SUMMER and MOVEMENT

A couple of weeks ago the Mr Lincoln rose produced its first flowers for the season. I was surprised to see three large fully- opened flowers all at once on the bush. I especially love the sweet, apple-like fragrance of this rose. Wikipedia says the rose is very similar to the Mohammadi rose that has been grown in Isfahan for centuries. I am also comforted to learn that Mr Lincoln is "drought friendly", which is perhaps not surprising if its heritage traces back to Iran. 

Because the weather was about to turn, with rain predicted later in the day, I picked the flowers and massed them in this black ceramic vase by Terunobu Hirata. The dark lines are small, naturally-dried Agave leaves.

In my Melbourne class I set the theme of "Using Australian Native materials and exchanging vessels".

Eugenia has used Hop bush, one of the Dodonea genus for the principal line and some massed red Callistemon. The vessel, from Margaret's collection, is by the Victorian ceramic artist Mel Ogden.

Marcia created a cascading design with a red flowering eucalyptus. The vessel, by Alistair Whyte, is from the collection of Laurence O'Keefe. 

Margaret created this ikebana using a green Banksia flower and a mass of Cushion Bush, Leucophyta. The split-cylinder vessel is from Eugenia's collection.

The Cushion bush shown here is in our garden and is a common sight on the cliff-faces and sand dunes around Torquay. I used this plant in my ikebana at the Victorian Sogetsu Branch workshop last Monday. 

The theme of the workshop "A summer ikebana with focus on movement", was set by Emerald Leung, one of the Branch teachers. It was a rather unexpected combination of ideas and brought out interesting results from Emerald as well as the members (Photos from the workshop).

My summer associations are all about the beach surrounds at Torquay. I chose the vessel by the New Zealand ceramic artist Elena Renka for the hot summery colour of the Shino glaze. I have massed some Cushion bush to one side of the vessel and placed a curving dried branch so that it extends over and beyond the vessel. I was surprised that when I tried to add some green lines of sedge to the ikebana the whole was weakened. So I kept it simple. In retrospect, a small focus of another coloured material placed in the centre of the vessel would probably have worked. However, the green lines  were definitely going to compete too much with the lines of the dried wood.

Greetings from Christopher

27th November 2022

 

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Over the years the majority of my students have been westerners, most of whom had never been to Japan when they began studying ikebana. In my opinion when teaching westerners, the teacher needs to be prepared to provide some of the historical and cultural background that has led to the development of today’s ikebana. This is perhaps best done in small ‘doses’ as the classes progress. However, I think such background information is necessary for the student to develop the sensitivity to be able to make ikebana that has depth and is not just formulaic.

The oldest known manuscript, "Kaoirai no kadensho", that provided direction to the arrangement of flowers for specific festivals dates from around the 1460s. This document is regarded as the beginning of Ikebana as a codified art form; that is, an art form with clearly enunciated underlying principles.

At the last couple of classes with my Geelong students I have spent some time drawing their attention to these historical developments of ikebana.To this end we began by looking at the images of the late 16th century development of the Rikka style.

This example of Rikka was made by Yukako Braun for the 2016 Annual Exhibition of Ikebana International Melbourne. This elegant and complex design has nine principal lines, all of them arising from the water surface of the Usubata vessel as a single column. Rikka is described in the following way by the Iemoto, Sen'ei Ikenobo, "...in a small container the magnificent scope of Rikka expresses in a scene which depicts the grand spectacle of nature." ( Fujiwara, Y. "Rikka, The soul of Japanese Flower arrangement" p 8) 

Approximately 150 years later a new style was developed called Seika. This refined style, in this case using only Aspidistra leaves, has five lines. To me it looks like an abstraction of the Rikka style, as though the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction from complex elaboration. I made this arrangement, to show my students, as part of my investigation into historical styles.

In November 2014 Shihosai Uematsu, the then Iemoto designate of Shogetsudokoryu, visited Melbourne. He conducted a workshop on the theme of Ryureika, a modern interpretation of the Seika form devised by his father who was the Iemoto at the time. In the new Ryureika form, each of the five lines is composed with a different material. I made the above Ryureika ikebana as the demonstration for my students. I have used  New Zealand Flax Phorium, Dock weed Rumex, Aspidistra, Red Valerian Centranthus ruber, and Kangaroo Fern, Zealandia pustulata.

After my students completed this exercise I asked them what connections they saw between the Ryureika form and Sogetsu Ikebana which they now practise and study. Among other elements they mentioned were: the use of line, space, surface of the water, asymmetry of design and the proportions of the lines. 

Below are the Ryureika ikebana arrangements made by my students.

Tess

Maree

Ellie

Helen

Christine

Maureen

Greetings from Christopher

20th November 2022

SPANISH BROOM

Last Tuesday at the meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne the guest speaker was Ema Shin, a Japanese-born, Australian textile artist of Korean descent. Ema's presentation had been planned for July 2021, however a Covid-related lockdown prevented the meeting from taking place at that time. Ema spoke about the way her creative work has evolved from printmaking to three dimensional textile sculptural work involving a variety of techniques. 

Her recent work has focused on the depiction of the female body, including internal organs as well as flowers, as "...symbols of her life and emotions...". In particular, her embroidered soft heart sculptures represent the "missing women" of her own ancestry whose names were not recorded in the family's genealogical records. Images of Ema's work in this link are included with an article about her exhibition earlier this year.  

At the meeting Ema demonstrated tapestry weaving on a small portable hand loom. As is the custom when there is a guest speaker at meetings, members are encouraged to make ikebana related to the presentation. Below is the ikebana I created in which I improvised with a textile-covered Japanese wine-bottle carrier instead of a vase. 

 

The fabric is an olive green with a subtle dull gold brocaded pattern. The materials are Forest Bell bush, Makaya bella, flowers and Dietes grandiflora leaves. 

Last year I made the ikebana below...

...in response to viewing Ema's work online. I must admit I am happier with this earlier work, in which I wrapped a single line of a branch in two shades of red wool as a direct reference to her work. The fresh pink material is a stem of Bougainvillea flowers. This link is to the Ikebana International Melbourne blog for more photos from the meeting.

In the garden a couple of weeks ago...

...the bush of Spanish Broom, Spartium junceum, started to flower. The bright yellow flowers were vibrant in the bright sunshine and became my chosen ikebana subject for a vase with a very narrow slit-like opening. 

The particular challenge with the vase is that it is deep and with the narrow lateral opening the materials tend to lean forward or to the rear. However, what are such challenges for but to find a solution!

I have used two stems of Broom that each have straight almost parallel lines, and a single stem with a zig-zag form. The single stem, placed on the right, is angled forward and creates a loose open space. The two leaves of Kangaroo fern, Zealandia pustulata, provide a mass that visually holds the lines together.

As you can see the vase has a turquoise glaze on the top half and is creamy white below. It was made by the Japanese-born,  Australian ceramic artist Hiroe Swen. More images of Hiroe Swen's ceramics.

Greetings from Christopher

13th November 2022

CHALLENGING MY STUDENTS

 

This last week I challenged both my advanced Geelong students and my Torquay students by requiring them to create ikebana with unfamiliar material and unfamiliar vessels. Each student was asked to bring both material and a vessel to class. Logically, students were likely to bring materials and a vessel that would combine satisfactorily. To make this exercise perhaps slightly more difficult, the students were given material from one of their colleagues and a vessel from another. 

I felt that the students did the task well, producing interesting and attractive ikebana. One of the most surprising and unexpected aspects was that often there was a close harmony between the colour of the vessel and the material. With a couple of the arrangements the vessel and material had a strong colour contrast.

The Torquay class was only small, so I participated in the exercise myself.

Coralie made this ikebana with a fine leafed Leptospermum, and small pale pink Carnations. The turquoise and pink glazed vase was from my own collection. 

  

In a tall glazed vase, Marta created a design with curving lines of Dietes leaves and  Western Australian rose coneflowers, Isopogon formosus.

 

Judy made a slanting design with Leptospermum laevigatum and Centranthus ruber, from my garden.

In the Geelong class...

...Tess was presented with Elllie's vase and Maureen's materials. She arranged the Strelitzia reginae leaves and flowers in a visually strong blue vase which contrasted with the orange of the flower's petals. The mass created with the leaves sits above the vessel creating a space which lightens the ikebana.

Maureen, with Tess's vase and Christine's materials, created an ikebana with strong lines that direct the eye to the intense blue of the iris flower and vertically placed bud.

Christine, with Maureen's vase and Helen's materials, created a bold design using two stems of Beschorneria septentrionalis The intense pink of the stems contrasts with the deep blue of the plastic cylinder.

Helen, with Christine's vase and Ellie's materials, a cultivar of Larkspur Consolida "Sublime", created a massed ikebana stretching to the left of the vase. I was fascinated to see the coincidental colour match between the flowers and the irregular splash of pale blue glaze on the righthand side of the vase. Unfortunately, the flattening effect of the photo hides the fact that the flower mass stretches well forward of the vase.

Ellie, with Helen's vase and Tess's materials, also created a surprisingly colour matched ikebana. The mass on the left stretches well forward and on the right stretches to the rear. The photographic angle hides some small yellow Jerusalem sage flowers, Phlomis fruticosa, that was placed between the two masses.

My own ikebana was made in the morning class. I was given Judy's flat-sided glass vase and Marta's materials, some stems of Kiwi vine, Actinidia deliciosa and cerise Cineraria deltoidea.

I found the flower buds on the vine to be the most interesting aspect and therefore removed almost all of the leaves which tended to be floppy as well as obscuring the buds.

This is my completed ikebana. In addition to removing leaves I also added the curve to the tall line that extends to the upper right. This particular branch was originally completely straight and vertical which looked very awkward. The cineraria provide a very small intense area of colour in the centre of the ikebana behind a mass of flower buds.

Greetings from Christopher
5th November 2022