The Influence of a Chinese Blue and White Vase on Aubrey Beardsley's Iconic Art
As an artist and lover of art history, I've always been fascinated by the unexpected connections between different cultures and artistic...
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Jul 282 min read
Love and Fear on the Musashi Plain: Kajita Hanko's Masterpiece from the Tales of Ise
I want to share with you a work of art you might not be so familiar with. Goethe once made a comment about minor artists and their place...
Jul 73 min read
Rembrandt and Japan
Rembrandt van Rijn, one of the most celebrated artists of the Dutch Golden Age, is renowned for his masterful use of light and shadow, as...
Mar 102 min read
Mr Hayashi's Elephant: Creativity and Friendship
Creativity, at its core, is about sharing one's vision with the world. When a maker creates, they share their emotions, whether it's joy...
Jan 42 min read
‘Find Joy in It' : Kawai Kanjiro's House
When you are travelling you can never fully appreciate which are the moments that will leave the deepest impression on you. You have to...
Jan 36 min read
Exploring the Artistic Legacy of Hokusai in Tokyo
Since 2019, a desire to travel to Japan had been festering within me. With the pandemic this desire grew only stronger as it was delayed...
Aug 27, 20236 min read
Proust and Chinese Art
In a previous blog post I discussed the influence of Japanese prints on Proust. As a specialist of Chinese art at an auction house...
Jul 8, 20235 min read
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...
Jan 14, 20231 min read
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 12, 20235 min read
Hokusai's Commission from the Dutch East India Company
The National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden has a fascinating group of European-influenced paintings by Hokusai on Dutch paper, which I was...
Jan 11, 20232 min read
Face to Face with Hokusai's Self Portrait
I was fortunate enough while passing through Leiden, Holland, to be given special access to the Volkekunde Museum (the National Museum of...
Jan 6, 20232 min read
36 Views of the BT Tower: Kites of Primrose Hill and Fukuroi
As manager of my own website, I can tell from online traffic which designs are more popular than others. Sometimes I understand why a...
Dec 31, 20223 min read
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...
Nov 17, 20224 min read
The Foreigners Making 'Japanese' Art
As an artist working with strong Japanese influences, I sometimes get asked about my justification for this cultural 'appropriation'....
Oct 2, 20223 min read
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...
Aug 24, 20224 min read
In Search of Foujita: An Artist's Pilgrimage (Part 4)
On a sunny Saturday, Vicky (my fellow pilgrim) and I made the journey to the Holy Grail of the Foujita trail: Foujita's house and studio...
Aug 24, 20224 min read
In Search of Foujita: An Artist's Pilgrimage (Part 2)
On Thursday 18th August, I arrived at my second stop of the Foujita trail: the Musee D'Art Moderne De Paris, which is interestingly...
Aug 24, 20225 min read
In Search of Foujita: An Artist's Pilgrimage (Part 1)
People go to Paris to see the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral etc...but I went this time with a very different purpose in...
Jul 1, 20223 min read
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...
Apr 25, 20223 min read
The Mystery of Foujita's White
Foujita (1886-1968) is an artist I have come to appreciate more and more over time; not just his depiction of cats and nudes, but also...
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