Weekly Prompt: Hanami

Weekly Prompt: Hanami

Mar 22, 2021

Hanami... there's a wonderfully exotic word for a Monday in March!

Some of you may know what this means already, but I came across it last month and thought it would make a great prompt for this time of year.

'Hanami' is the Japanese word for 'enjoying the transient beauty of flowers' and is most associated with this time of year and the traditional festivals of viewing and picnicking under the blossom of the cherry trees in Japan. 'Hana' means flowers and 'Sakura' means cherry tree. There is also a more traditional hana'ume' which is plum tree blossom viewing.

The Japanese Weather Bureau start forecasting the 'Sakura-zensen' or the 'Cherry Blossom front' daily so everyone has the best opportunity to witness the display, which usually lasts about 2 weeks from the end of March to the beginning of May.

The season is (normally) also celebrated across Europe and America where Japan has gifted trees to various cities: Washington DC, New York, Helsinki and Rome are just some of the lucky recipients.

This year the National Trust are talking, tweeting and blogging about #blossomwatch and getting people to send in photos so they can update their interactive 'blossom map' of the UK. Blossom heralds the arrival of warmer weather, is food and shelter for wildlife and releases dopamine in our brains when we look at it. And, not too far away, is the idea that we could be picnicking and sketching together under our own local trees.

So, two creative tasks for this week...

1) I'd love for you to be inspired by the beauty of blossom. You could draw the flowers, the branches or the wildlife it supports. You could add it to a landscape drawing or painting. You could use the colour palette to inspire some abstract work. You could select a tree and follow its progress through out the year. You could thing about the negative spaces between the flowers. I've added a variety of styles and artists to our Pinterest board. Take a look, blossom has inspired Van Gogh, Hockney, Matisse and Georgia O'Keefe.

2) Take a photo of blossom and send it to me ([email protected]). I'll collate a collage of all of your photos and submit them to the National Trust website so they can add our views to their map. I'll also tweet some of them so people can join in on twitter. All the photos I've shared here I've taken within 3 miles of my home.

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