were selling some handicrafts. Most of it looked very commercial so I did not stop to browse.

A little further on, there was a new shop. The last time I came by here the place was still under construction and you could not see anything. I think that it sells women's accessories of some kind. Again it did not look like anything I would be interested in, so I did not enter. However, I did stop and enjoy the outside.

My art work from the show

 This is a picture a man clamming. It is done in the same dot technique as the picture I posted yesterday.

 This is an old house, probably damaged in the earthquakes. It is done in pen and ink (not dots but lines) and then shading added with a pencil.

 The fishing boat that is up on blocks for the winter was done in pen and ink and they colored with watercolors.

 This is an barn on an old farm. Again it is pen and ink with watercolors adding the coloring.

This is the section of our exhibit that was devoted to my pictures.

The Izumi Art Club exhibition

 There are seven students who stayed with our teacher, Wakamatsu Sensei, after the earthquakes. For a few months we had classes in his remaining studio and then things were arranged so that we had classes in the NHK Bunka Center again, but this time in a downtown school, rather than the one in Izumi Chuo. Yesterday I was having coffee at Starbucks in Izumi Chuo and noticed that the lights were on in the old classroom so maybe the repairs have finally started.

In this picture we are arranging the pictures before hanging them. Two of the faculty from the university help us put up the show in a professional manner. Using tape measures and string, the pictures are arranged at the same height and with equal spacing between them.

 This shows the result of an hour or so of work. Altogether we had 40 pictures and some other stuff.

 My pictures this year were all about disasters. They were very therapeutic to do, but now I have gone back to trees, my favorite subject. This building was shown in the newspaper and it had been damaged by wind.

 This was a takeoff on a woodblock print by Hiroshige, but I replaced Mount Fuji with a Japanese style house to represent the tsuname.

 This is the famous ruins at Hiroshima and represents man's inhumanity to man.

 Three of my fellow students (we are all old and the men are retired) checking out the pictures.

 Kato San took pictures of all the pictures.

 After all the pictures were hung, Wakamatsu Sendei gave a critic of each picture as a learning experience of us.

I had one additional picture in the show. I did it before the earthquake and the subject is a canal scene from Europe. I used a photo that Wakamatsu Sensei had taken on one of his trips as the basis for my drawing. Most of the time I start with a photo but change things to make a more interesting drawing. Sometimes my work comes entirely from my head.

Getting ready for my art club's exhibit

 I was nearing the southern end of the arcade and found that there were a large number of tents where people were selling lots of different things, mostly food.

 The empty space in the background is where Maruzen, a bookstore chain that has a large selection of English language books, used to be. Now it has moved to a building next to Sendai Station.

 Looking back at the southernmost entrance to the arcade, called Sun Mall here.

 Our art exhibit is going to be in this building, on the first floor to the left of the 7/11 convenience store.

 This is Meijiya, a chain store that sells imported foods. We used to go to the one in Nagoya a lot when we first moved to Japan, but now we almost never go. We have become used to what is sold in the regular stores.

 This is inside Meijiya.

 This is the room where we will hang our pictures.

I really liked this plant and am thinking of using it as the subject of a picture. Notice the windows. One side of our exhibition hall is all windows, so everything is visible from the sidewalk. Last year a lot of people walking by stopped and, after looking in, actually came in for a closer look. This hall and a lot of the upper floors of this building belong to the Tohoku Institute of Technology, which allows us to use the site for free. They use it for student shows and for other groups. Last year we our first show here drew more visitors than any other exhibition.