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...

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...

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...

Southern Barbarians Come to Trade Foreign traders and Japanese merchants interact with one another. Goods are inspected and money changes...

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...

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...

The influence of Hokusai on subsequent artists is truly huge; ranging from Degas, Van Gogh, Klimt, Picasso (he loved the octopus and...

A major part of traditional Japanese and Chinese painting is the use of mineral pigments. Nowadays, colours and paint can be made...

There are two main artistic influences on my cat paintings: Hashiguchi Goyo (1880-1921) and Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968). In this post,...

Sizing paper in the context I’m going to discuss isn’t about measuring the size, but rather applying a ‘sizing’ solution (usually some...

Welcome to my first blog post! The aim of this blog is to share with you my academic interest in Japanese and Chinese art history...