Japanese culture | Edward Luper Art

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...

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...

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...

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...

'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...