<b>RED FUJI</b> / Paul Binnie2002<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Paul Binnie (born 1967) is a Scottish artist who studied at Edinburgh University and College of Art from 1985 to 1990. Afterward, he lived in Paris until 1993, when he traveled to Tokyo and met the contemporary woodblock printmaker Kenji Seki, from whom he learned much about the techniques of printmaking. Binnie uses 20 or more blocks for some designs, cherry for the keyblock and magnolia for the color blocks. His pigments also are those used for Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) except for bero-ai (Berlin blue or Prussian blue). He prefers torinoko kôzo and nishinouchi washi for his papers. He typically begins printing an edition with about 30 to 40 prints and then finishes the edition on demand. Upon finishing, he destroys the blocks.

Binnie, who has an interest in Ukiyo-e and Shin Hanga, has designed Japanese prints in several genres, blending traditional methods with an individual modern-day style.  

Words from the Binnie Studio:

I am delighted that my new woodblock print, Aka Fuji (Red Fuji), is nearing completion, and will be released during November 2002. This print, whose title is Aka Fuji, Kawaguchiko no Fujisan, is very much in the Shin Hanga style of the landscape artists of the inter-war years, such as Yoshida and Hasui, whose work I admire enormously. I have taken inspiration from the c.1830–1832 Hokusai print, South Wind, Clear Dawn, (popularly known as Aka Fuji), one of his famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji, but have interpreted the idea in a purely contemporary, realist way, rather like my earlier landscape woodblocks. However this print is much more technically demanding than most of my previous landscapes, and uses twenty-two colours, as well as mica and embossing (blind-printing or gauffrage) to create a sense of the atmosphere of the first rays of the morning sun striking the mountain-side.The edition will be of 100 examples, as is usual with my dai-ōban-size woodblocks (42 x 29cm, 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches), and is printed on 100% mulberry washi from Iwate Prefecture in Japan. I have attached an illustration of the print to give you a general idea of how it looks, but please bear in mind that the actual colours of the print are richer and deeper than this image, while the mica and embossing do not show up in a photo as clearly as they do in reality. I hope you will enjoy the woodblock of Red Fuji as much as I have in the planning, designing, carving and printing stages of the work.

Paul Binnie, November 2002

Connoisseur's Note

This print was produced by Binnie in an edition of 100 impressions. It is the only Fuji design the artist has produced to date and as such is highly desirable. This design features deluxe printing embellishments such as silver mica in the water, a strong wood grain pattern visible in the background, and beautifully printed bokashi throughout the design.