Mindful Landscape Sketching

“Visit the old and learn anew without preconceived ideas”—the meaning of the seal on many of Hiroshi Shimazaki’s paintings encapsulates his creative and contemplative approach to landscape sketching. In Mindful Landscape Sketching, with language as poetic as it is informative, he emphasizes the importance of the artist’s underlying thought processes and encourages readers to expand their imaginations, world views, and historical perspectives. Mindful Landscape Sketching is also, however, an invaluable hands-on resource for artists and would-be artists. Brushes, papers, perspective, focus—all these and more are discussed in detail. He guides the reader through sketching everything from sacred structures to cities, from mist to water to wind, and discusses painting live versus painting from memory or photographs. Over a hundred full-colour examples of the artist’s work from all over the globe illustrate his approach. Practical and inspirational, Mindful Landscape Sketching will appeal to anyone interested in watercolour landscape sketching and painting. It is also a work of art in its own right. First published in Japanese in 2020 by TokyoTosho Shuppan as FukeiShasei no Kokoro, Mindful Landscape Sketching is the first in a three-part series.