Category Archives: maiko

Pontocho Perfect

Pontocho, a narrow lane in downtown Kyoto, reminds me of a Venetian calle. It has the same kind of intimate claustrophobic walking space as that of a calle – squished between buildings – a tight fit. You may enter Pontocho from either Shijo Street at its southern end or Sanjo Street at its north. As soon as you turn into Pontocho you enter another world.

Pontocho is known and loved for its lively atmosphere, enormous variety of bars and restaurants – mmmm – the aromas as you pass by them! When it is quiet though, that is when you feel the spirit (and spirits) of the place.

It is also one of the five remaining hanamachi (flower towns) or geisha districts of Kyoto. These days it is so popular with tourists that one moves along in a throng (again like Venice); slowly, one vast mass made up of many bodies, edging along from north to south or south to north; bodies trying to squeeze past bodies. People stopping to read menus, people stopping to take selfies – others navigating around them. How the maiko and geiko get about, I’m not sure!

I took my own secret trip to Pontocho – here at home in Perth. I spent the whole month of December on site (in my head) – working on “Pontocho Perfect“. Not only did I space-travel, but I time-traveled, because I worked from a photo I had taken in 2005. How peaceful Pontocho was at just after 12 noon on Monday 14th November 2005. Two maiko swept past me in a flourish of floaty fabric. I delighted in their cool perfection.

“Floating in Kyoto”, 2006, was the first drawing I made of this scene. Note the different composition between the two drawings. (No lantern on the right in the new drawing.)

I don’t know who the maiko were but perhaps somebody will recognize them from the following photos.

Glowing in Kyoto

Time stands still – are we in the twenty-first century? Katsutomo-san approaches her okiya, key-in-hand, on a Gion street, while the always-present lanterns bob and glow.

As I continue to have an emotional pull toward lanterns, wooden tea-houses and geisha, I am unearthing my twenty year cache of Kyoto photos in order to mine them for possible new drawings. “Glowing in Kyoto”, just completed, is drawn from a photo I took on a summer afternoon in 2014.

I made a drawing from this same image back in 2014. I called it “The Art of Elegance”. You can play “spot the difference” between the two drawings.

“The Art of Elegance”, coloured pencils, 39.5 x 48 cm. Drawn in August 2014.

I find solace in subject matter such as this. The calm demeanor of elegant Katsutomo-san, the repetitive slats of wood and reassuring red lanterns are a meditation; a nostalgic world I can disappear into.

Gion Kouta

“Gion kouta” is the name of a hauntingly beautiful dance performed by maiko and geiko. The kouta (song) lyrics wistfully describe timeless Kyoto; its romantic changing seasons, fleeting beauty and ephemeral geisha.

I give this drawing the title “Gion Kouta” as, to me, it has all the romance of the song. Maiko (with accompanying shikomi) hurry through drizzle under their paper wagasa (umbrellas). Ichiriki-tei (the most famous tea-house in all of Japan) is on the left; lanterns and street lamps glow and reflect, and in the distance loom the eastern hills – Higashiyama.

Even the hotel where I stay is in this drawing. APA Gion Hotel is the pinkish multi-level building behind on the left. I’ll be there again in a couple of weeks’ time.

I took the source photo for this drawing in June 2016. It took me seven years to figure out how to bring about the drawing I had in mind! Once I began, the drawing drew itself quite effortlessly – and came to a resolution ‘just like that’ without angst.

Click on the link below to hear the beautiful and somewhat melancholy tune of “Gion Kouta”.

A Walk in Miyagawa

With the latest art exhibition “Home & Heart – local love stories” behind me, I decide to indulge myself with a Kyoto drawing – just for the sheer love of it.

Miyagawa is one of Kyoto’s five geisha districts. I was last there in November 2019 and this drawing is from a photo I took during that trip.

I like spending time in Miyagawa as it is quiet. Just ten minutes’ walk north, the better-known geisha district of Gion is heaving with tourists eagerly (and sometimes brutally) trying to intercept maiko and geiko (geisha) for photos.

Below are three older drawings from Miyagawa; each portrays a rear view. I love drawing the kimono ensemble from behind, while pictorially, a retreating figure guides the viewer into the scene.

“Last Night I Dreamed of Kyoto” is the same street on the same night but treated differently. Drawn in 2021.

“Surprise!” – two maiko were ambushed by a group of cameramen as they turned a corner. Drawn in 2011.

“Step by Step” – a young maiko and an old lady represent the passage of time. Drawn in 2014.

Timeless Miyagawa – as I draw the scene, so I am also drawn in.

A Late Night Conversation

For several days I have been “in training”. “Each night I stayed up as late as I could and each morning attempted to sleep in. My goal was to adjust my body-clock so that I wouldn’t only be awake until midnight on Wednesday 6th April but also lucid, lively and with a reasonable vocabulary at my disposal.

I had been invited by Ann Kullberg to be her guest on a webcast LIVE from America. West Australian time is 15 hours ahead of U.S. Pacific time. Ouch – hence my “in training” sessions!

Everything worked out perfectly. I had a great time in conversation with Ann and midnight came around as rapidly as it surely had for Cinderalla on another night long ago.

While people tuned in from various parts of America to see the webcast live, in my region you were all in bed fast asleep. Now that you are up and about – here it is.

While some of my artworks are seen on the webcast you can see hundreds of them on my website – from the 1970s to now. https://juliepodstolski.com

Last Night I Dreamed of Kyoto

I have been self-disciplined in sticking to local subject matter in 2021. I tell myself “YOU ARE HERE”. I am at my drawing easel in North Coogee, Western Australia. But at night when I sleep there are neither domestic nor international borders. In my dream state I am a free agent. Quite regularly my dreams return me to Japan and if they are of the anxious variety, more often than not, my camera is lost!

In this drawing the maiko is not the bright centre of attention. She is fast disappearing as she smoothly moves away through lanterns, neon and darkness. Beyond reach and dream-like, perhaps a dim figment of nocturnal imagination.

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Below is the drawing at various stages. I experimented by blending the undercoat of Neocolor II pastel with a blender pencil BEFORE putting on coloured pencil. Doing this altered the paper – making it a smoother surface to work on. (I often use blender over the top of coloured pencils but this was the first time I put it underneath.) I liked the feel of working pencils over the blended Neocolors but I’m not sure the end result is different from what it might have been had I done things in their usual order.

Neocolor II water-soluble pastels (without water) undercoat.

Neocolor II undercoat lightly covered over with Caran d’Ache Pencil Blender

Luminance 6901 coloured pencils beginning to go over Neocolor + blender.

The layers of coloured pencils spread across the work.

“Last Night I Dreamed of Kyoto” finished.

Perfect Partners: Neocolor and Luminance

Recently I have been sharing a method in Facebook coloured pencil groups which has piqued the interest of some of my peers; therefore, I have decided to write a post about it.

My method is to use Neocolor 2; a water soluble wax pastel by Caran d’Ache (I use it without water) as undercoat for coloured pencil drawings.

Putting Neocolor onto the paper before coloured pencils are applied speeds up the process of the drawing – which is especially good if I am working on a large picture. (The drawing shown here is 33.5 x 48.5 cm.) Anyone who uses coloured pencils alone to render big areas like sky or still water knows how tedious it is. Neocolor makes the process faster and more pleasurable.

The texture of Neocolor 2 makes a welcoming cushion-like base for coloured pencil to relax into. The pencil glides over Neocolor so much more readily than it glides over virgin paper.

I find that complicated areas (such as Venetian palace facades) cannot help but be simplified when the initial layer is put on with Neocolor. You can’t be too fussy with this medium because it is never super-sharp. (I use a knife to sharpen the pastel but even at its sharpest, it is kind of blunt.) Therefore it attunes my brain to the main shapes as opposed to fiddly tiny details.

I use very light pressure when putting Neocolor on. It is barely there – and yet it makes SUCH a difference to the surface texture.

Work in progress 1: undercoat of Neocolor 2 before any coloured pencil is applied.

Because I don’t like holding a crayon-length instrument, I use a Fixpencil 0012 (also by Caran d’Ache) to hold it with. I find this longer length much more comfortable for my hand and it gives me added control.

Applying Neocolor 2 (held inside a Fixpencil 0012).

If you’ve read other posts of mine, you’ll know that Luminance is my number one pencil. However in the photo below you’ll see I’m blending using a Derwent Blender. This blender is hard and dry. There’s enough wax already in the Neocolor/Luminance mix. It doesn’t need added wax in the form of a wax-based blender, so the raspy dry Derwent blender makes the perfect tool. Once I’ve blended, that isn’t the end of it. I can carry on adding more colour over the top; no problem.

The final image shows where I’m up to currently with the drawing. In my opinion, the partnership of Neocolor with coloured pencil gives a soft painterly aesthetic which, to me, is delicious.

Work in Progress – as it was on 13th January 2020.

Work in progress – as it was on 18th January 2020

Postscript: The drawing is finished on 24th January, 2020. It is called “Most Serene”.

See also Brush and Pencil post

Here is a step-by-step exercise to show my impressionistic technique using Neocolor and Luminance. I originally created the piece “Daydream” for Ann Kullberg’s COLOR Magazine. It is featured in the November 2020 issue. You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Working from a cropped photo I took of a maiko (apprentice geisha) I trace minimal lines onto a piece of Arches Aquarelle smooth paper, 9 x 7 inches. The lines are arbitrary for when everything is blurry where exactly does one draw the line? With no sharp tonal boundaries and everything merging the graphite guide lines may only be approximate.

Once I have my graphite lines on the paper I begin the undercoat process. This can be done purely with coloured pencils but I like to begin with Caran d’Ache Neocolor wax pastels. Neocolor’s waxy texture makes a nice surface for coloured pencils to go over. Because a Neocolor stick is a fairly blunt instrument it encourages me to work in a loose manner. As I put Neocolor on I simultaneously erase the graphite lines. I work with such light pressure that if I put a colour in the wrong place I can lift most of it off with an eraser.

Once the page is filled with Neocolor I bring in the coloured pencils. At this early stage I am working them over the Neocolor gradually intensifying the values. I am using light to light-medium pressure only. I still see this as a continuation of undercoat even though I’m now using pencils. My pencil work is reasonably free and non-fussy as I begin to build tone over the page. I lay white pencil over the pale pink kimono (but nowhere else in the drawing) because I want the maiko eventually to stand out from the rest of the drawing. The application of white will give her kimono a glow. I use the pencils in a vigorous way letting all manner of expressive marks show.

From now on it is a matter of layer-building. I mostly work with small vertical strokes however I use other directional strokes too. For instance on the path you can see that my strokes are diagonal – in tune with the perspective. I also use an all-over-the-place scribble which helps the diffused look. My scribble marks are gossamer-light however; no heavy-handed scribbling. (What is scribble if not a type of mark-making?) Stroke direction can also add to a feeling of movement. I want the maiko to look like she is rushing away from me so my directional strokes help to create that effect.

To create blurriness there is a lot of colour overlapping taking place. For example I push the pink of the kimono into the grey path and push the grey of the path into the pink kimono. Throughout the drawing I am pushing and pulling colours which constantly merges the boundaries between areas and objects.

Because this kind of drawing comes together from a distance I only sit down to work on it in the early stages. I work in an expressive way with my whole self. That is, I work from one end of the room to the other. The drawing stands on an easel. I walk up to it and away from it, putting a mark here, going away to check how it looks, going back to adjust, stepping back again to see from afar. It is action work. And as I go I continually adjust and fine-tune until at some point I think I am done.

“Daydream” is complete. What were my aims? I was seeking a mood, an impression, an atmosphere, in this case perhaps a sense of walking speed as well. The source photo was my jumping off point – or you could say it was my way back to the memory of that Kyoto afternoon.

An Italian Dream – technical note

How the drawing looked as a work in progress.

In “An Italian Dream” I wanted the colours in the foreground to be the most deeply saturated parts of the picture, being closest to the viewer. So I put Neocolor II wax pastels down as undercoat for this water/boat area. The sky, hills and buildings have no Neocolor underneath. They are rendered with coloured pencils only. Having wax pastels for the pencils to work into and over makes for a finish of delicious intensity.

How do I manage to do fairly detailed work at the undercoat stage with Neocolor? The answer is that I sharpen my Neocolors using the Faber Castell dual pencil sharpener. The larger of the openings of the dual sharpener fits Neocolor perfectly.

Currently (January 2021) I am working on a drawing of sunrise on the Grand Canal.

Undercoat stage with Neocolor II completed. Ready to begin with Luminance.

When you see the Luminance colour go over the top of the Neocolor undercoat, you can appreciate by comparing the coloured pencil with the pastel areas how lightly I use the Neocolor. Neocolor maps in the shapes with the lightest pressure. The Luminance going over the top does 95% of the work. Despite the light pressure of the Neocolor, its presence makes a difference – enriching the work as a whole.

Luminance making its presence felt on the left of the work.

The drawing continues – Luminance over Neocolor gradually moving from left to right across the buildings. Also I adjust as I go, for instance, intensifying the glow in the sky.

In the next image I am working on the building on the right. These are not its final colours; rather, it is perhaps half-way completed.

Finally, the finished piece, “Morning has Broken”. Ready for my April 2021 exhibition “An Italian Dream”. (You can have a sneak preview of all the pieces which will be exhibited HERE.)

February 2022: I photographed another drawing in stages. Here are six stages of “Box Seat” .

Stage 1: Neocolor undercoat covering everything except bird.

Stage 2: Bird undercoated with coloured pencil only.

Stage 3: Starting to build up layers with pencils on lower part of drawing.

Stage 4: Coloured pencil layers moving upwards and outwards over undercoated Neocolor.

Stage 5: The picture is at a stage now where I decide to begin on the box seat and bird.

“Box Seat” the finished drawing. Because the bird is drawn using coloured pencils only (no Neocolor undercoat) he stands out from the rest of the picture. Also I used my technique of Undercover White to make the bird glow.

Kyoto Belle Époque

“Kyoto Belle Époque”
coloured pencils and oil pastels. 22 x 27 cm. September 2017

To each of you who came to my art exhibition “Entranced” this month, thank you so much! Many of you saw me working on this drawing and some of us discussed techniques together.

The drawing as a work-in-progress at the gallery in September 2017.

Once the exhibition closed I finished the drawing at home. I call it “Kyoto Belle Époque” as it calls to my mind the elegance of the ‘beautiful era’ of Paris in the late 19th century. So, to me, this is a touch of Paris in Kyoto.

People who came to the exhibition saw that looking at my blurry drawings close up and far away were two different experiences for the eyes. So for this post I have taken a photo of the drawing from a small distance. The blurry drawings make more sense from a wall across a room (as they are designed to be viewed) than they do as a close-up computer screen image.

“Kyoto Belle Époque” on the easel.

Finally, who were these two maiko? They were Taka and Hisamomo of Pontocho.

The two maiko in the drawing

Fascination Finale

Today, members of Perth Kimono Club visited our art exhibition “Fascination: Maiko, Geiko, Kyoto”.

Outside it was an incredibly stormy day. Only the bravest of the brave actually wore kimono as a strong bitterly cold wind blew non-stop while horizontal rain teemed. Inside the gallery we sat and discussed maiko, geiko and Kyoto – interrupted at regular intervals by the front door blowing open.

President of Perth Kimono Club, Izumi Woods, was given the task of randomly selecting the winner of 40 Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 coloured pencils (held by Robyn Varpins) donated by Kadmium Art + Design Supplies in Sydney. 220 names were in the bag. Congratulations Di Swain!!!

After a group photo, people chatted and looked at the art. It was a lovely way to finish off the exhibition.

Matthew (my Better Half) was given the task of photographer.

Tomorrow people will come to take away the sculptures and drawings they bought. And I will go back to being a person who works quietly at home…at least for another two years.

Thank you to EVERYBODY who took the time to visit our art exhibition over two and a half weeks. Your interest, encouragement and support are hugely appreciated.

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Fascination: Maiko, Geiko, Kyoto

From September 17th to October 2nd 2016, Robyn Varpins and I open the doors to our art exhibition Fascination: Maiko, Geiko, Kyoto celebrating maiko and geiko (geisha) of Kyoto.

“Odori” by Robyn Varpins

Maiko and geiko are practitioners of the traditional arts of Japan. These are cultivated, refined and graceful women who not only perform art, but themselves become works of art.

“This has felt like creating icons, as maiko and geiko have an ‘other-worldliness’ that make them symbolic and able to be imbued with meaning” ( Robyn Varpins)

“Super Deluxe”
Drawing by Julie Podstolski

In case you wonder, “But what do maiko and geiko actually DO?”, we are fortunate to have copies of “Geiko and Maiko of Kyoto” by Robert van Koesveld for sale. This sumptuous photographic book, published this year, will answer many of your questions.

It is our wish that you will find contemplation, inspiration and even a touch of enchantment when you visit our exhibition of drawing (by Julie Podstolski) and sculpture (by Robyn Varpins). Our muses are mesmerizing. Welcome to our fascination.

Artist talks at 1 pm Sunday 18th and Sunday 25th September. We welcome questions and discussion on our exhibition subject, our art techniques, art materials and Japan.

I have a list of all my drawings in the exhibition on my blog page Fascination: Maiko, Geiko, Kyoto – an Art Exhibition

The exhibition will be open 7 days per week: 10 am – 4 pm. Early Work. Shop 9, 330 South Terrace, South Fremantle WA 6162

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Julie Podstolski – Abstract Realism

A site to share my drawings, paintings, photographs and thoughts.

Category Archives: maiko