A couple of days ago, I finished my latest work, and I'd like to write about it today.

I really wanted to try new idea by mixing Western and Japanese styles, but I didn't want to use traditional Japanese patterns. I thought deeply what I could do and decided to paint a bird on porcelain tile. I imagined a realistic hawk with black-and-white pine tree, and I designed this piece.

Painting a hawk was so much fun, and I almost finished painting the bird by the third firing.

After the forth fire, I thought something was missing. I would add more details on the pine tree, but I felt I should paint something on negative spaces. The piece after the fourth firing looked too boring to me. Then, I asked my husband if he had any ideas. Basically, he isn't interested in art at all, and he has no knowledge of art. What he knows about art is mostly what he has learned through me. Surprisingly, he suggested adding a sumi-e painting on the background. I immediately loved his idea.

Then, I added a sumi-e painting, and all of a sudden, my work started looking lively. I painted the hawk in a Western style while I painted the pine tree and the sumi-e background in a Japanese style. I think I was able to combine these two completely different styles quite well.

When I designed this piece, I wanted to try one more thing, which was to paint some golden clouds using an airbrush. However, I'd never done it before, so I practiced a lot. First, I used some red acrylic paint and learned how to use the airbrush. I first practiced it on some newspaper, then on a porcelain tile.

I even tested on my actual piece.

Next, I used some yellow-green paint for porcelain painting and did the same thing I had done with the acrylic paint. It was harder because the particles in porcelain paint are coarse. I couldn't control the airbrush well. When I fired the tile (test piece), it was obvious that the result wasn't pretty.

I was very nervous to use 100% pour gold power for this because only one gram costs 30,000yen ($189). I had no idea how much I would need for the golden clouds. Without trying, nothing would start, so I tested it on the surface of the test piece. Compared to the porcelain paint, the gold powder made in Japan has extremely fine particles, so it was very smooth to spray with the airbrush. Even so, I was still nervous to fire it, so I placed the tile upright when I fired it. I worried the gold might run while firing and I wanted to make sure that wouldn't be happen. Fortunately, it didn't run.

I finally painted some golden clouds on my actual piece. This is what it looked like before firing, so you see lots of gold here and there. However, paint normally becomes about 20 % lighter due to firing, so I assumed the gold would become less the same amount as well.

From here on, you see my completed piece. You'll see how much the gold became lighter after firing as well. I wanted to create golden clouds that looked like golden mist, so I think I achieved what I had in my mind.

This porcelain tile is 28 cm × 17cm. It was fascinating to create this piece, and I really enjoyed the process. When I frame it, I'll show it with you again.

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