Environmental education
I use the sketch as a method to make discoveries about nature, and ultimately make a connection with it.
スケッチ通じて、環境教育。
Exploring the ecosystem of the nearby park: frogs and birds.
「身近な環境：生態系システム」
Drawn on paper with ink and watercolor.
Comparing two similar from their looks plants - Fragaria vesca
and Potentilla hebiichigo.
「野いちごとヘビイチゴを比べてみよう」
Drawn on IPad.
Floodplain succession 氾濫原
Where used to be water, green shoots make their way. How picturesque the floodplains are! It’s like a rock garden, where there are few plants, but there is air and empty space. From the bridge, the floodplain looked bright: beige sand, on it are multi-colored pebbles and boulders, an orange-pink-green haze. This carnation is also not local, it is called ム シ ト リ ナ デ シ コ (Silene armeria - Sweet William catchfly)、 which means “clove collecting bugs” if you translate from Japanese - reminded me of plant native to my Russian hometown, the sticky catchfly (Silene viscaria), color and name are so similar in both these carnation plants. And in general the landscape reminded me of the village where I used to spend time in eco-camp - the ever- present sand and dry meadow... Observing it, I thought about the blessed emptiness. Sometimes it’s so good that everything is washed away by the flood, all the massive base stones are overturned, and again you can watch the fresh sprouts on the surface of the sand dunes. Philosophy and nature mixed at this point in my thoughts. These are the images appearing in my mind as ecologist, I guess, - the succession in the floodplain.
sketching
I regularly do on-location sketches in Japan, Russia and around the world. I love to sketch nature in the city. In shrines, temples and my university campus. I believe that nature can show the culture and identity of a place as good as it does architecture. My sketch library project can also be found here.
Story book
Meeting Vladivostok:
birds, birdbanders and other animals
In July 2017 I went to Vladivostok, bearing in mind the goal to reach for people who know about the habitat of the black-faced spoonbill to share the joint effort of SAVE international (organization, monitoring black-faced spoonbill situation). I've got a chance to come to Vladivostok for historical landscapes conference, and here my journey started.
An album warmly dedicated to all people I meet and in which I found inspiration and support.
Please read the storybook here.
bio-art workshop
In the framework of the EDIBLE WAY community design project made by Chiba University Kinoshita Lab in Matsudo city, we held a bio-art workshop.
EDIBLE WAY - the project, aiming to unite people in safety network by growing vegetables in designed planters and making common meals from the harvest.
Art workshop was held 2 times by researchers and artists with local children on the walls of an empty property, which walls we made into the blackboard.
Bio-art project team:
Isami KINOSHITA - concept artist, supervisor
Aiko EGUCHI - coordinator, concept artist
Mariia ERMILOVA - coordinator, bio sketch instructor
Tomoko YAMAWAKI - blackboard artist
Workshop flow in photo:
First, we observed the vegetables from planters, spread in the neighborhood and drew the sketches.
Photo: Mariia Ermilova
Children did a good job observing small details, even bugs.
Photo: Mariia Ermilova
We shared our observations.
Photo: Aiko Eguchi
Then, when understood the form of the plant, draw it on the blackboard
Photo: Mariia Ermilova
By drawing on the board we shared, what stage of the natural cycle we can observe now in our planters with vegetables. First, it was flowers, then vegetables, then, seeds.
Photo: Mariia Ermilova
Street art
From my hometown, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Forget-me-not
The flower language
I drew the forget-me-not flowers on the neighborhood wooden building just before departure for study in Japan. It was almost 3 years ago.
Blue Bird
Always with us
You can see them anywhere. Birds. Can we connect through birds, who fly without borders? I believe so. This is a drawing in a special place in Russia, the house of my best friend.
illustration
Matsudo Paper
The result of collaboration between Matsudo city office and local creators - MATSUDO PAPER. Full of pictures, inviting to see the small city, I am currently living in. I made on-location drawings of the city, which are published from time to time in Matsudo Paper, showing the atmosphere of the place. On the picture is an old Harada's rice shop. Here local people have a Comeichi craft market, Himitsudo local sightseeing guide and treasure box and MADLABO art studio.
Harada's rice shop with garden
I like this building, it looks like an old reptile in front of sharp faceless high-rises. In the garden, many birds find their home and table with fruits on the persimmon tree.
About me
Play in the woods and draw since 1991.
MARIIA ERMILOVA
Sketch artist, art workshop facilitator
Ph.D. Chiba University, Japan
