Grasses at full moon 1900 - 1936

Ohara Koson made this print of grasses at full moon. I’m thinking about the process, here, the act of observation, and the intense distillation of observation that goes into making an image. The grasses are bending and alive, you can almost feel the breeze. It’s all so delicate, and spare. The whole image is made up of these tiny gestures, it's like the moon is smiling behind the foliage. I can imagine Koson thinking, I have to get this just right. The darks and lights carefully balanced. There's a real emotional charge here, the artist is communicating that nighttime is a place of solace. There is a long tradition of this kind of work, other artists like Hokusai come to mind. I love to see how artists like Koson are in dialogue across time. It's an ongoing conversation.