Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji is a famous series of prints done by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai from 1826 and 1833. The series, which depicted views of Mount Fuji in different seasons, has inspired Berkeley artist Kalen Meyer to try something similar. She spent the first 36 days of 2012 paintings birds and posting the work on a Tumblr page.
She chose birds not because she was a birder, but because they are a timeless image. “Now, of course, I see birds everywhere and each part of them is more vivid, their wings, tails, eyers and claws.”
Meyer is showing the bird paintings in a pop-up gallery show Friday June 1 from 5 to 9 pm and Saturday June 2 from 10 am to 5 pm. The show is in the shop space at the Delaware Apartments, at 1800 B San Pablo Avenue.
Meyer also did a similar series in 2006 when she painted 36 views of Mount Tamalpais.
It was a different experience posting her work daily, she said. “With the Mt. Tam Series, I was the only one seeing the images as I worked. I allowed myself to go back and work on an image another day if it needed it, but with the bird series, I had to post it, no matter if I was happy with the painting or not. It drove me to work harder on the images until I was happy with them.”
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