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Travels (to Athens) With a Brush A look into Frederick Harris's Sketchbooks, featuring Sumi-e and Watercolor Landscapes of Athens, Ohio

Image of Frederick Harris creating from-life artwork

Frederick Harris (1932-2010) (the library's namesake) is a Korean War veteran (1953) who began refining his watercolor skills after being transferred to an army base in Japan. After his time in the army, he received his degree at the Art Center College in Los Angeles, CA which then quickly led him back to Japan to open a design firm: The Design Studio. Simultaneously, Harris expanded his knowledge of painting the landscape and began working with Sumi-e (traditional Japanese ink-wash painting). He became an established artist in Japan; teaching, receiving awards, exhibiting his work at museums and galleries, and publishing books about his practice.

In 1996 he joined the Ohio University faculty as a visiting professor. For 6 weeks, he taught Japanese Art at the School of Art + Design. During his time at OHIO, he exhibited his work at Trisolini Gallery, served on the Board of Directors at the Kennedy Museum, and of course, spent time painting the campus landscape. Harris quickly felt connected to Ohio University. He went on to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Ohio University.

Frederick Harris donated his collection of both acquired and created works to Ohio University Libraries from 1996-2010. This collection is a spectrum of objects, artworks, and books. His artworks and objects are available for viewing through the Digital Archive. Due to his generosity, relationship with Ohio University, and impact on the community, the Fine Arts Library was named in his honor.

This exhibition is a virtual tour of his artwork and practice while he was visiting the Ohio University campus. All the images in this exhibition are taken from his personal sketchbook, which was donated to Ohio University in 2010 and is now a part of the Harris Fine Arts Library collection. We begin with Harris' sketchbook cover: A burnt orange rag paper stretched and adhered to book board. The material shown here is what he propped open as he created the following works.

Frederick Harris' perspective of the Kennedy Museum from the Hocking Adena Bikeway

Frederick Harris was known for his mastery in the medium of painting, specifically the techniques of Sumi-e and Ukiyo-e. His gestural marks cascade across the page, effortlessly providing the viewer with the impression of a moment in time.

Sumi-e: Sumi-e, meaning ‘ink picture’ is a form of Japanese painting. Sumi-e is traditionally accomplished with a bamboo brush, ink from burnt lamp oil, animal glue, and perfume. Sumi-e is known for its gestural line work and range of value in ink washes.

Ukiyo-e: Ukiyo-e, which translates to ‘pictures of a floating world’ is a type of traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking. It was developed in the seventeenth century and remained a popular technique through the twentieth century. While living in Japan, Harris took inspiration from many facets of Japanese art such as Ukiyo-e and went on to publish his book Ukiyo-e: The Art of Japanese Print featuring works by Japanese artists. Frederick Harris also published My World of Japanese Art, a series of essays regarding Japanese paintings and prints which inspired him.

View of the Ridges Complex from the Hocking Adena Bikeway

Frederick Harris often worked on his pieces Plein Air. Plein Air, a french term meaning 'open air' refers to a style of observational painting where the artist depicts the landscape and moment itself while being outdoors. This technique favors travel sketching, as the objective is to visually record a moment from life. Due to the spontaneity of the technique, Harris' sketchbooks were no larger than 5'' x 7'', making them easy to pull out and utilize when inspiration struck.

This piece, featuring the College Green is an example of how Harris would work plein air. He would first create an observational ink painting by recording necessary details from life. If he did not have time to add detail and color, he would leave subtle notes on the sketch to then reference later. as you can see on the top left of the page, he has written "brown" noting that, his subject was largely brown in color. He can then would come back to the sketch and finalize it in color if he felt it necessary

This piece depicts a view of the Hocking River from the Hocking Adena Bikeway. In the bottom right corner, we can tell the artwork was created on September 10, 1996

This observational ink sketch was modeled after Helen Mauck Galbreath Memorial Chapel, located on College Green

In this sketch, again, due to the nature of working plein air, Harris has left preliminary markings of what colors to paint after the sketch. Harris jotted down "red" "Bl" and "w". We can assume Harris did not have enough time to finish the work in person, thus he recorded the colors to fill in when he had time.

This painting features Howard Park, situated next to College Green. According to the date in the corner, this piece was created on September 10, 1996.

The title of this exhibition is a nod to Frederick Harris’ book Travels with a Brush (2003) in which Harris displayed his paintings and records of his travels around the world.

Frederick Harris Published Works: The books he donated to the library spanned more than 1,200 titles, with a selection of them written by him. Within his lifetime, Frederick Harris published several books, both about his own practice with painting, and the traditional Japanese artwork that inspired him. These books contain subject matter and methods that influenced Harris as a landscape painter, such as Sumi-e and Ukiyo-e. These books are able to be checked out through Alden Library.

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