セス

Before going to Tues painting class, I went over to work on my shell study for Wed class. And sumi-e. While I was working, a few different students seemed to come in and out room, wasn't really sure why or what it was they were reading from the board. I had small conversation with one japanese student and we went next store to see what he was working on. They were all working from over-sized busts of heads in preparation for oil painting. Again, skill level varied. I asked if they ever worked from real models, and was told no. This was about what I expected, and I haven't seen a room setup for model drawing, or much at all to show me it's common practice here. The only clue I've seen was a small life-painting in the corner of one of the oil-painting studios, and that could easily have been from a different source.

Also while I was there, Sawano-sensei came in and saw me working. He gave me a gift of a seal that reads セス (Seth in katakana, or close enough, japanese does not have 'th', so traditionally they use 'su', sesu). He also mentioned to me how much japanese art is cultural inheritance and located in many shrines and temples, some with centers of preservation and restoration. He had mentioned this before, and how there would be a future trip to a temple in the area to see some of this restoration. I thought he was referring to the class, or a group of students, but turns out it would be a private tour with him and myself. Date to be determined.