Yellow crested cockatoo in tree 1900 - 1940

Ohara Koson made this print of a cockatoo in a tree, and you can just tell he really looked, you know? The shades of grey behind this white bird makes its feathers pop, and the bird is really doing something - holding a twig. I love the way the branch cuts across the image, too. It's like, what's the cockatoo thinking? Probably something simple. Koson must have watched the cockatoo for a really long time to catch that exact gesture, its head cocked to one side, twig in its mouth like a cigar. It makes me think about process, because the way someone looks at the world determines what they paint, and the painting helps you understand what the world looks like. The leaves are grey and pointed and create a canopy. Koson understood how the leaves interact, the bird and the branch, and this all gets communicated through the surface of the painting. I can see him, thinking and working.