Plum Blossom, Tonamura, Japan

This drawing was made in a small temple area in Tonamura, just before I left to catch the ferry to Onomichi. I didn’t have long, so I worked quickly, trying to capture the space before moving on. At the time, I thought I might come back to it later and finish it from a photograph — something I don’t usually do — as it felt slightly unresolved. But looking at it now, I think the opposite is true. The looseness of the marks and the sense of immediacy really hold the drawing together. The plum blossom was just coming through, adding those soft pinks against the structure of the buildings and trees. It felt like a fleeting moment, and the drawing seems to carry that.