Proust and Japanese Prints
The French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922), author of In Search of Lost Time (A la recherché du temps perdu) was an intensely visual...
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- Mar 25
- 3 min
The Office Worker's Dream: A Self Portrait
The second print in the series 'Six Views of Dreams' is in fact a self portrait of myself in an office. It contains many details which I...
- Jan 14
- 1 min
36 Views of the BT Tower: A Sudden Gust of Wind
Though not as popular as 'The Great Wave' or 'Red Fuji', 'A Sudden Gust of Wind' usually comes third in popularity in the series 36 Views...
- Jan 2
- 4 min
Failure and Creativity: Some Things I Got Wrong
Around the end of the year, many people like to look back and measure their stages of development with their achievements. I do this too,...
- Dec 31, 2022
- 3 min
36 Views of the BT Tower: Fireworks on the Thames and Sumida Rivers
As we approach the New Year, I felt it was appropriate to discuss my design of new year fireworks on the Thames and Hiroshige's...
- Oct 23, 2022
- 4 min
The 'Lover's Dream'
"Some will say they do not wish to dream their lives away. As if life itself were not a dream, a very real dream from which there is no...
- Oct 2, 2022
- 3 min
Foujita's Feline Friends
Foujita is most famous for his paintings of nudes and cats. Indeed, it's his paintings of cats that drew me to him the most. My other...
- Jul 1, 2022
- 3 min
The Lego 'Nanban' Ship of Fools
All art is a self-portrait, and this painting of a ship on gold leaf in mineral pigments is no different. It has a lot within to unpack...
- Jun 27, 2022
- 3 min
Noh Performance and Ogata Korin's Painting
I recently had the opportunity to see Noh being performed in London. Noh is one of the oldest continous forms of theatre in the world...
- Jun 21, 2022
- 7 min
Depression and Creativity: How Art Saved Me
As you can probably tell from the title, this is going to be very personal. There is a dark side to my story of how I decided to become...
- Mar 15, 2022
- 4 min
Playing with Ink: 'Pomo' and 'Tarashikomi' Techniques
In my studies of the Rinpa school in Japan and their techniques for my own paintings, I suddenly realised something that I didn't think...
- Mar 8, 2022
- 2 min
Of Gods and Cats
I recently painted two cats on gold leaf with mineral pigment. In composition I wanted them to mirror each other like the Gods of Wind...
- Feb 18, 2022
- 4 min
'Nanban' Screens: Trade and Art in Japan
Southern Barbarians Come to Trade Foreign traders and Japanese merchants interact with one another. Goods are inspected and money changes...
- Jan 31, 2022
- 6 min
A Selection of Elephants in Edo Period Art
For me, elephants are an obsession. I have always loved them from my earliest memory. So what better way to discuss elephants than in the...
- Jan 27, 2022
- 9 min
Hokusai's People: The Life of a Labourer in Edo
Hokusai is well known for depicting the lives of ordinary people in his drawings and prints, but what do his artworks tell us about those...
- Jan 24, 2022
- 5 min
In Praise of Gold: Using Gold Leaf
Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) once wrote an aesthetic treatise titled 'In Praise of Shadows'. The essay discusses traditional Japanese...
- Jan 19, 2022
- 8 min
Learning from Hokusai
The influence of Hokusai on subsequent artists is truly huge; ranging from Degas, Van Gogh, Klimt, Picasso (he loved the octopus and...
- Jan 17, 2022
- 4 min
Dragon’s Blood Powder and Lapis Lazuli: How to Use Pigments
A major part of traditional Japanese and Chinese painting is the use of mineral pigments. Nowadays, colours and paint can be made...
- Jan 14, 2022
- 3 min
Painting Cats: Foujita, Goyo, and Me
There are two main artistic influences on my cat paintings: Hashiguchi Goyo (1880-1921) and Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968). In this post,...
- Jan 13, 2022
- 5 min
Sizing Paper
Sizing paper in the context I’m going to discuss isn’t about measuring the size, but rather applying a ‘sizing’ solution (usually some...
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