Blue and White

The title points to a study built around the chromatic restraint of cobalt blue and white, almost certainly drawing on the East Asian tradition of blue-and-white porcelain — Korean punch'ong and Chinese qinghua wares both within Keith's range of subjects during her travels. The composition may show a figure handling or seated beside such ceramics, or alternatively a sitter in indigo-dyed garments against a pale ground. Keith's printers at the Watanabe workshop used multiple shades of indigo built up across separate blocks to capture the depth and translucence of glazed porcelain, with unprinted washi providing the white. Bokashi gradations would soften transitions between tonal areas, while the keyblock supplied the linear definition of pattern and contour. The work belongs to a strand of Keith's output in which she examines the material culture of the countries she visited — textiles, pottery, costume — as a vehicle for character and place. Within shin-hanga more broadly, such restrained palette studies are uncommon and reflect Keith's particular sensibility.