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I believe I first heard of the obscure word Chiaroscuro many many years ago as an art elective student in Victoria School – My then art teacher, a distinguished Irish gentleman named Paul O’shea, was an accomplished artist who taught the subject with such passionate fervor that Art history left a deep, lasting impression on me and continues to be a big source of inspiration for my works today. Mr O’shea also pronounced Chiaroscuro ( and Contrapposto ) beautifully; I lucidly remember my classmates and me grinning in childish pleasure every time the word escaped his lips.

Chiaroscuro, simply put, means light and darkness. In painting terms, it denotes the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade to create the illusion of three-dimensionality, often to dramatic effect. The Baroque artist Caravaggio was a champion of Chiaroscuro, creating paintings ( Supper at Emmaus, below ) as hauntingly beautiful now as they were 400 years ago.

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I’ve been a big fan of renowned Japanese illustrator Yoko Tanji ever since I saw her work after arriving in Tokyo 3 years ago, so you can imagine how elated I was when she replied an email I wrote to her a few days back. ( considering she must receive fan mail by the hundreds everyday. )

I had learned about her latest works while visiting the blog of her friend Enrico Casarosa, ( an amazing storyboard artist from Pixar with a penchant for Japan, who was super nice to add my blog link on his. ) prompting me to write to her while in a brazen, excited state of fanboy stupor.

In her reply she remarked that she had bought Freedom 1 dvd *Yay!* and had enjoyed watching it, which understandably made this fanboy very, very happy.

Be amazed by her beautiful illustrations at http://www.tanji.jp/

Believe me when I say that its a once in a lifetime fortuity to have been able to catch the Mucha Exhibition on at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, quite simply because 1) 100 pieces from the exhibition have never been allowed abroad till now, 2) its Mucha, champion of the Art Nouveau movement and 3)I’m his absolute, complete acolyte, right up there with Waterhouse. His advant garde illustration style was light years ahead during his era and even in recent times as countless artists feverishly copied, imitated, duplicated none ever reproduced anything as stunning as did Mucha himself. Even if anyone came close, Mucha would have beaten them a full hundred years ahead. At the end of my visit that day as I was hurried out by the curators my eyes were painfully strained having pored over every single piece of his amazing works.

PS Why are so many friends from Netherlands checking out this post ? Is there an event going on ? Please let do leave a comment and let me know why.

It was only yesterday did I discover that the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park houses a most impressive collection of paintings running the gamut from movements like Romanticism, Post-Impressionism, Dada to Pointilism. ( Being able to recall these semantics, admittedly, credit must go to my Victoria School AEP teacher, who tormented us with lengthy essay assignments on art movements. ) Some noteworthy names included Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Tiepolo, Pollock, Rosetti, heck, they even had an El Greco. But certainly the highlight had to be the Delacroix ( housed in a quaint, original Delacroic frame ) even though the painting on display was a lesser known work I couldn’t remember, but standing in its presence where the master had worked his magic some 200 years ago still gives one considerable kick. Now all that’s left to do is to see Liberty Leading The People in Louvre.