Skagit Landscape of the Mind V:  Winter's Cool
Acrylics on Cedar w/Red Oak Frame
Winter 2022-23

    Living in the Skagit Valley is a great joy.  The Skagit River Valley, with the Cascades to the East and the Olympics to the west, provides a perfect stage to observe a multitude of activities.  With its well-established agricultural focus, the valley also imparts a strong sense of seasonality to those who live here.  Many artists are inspired to paint its beauty, and I have felt this urge on occasion as well.  Art historian Shuichi Kato’s 1994 book Japan: Spirit and Form (and the television series based on it) discussed the concept of “the landscape of the mind” as opposed to a realistic painting of the actual scene.  This encouraged me to focus on just the key elements of the landscape: the Cascade Mountains, their foothills, the large migrating birds(swans and geese), and the Skagit River itself.  This is not representational or abstract art but “suggestive art”, as it suggests a landscape and then asks the viewer to complete it using their own mind and past experiences.  Inspiration came from Ito Jakuchu’s monochromatic woodblock-printed handscroll entitled Jokyoshu: Impromptu Pleasures Afloat (see On a Riverboat Journey: A Handscroll by Ito Jakuchu with Poems by Daiten, ©1989, by Onishi, Hiroshi).  To suggest the feel of a handscroll, I chose to paint on a long and narrow piece of cedar.   The frame for this painting was made out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.   I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and
oiling the oak to finish the frame.
 
DIMENSIONS:          HEIGHT:  10 ¼ inches
                                  WIDTH:  37 ½ inches

                                                               PRICE $525

Ito Jakuchu-Happy Improvisations on a Riverboat Journey

Gary Giovane
La Conner, WA
gioart13@yahoo.com