Yellow-belled Sapsuckers at Houston Meadow moku hanga. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, White-throated Sparrow at Houston Meadow and new shorebirds moku hanga. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski. It's been so long since I finished my last moku hanga that I've already started a new one. That is only because, as I said in the last post, I didn't want to post anything more about moku hanga until I'd also posted about how important drawing from life and portraying birds especially, but really all of nature is to me. It is the other pole of my artistic interest ..read more

Sumi brushpen sketch of Least Flycatcher. Based on recent photo by myself. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski/ Sumi brushpen sketch of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Based on a recent photo by myself. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski. Well who knows? Over one million views of this 16 year old blog if I calculate correctly and if I can trust the statistics. When I started it I was much more conscious of things like page counts, etc., though because I worked in IT I was also skeptical of them. Eventually I just ignored them. They're really not germane to much when you are a visual artist. Wh ..read more

Watercolor studies of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers based on recent photos. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski Numerous watercolor studies of Solitary Sandpipers based on my photos. Done over 3 days. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski Sumi brushpen field sketch of Solitary Sandpiper. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski Sumi brushpen field sketch of Spotted Sandpiper. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski Sumi brushpen field sketch of Spotted Sandpiper. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski Watercolor sketches of Least Sandpipers from my photos. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski ..read more

White-throated Sparrow Moku Hanga, Version 3. Printed on Echizen Kozo. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski White-throated Sparrow Moku Hanga, Version 2. Printed on Torinoko. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski I eventually printed two more editions of the White-throated Sparrow moku hanga. Above are the photos. Each print on one paper is slightly different from the ones on the two other papers. This is not some clever, or not so clever, marketing ploy on my part. I just wanted to experiment. When I have culled out the rejects from the newest two editions I will put them up for sale. I ..read more

  Most of the printed edition of 'White-throated Sparrow at Houston Meadow' mokuhanga. Copyright 2024 by Ken Januski. I have finally finished an edition of a new mokuhanga print, 'White-throated Sparrow at Houston Meadow.' After years of just showing a closely cropped view of just one print I've recently gotten in the habit of showing part of the printed edition of my moku hanga instead. I'm doing that because so much of the technical effort that goes into each print goes into printing an edition with all prints looking more or less identical. This is quite different than the c ..read more

  Three working proofs of new mokuhanga of a White-throated Sparrow seen at Houston Meadow.  copyright 2024 by Ken Januski It has been a long time since I’ve posted, and also a long time since I’ve done a new print. As often happens after  I post something I realize that I’ve left something unsaid. In this case it was the desire to put down what you see in the world around you, probably the same impulse that goes back to the cave drawings and perhaps earlier. That is a basic impulse of mine, along with the more ‘sophisticated’ idea of building a picture. They can seem q ..read more

Red Phalarope at Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve. Moku Hanga by Ken Januski. Copyright 2023.  9x12 inches.  Earlier today I was looking through some of my earliest blog posts trying to find one in which I talked about the problem of making a painting that had a bird as the subject. I never did find it but I did run across one on ‘building a picture.’ It touches on the same subject. In my many years  as an artist, but particularly in my early years, including all the time I was studying art in college, my art was about building pictures, not portraying something. During ..read more

Pileated Woodpecker at Flat Rock Dam moku hanga. Copyright 2023 by Ken Januski. Soon after I finished my last moku hanga, at the end of January, 2023 I believe, I started thinking about a new print. Since nothing sprang to mind I started going through all of my old sketchbooks and came up with six to eight images that I thought had possibilities. Often they were based on something I'd seen while out birding. And before you knew it I went out birding and found something new that might work as the idea for a new print. Pencil compositional sketch of Pleated, Buffleheads, Commo ..read more

Three Brant, Three Black-bellied Plover. Moku Hanga. Copyright 2022 by Ken Januski. Northern Cardinal on Tomato Cage. Moku Hanga.  Copyright 2023 by Ken Januski. Boy it has been a long time since I've written here. That was not deliberate. The delay was due to the fact that almost as soon as I finished my newest moku hanga, 'Three Brant, Three Black-bellied Plover' at top I started thinking  about doing another moku hanga, 'Northern Cardinal on Tomato Cage', which is immediately above. It is not so much that they are related visually but that they are related in t ..read more

Bobolink at Dixon Meadow Preserve. Moku Hanga by Ken Januski. Copyright 2022. Though I've been finished with the moku hanga above of Bobolink at Dixon Meadow above for quite a while and am almost finished with a new one, Nashville Warbler on Bean Trellis in Winter, proofs of which are below, I haven't written about them or shown them here. There's a simple reason: I didn't know what to say. Given my occasional loquacity that might be hard for some to believe. I suppose it might also be related to not wanting to repeat myself. In any case I've been happy with my recent moku hanga prin ..read more