Wabi-Sabi: Art Workshop

by Serena Barton

Are you inspired by the little things, the bits others might overlook? A crack in the sidewalk? The trunk of a fallen tree? Shards of broken pottery? Do you want your artwork to speak to the abstract nature of color, and shape and texture, composition and mood?

With "Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop," you'll learn to use your appreciation for the simple things in life--the ordinary, the aged, the humble--as your inspiration for making expressive, intuitive art. You will come to embrace imperfection and recognize that, yes, in fact, there is such a thing as a happy accident!

The wabi-sabi philosophy of art is probably a little different from what you're used to--it's a style that finds inspiration and beauty in the imperfect, impermanent and humble nature of everyday objects. And there is a special freedom in wabi-sabi's abstract aesthetic, a forgiving approach that celebrates so-called mistakes and fosters an experimental spirit, encouraging you to build up and tear back with abandon.

Inside "Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop" You'll Find: Dozens of inspiration photos and tips for taking your own.27 traditional haikus.35 techniques using such diverse media as oil and acrylic paints, alcohol inkers, foils and leaf, pastels, plaster, collage and handmade papers, teabags, paper towels, coffee, crayons, encaustic paints, fibers and more.Lots of Wabi-Sabi Wisdom--tips and troubleshooting.70 big, beautiful finished pieces of art illustrating featured techniques.Links to online bonus content--step-by-step demonstrations illustrating six additional techniques. Add "Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop" to your artistic library and expand your artistic horizons today!

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts, Ebooks

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2013

Reviews

[Melissa Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely adore the idea of wabi-sabi (a kind of love for the imperfect, impermanent, aged, humble, and organic things in the world), and as a result, I really enjoyed reading this book. I’m left feeling inspired and wanting to learn more about using wabi-sabi in art.

The first few pages of the book are valuable for their discussion of wabi-sabi philosophy; how to find inspiration for wabi-sabi works even in your own backyard; and for the technical details of creating color palettes and using textures that evoke wabi-sabi qualities. The rest of the book offers sample paintings with instructions for how to create them with some composition advice and tips and tricks thrown in.

I found a lot of the instructions unusable because I don’t have or use re-inkers and I’m not quite ready for the encaustic wax projects detailed in the last section of the book. In gaming terms, I feel like encaustic projects are level 60 stuff, and I’m still running around in the newbie zone.

So most of the stuff in this book is a bit beyond me. But at the same time, I read through every single project because I loved seeing the effects developing with each painting phase; and I’m hoping the details about process will simmer in my head and help me down the road. I also think most of the projects could be done with acrylic paints if I knew what I was doing. I don’t...yet (I tried one project using acrylic and it went horribly). But when I’m not such a newb, it would be great fun to revisit this and give some of the projects a go.

Minus one star because I expect a mixed media book to be a little more flexible in terms of materials being used. A mixture of different painting mediums or an explanation on how to use different mediums to achieve the same effects would have been nice, even if only here and there.

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pictures of old shaby surfaces are inspiring.

[Pixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This book used materials I won't be using, like re-inkers, encaustics, and gold foil. But you might like those things.

[Am Y · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointing and misleading title that's not what it seems. If you think this book will teach you about pottery, ceramics and how the Japanese mend them with gold so that the crack becomes part of its new beauty, you will be sadly mistaken. The book does not touch on pottery/ceramics at all. Instead, it focuses on photography, haikus, and abstract art. The photography is about capturing worn out, abandoned or discarded objects, very often accompanied by a few lines of "poetry". The art is very abstract, difficult and messy to do, with very little reward - the finished pieces look like trash. You get things like hairs stuck onto a canvas, surrounded by gunk; layer upon layer of paint and other media piled on top of one another to produce a piece that looks like vomit; pieces that look like you just smushed together lots of paint and other random stuff to create something messy that resembles nothing, and many other similar works. I'm sure that's not what wabi-sabi is. Wabi-sabi is about celebrating imperfections or flaws, and making them seem like they're part of the work and now in fact elevate it, not deliberately creating something new from nothing and making it seem worn or shabby. If you're looking for how to create ugly, extremely "abstract" works that have a shabby chic style or patina, then this is the book for you. But not if you're looking to create genuine wabi-sabi art.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has been sitting in my to-read/browse through pile for months. I finally took a morning to sit in the sun and let me creative side dream a bit.

These projects use the wabi-sabi idea of getting a ‘feel’ for the place/time/experience. They are multi-media projects based off of photos you’ve taken of wabi-sabi feeling moments as inspiration for your art pieces. Very interesting, I’m just not a multi-media painted.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the techniques are interesting, but many of them aren't explained clearly. I don't really enjoy the writing style.

But let me say again: many of the techniques are super interesting. They just aren't until halfway through the book and are only partially explained. Kind of unfortunate.

It's helping get me Covid-19 isolation, though, so that's nice.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of ideas for the mixed media artist. I love the concept of wabi-sabi but I don't really understand the link with most of her work, which has a vintage vibe. A lot of times the simplicity and imperfection can't be found in the works, so to me the title is misleading.

But if you don't think about the concept and try not to expect anything Japanese, this is a good book to gather ideas and new techniques.

[Anna Emhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book with explanations and exercises for anyone interested in working in wax. One needs a basic understanding of art supplies and definitions of terms. Still a great book to explore working in wax.

[Celeste Hansel]

ebook

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE wabi-sabi! This is an excellent artistic method. We as artists should embrace this more.

[Kim Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting idea and inspiration for mixed media artists.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy novel about Native American life, nor is it a non-fiction ethnographic story of early American life. Ella Cara DeLoria, herself one-quarter Sioux, writes a complex accounting of the lives of women of the Teton Lakota Sioux Indians.

While telling the story of Waterlilly, the unrecognized child of the abandoned Blue Bird, DeLoria also tells a tale of feminism of two independent, strong women whose lives were clearly defined by their tribe and culture. When Blue Bird elopes with her lover, she faces the consequences from a society that considers such behavior damaging to the entire family circle.

Blue Bird, pregnant and deserted, is sent away to live with another family circle, and there she and the new social circle raise Waterlilly to observe the rules of social kinship (which include family laws of avoidance of emotions and specifically expressive behavior) even in times of extreme hardship. The highest expression of wealth and success in a tribe is expressed through gift-giving. The higher the status, the more you are expected to host celebrations, give away beautifully hand-crafted clothing, and horses or hides.

The day-to-day life is detailed as are the celebrations. Waterlilly grows from a baby to a teenager who tests her limits, to a wife, widow and mother before she turns 21.

DeLoria was born in 1889 to a Sioux who became an Episcopalian minister. An ethnographer herself, DeLoria wrote the book from documents and family history. The story takes place in the 1700s, before significant contact with European settlers.

I read the book because I am a folklorist and interested in cross-cultural transmittal of ritual.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book that brags about "Embracing Imperfection and Celebrating Happy Accidents" and has "free yourself!" on the back cover, it seems an awful lot like canned exercises to get to a specific end product (as shown in book). I was expecting more general techniques. I realize it might be possible to follow the techniques without making an exact duplicate. However, it relies on a lot of specific materials that I don't have and wasn't interested in purchasing, so I found myself flipping through the pages and then setting it aside.

[Kimberly Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The Art and technique shown by Serena is very similar to my style and aesthetic. I am fairly new to the whole world of Art and Mixed Media and find that this book will be a very valuable tool in my continued journey.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

good info about encaustic which i've never tried but am interested in