Colour samples For the past few weeks I have been working on a new woodblock print inspired by a spring evening beneath the cherry blossoms. When I began, I imagined the difficult part would be the carving. Instead, I have found myself wrestling with something far more elusive: colour. The scene itself seemed simple enough. Blossoms overhead, a quiet avenue stretching into the distance, a cyclist passing beneath the trees, and the last warmth of sunset dissolving into evening

After the frustrations of my previous printing session, I returned to the blocks with slightly more patience and, I hope, a little more understanding of the process. One of the dangers with woodblock printing is the temptation to force solutions too quickly: adding more pigment, rubbing harder, or trying to correct mistakes through sheer determination. The more I worked, however, the more I began to realise that the process depends less on force than on balance and timing. I

Detail of inked woodblock After an intensely busy period at work, I finally had a free weekend to properly begin printing with the woodblocks. Up until now, much of the process had involved designing, carving and planning, but this felt like the moment where the prints themselves might finally begin to emerge. Before printing, I spent quite a long time studying colour. Mixing colour for Japanese-style woodblock printing is something of an art in itself. I looked carefully at

Whisky tasting halloween party at Shapero Rare Books, London, October 2025 The whisky tasting at Shapero Rare Books was more than just an event; it felt like the coming together of many strands of my creative life. What most people didn’t see behind the scenes was the unlikely, joyful spark that set the whole thing in motion. Some months ago, the furniture dealer and collector Marcus Flacks approached me with an idea. Marcus is one of those rare people whose energy fills a ro

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