Two women in the rain 

Curator: This woodblock print, simply titled "Two women in the rain," comes to us from the artist Ohara Koson, celebrated for his sensitive observations of the natural world rendered in the ukiyo-e style. Editor: I’m immediately drawn to how utterly grey and dreamy it feels. Like a haiku, it captures such a specific atmosphere – the way a city holds its breath during a downpour. Does that make sense? It’s like all sounds become muffled... Curator: Indeed, Koson masterfully employs visual economy to evoke that sensorial experience. Note how the downpour itself is rendered: a series of parallel lines that converge, lending depth and movement to the composition. It serves to flatten the perspectival space, yet we never lose the illusion. Editor: The colors help with that muted feel too, don’t they? Everything sort of blends, except for those striking umbrella patterns. Those red and green pops really stop the whole thing from dissolving. Curator: Precisely! These parasols offer more than chromatic punctuation. Observe the nuanced play of light and shadow; the modulation from pale, almost translucent areas to those where the ink sits more densely. It imbues the objects with remarkable volume despite the flat, two-dimensional aspect that characterizes prints. Editor: Right. Plus there's something about the way they're walking, their heads bowed. Makes you wonder if they’re gossiping, or just trying to get home before they’re soaked to the bone. The imagination fills in the details so nicely. It’s kind of gorgeous. Curator: Absolutely, this composition uses an asymmetrical approach where the heavy drooping tree branches on the right act as a compositional weight, grounding the depicted figures while the birds at the upper left add an ephemeral feeling to the composition. Editor: It's interesting that something so simple, seemingly so fragile, can speak volumes about the everyday, and how nature throws her moods. I would definitely have this on my wall, if I had one! Curator: I concur, an astute appraisal, indeed.