art supplies

Paint brushes, in a tin mug (wherever did I get that mug?  It looks like the kind of thing one buys of necessity, on the road, but I can't remember where), on my desk.  

Art supplies have been on my mind today, for two very different reasons.  Very early this morning - 7 a.m. here in Los Angeles - I was on, and chairing, a CAA panel - and for me the highlight of this was a Japanese-born artist, Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, talking about her practice, and especially about the soot used to make the Japanese ink that she uses in her paintings.  This ink - sumi - is made from powdered charcoal and animal fat: what distinguishes her work in this respect is her attention to place - the place where the tree grew that was then turned into charcoal that was turned into ink; the different consistencies and densities of ink according to the type of charcoal used, and so on.  I wish I'd known that there was a visitable sumi workshop, making and selling sticks of ink, in Nara ... Nishiki's work is beautiful: take a look.  https://nishikibeda.com/

My day began (yes, even earlier) with reading sad news online, though: Fielders, on Wimbledon Hill, is to close (a pandemic casualty, it would seem).  It was founded in 1928 as a bookstore, and it was where I would go and spend my book tokens when I was still a child (Jill Enjoys Her Ponies! Pony Club Camp!).  It was just down the road from the school that I went to until I was 11, and next door to a Fuller's Tea Room - a trip to Fielder's and a slice of Fuller's coffee and walnut cake was a very special treat indeed (they also did a very good raspberry cake with Real Raspberries on it - I believe that I was bought one of those for my 7th birthday).  Later I'd go and browse and buy paperbacks in Fielders (and - now, writing about it, I can remember looking up Bad Words in the dictionaries that they had one of the front tables - lest I be caught doing so at home - but they didn't have the very Worst Words, so I still got taunted for not knowing what "fuck" meant - taunted by a mean girl called Carolyn Andrews, who menaced me with a lacrosse stick because I claimed to know, but wouldn't tell her).  Then later (the firm's shop history suggests 1978, but I would have thought earlier, because where did I buy art supplies if not there?) they came to stock inks and paints and pencils and drawing books and pads as well.  And for the last few decades, there have been no books - only art and craft supplies, and an excellent selection of greetings cards.  But I'll miss going in there, so much - it's always been a ritual, when I go back, to go and purchase something, even if only a card, or a brush.