clouds

We can hold our loved ones close, and try to do what we can to make the world a better place, in our own small way. Stay safe everyone.

Winter Olympics - ice skating

I enjoyed watching the ice skating at the Winter Olympics this year, and tried to capture the incredible movements of the skaters in quick sketches…

These details show some of the wonderful poses the skaters held. I even managed to do a passable likeness of my favourite Yuzuru Hanyu!

I especially enjoyed the pairs skating, it’s less stressful to watch, and the skaters’ co-ordinated movements are wonderful to behold.

I didn’t have a favourite in the pairs, but I loved the outfits! Sketching this fast (or trying to!) is great practice.

COPE international editions

One of the most exciting things about the COPE series of books I’ve been illustrating for the last couple of years is that they are available for everyone to read for free. You can read them on the website, or download them to your own devices to read later.

We produce them initially in English, but over the yers we’ve seen them translated by our collaborators and made available in a variety of languages, to make them even more accessible…

The COVID-19 booklet has been the most widely translated and distributed. I really hope they’re helping kids in this pandemic to understand what’s going on a little better, and how to keep themselves safe…

You can find all the books on the COPE website here. Enjoy and take care!

mokuhanga show review

There’s a wonderful article in the Seven Days online arts magazine about our Mokuhanga Sisters show at the Southern Vermont Arts Centre. Thank you to Pamela Polston for the thoughtful review!

These are some of my floral prints in the show…

…and these are a few of Gotou san’s amazing abstract works.

This print of his has such a beautifully rich black along the top, and an incredible gold metallic shimmer that needs to be seen in person to appreciate.

The exhibition continues until March 27, I hope you get a chance to visit!

Hong Kong Willow coasters

I’ve just received these beautiful new ceramic coasters featuring illustrations of a selection of areas in Hong Kong, as part of my expanding Hong Kong Willow Collection.

I’m especially happy with the Wanchai/Causeway Bay/Happy Valley coaster, as I added some new icons like the historic wanchai post office and famous restaurant Amigo in Happy Valley.

The coasters are available to buy in Hong Kong at the Langham Hotel, tree, and Bookazine and as always, direct from faux.

I think they’d be a perfect Lunar New Year gift!

California

We left Japan at the end of the year, and moved back to our old apartment in California. It all still feels a bit unreal, but I’m slowly adapting to a different pace, and to the different light. The sun shines differently here, and the long, low, afternoon rays of light in the studio are beautiful.

The skies are different too, and somehow more vivid. Every evening, as the sun sets, I can’t believe my eyes. What beauty!

I’m looking forward to rediscovering the wonderful things here, and hope that Japan will be there waiting for me when I get back one day.

mokuhanga show in Vermont

The World Between the Block and the Paper is currently showing at the Southern Vermont Art Centre in Manchester, Vermont, USA. It was organised by Patty Hudak, a member of our printmaking collective Mokuhanga Sisters.

Photo by Yoonmi Nam

The show features work by the Mokuhanga Sisters, plus a guest artist we each invited, either a teacher or a student, and also a few local artists connected with us.

photo by Dave Barnum Photography

I invited my teacher Hidehiko Gotou san to show his prints alongside my own. His are the blue and gold ones shown here. They sold out on the opening day of the exhibition!

photo by Dave Barnum Photography

The exhibition is also a chance for us to showcase our collaborative project Borderless, co-ordinated by Lucy May Schofield. Borderless is an emakimono, a scroll, made up of prints by each of us.

photo by Dave Barnum Photography

The eight prints are black and white, mostly printed with sumi ink, and constructed by hand by Lucy. My print Night Garden is shown here at the beginning of the scroll.

photo by Dave Barnum Photography

Our Wood + Paper + Box collaborative project (with Yoonmi Nam and Katie Baldwin) is also on show, with the flat pieces of our boxed work under glass, and the 3-dimensional pieces on plinths around the room. My double-sided uchiwa fan is shown in the first photo above.

photos by Dave Barnum Photography

I’m especially happy that this quadtych of tree prints is being shown here - I made them on an artists residency in Vermont years ago, and they are finally being exhibited for the first time, in Vermont!

photo by Dave Barnum Photography

The show is up until the 27th of March. More information is available here. Hope you can go and see it!

my solo show in Tokyo

I had a solo show! In Tokyo! The one that was cancelled in Spring of 2020 due to the pandemic. I rethought the show, and turned it into a sort of goodbye event, as we were leaving Japan soon afterwards.

The show was held in the adorable Almost Perfect gallery, in the downtown (rapidly becoming hipster) part of Tokyo.

left photo by Lee Basford

The space was perfectly suited to the scale and tone of my work, and I was so happy to show there. The sunlight slanted in in the morning, and the gallery was bright and airy for the rest of the day.

Most of the framed prints were mokuhanga, but there were a few etchings too. I framed a few of the pieces specially for the show, and also experimented with mounting some of them directly onto wood, instead of framing behind glass.

As well as framed prints, I showed a selection of other printed products, such as artists books, handmade sketchbooks, greetings cards and postcards.

I also showed some of my ceramics - the HK willow and HK toile collections, and even a few London toile teacups.

right photo by Lee Basford

I was so happy that people came to see the show to say hello/goodbye. Happier still when everyone bought something to take home with them.

A special thank you to Luis and Yuka for hosting my show, and to everyone who supported me, by showing up, by buying something, and for saying nice things about my work. Thank you.

Kyoto

I spent the last week in Kyoto, exploring, hanging and then taking down my show, and enjoying a few days rest…

I walked around the rainy city, loving every single fallen momiji leaf, and marvelling at the beauty of the ordinary life there.

I also finally made it to Saiho-ji, the moss temple in the West of Kyoto. I made a reservation by postcard several months ago and was granted access for a few hours to the incredible bright green gardens. It took my breath away. The moss alone was spectacular, but with the autumn colours on top of that, it was sublime.

The yellow gingko leaves and red momiji leaves were everywhere in Kyoto, and I felt saturated in colour.

I’ve never spent much time in Kyoto, and now I want to go back and experience it in different seasons…

Sumi-Fusion Mokuhanga exhibition

I’ve just spent the last week in Nara, Japan, attending the 4th International Mokuhanga Conference. There were talks, practical demos, visits, and a wonderful juried exhibition of mokuhanga prints from around the world.

My newest print ‘Summer Blooms’ was selected, and it was great to see it hung amongst so many wonderful pieces.

Our Mokuhanga Sisters collaborative scroll ‘Borderless’ was also on display. Here’s a picture showing both my pieces.

It was truly a gift to be able to attend the conference in person, and I’m sad that no-one from outside Japan could travel in, but the online conference made up for it a little. Hopefully the next one will be in person!

I also participated in the online Open Portfolio, which can be seen here. Hope you enjoy looking at everyone’s amazing work!

Kyoto show

Yesterday I helped install our mokuhanga group show in hip bookstore/gallery Keibunsha in Kyoto.

It’s a group of five printmakers, and the work is eclectic, and I think it looks pretty good together!

I’m showing mokuhanga prints I made in the last couple of years, plus some greetings cards and postcards that feature my mokuhanga work.

Some mini cards carved and printed by Kitamura san’s apprentice carvers are also on display and available to purchase. Mine is the tiny blue teapot, I love it! I’ve never seen my work interpreted by someone else, so this was a great project to be involved with.

The show is up for a week, and I’ll be there on monday the 6th December for a few hours before taking the show down. Hope to see you there!

kapok ceramic box

I designed a special ceramic jewellery box for kapok, my favourite store in HK, for their 15th anniversary. They invited 15 designers they’ve worked with over the years to create a product.

I sketched the HK harbour and surrounding areas, to show all the kapok store locations. I originally chose bright acidy colours, but then switched to more muted ones, to match kapok’s 15th anniversary branding.

I then drew little icons of local HK buildings and characters, to go around the sides of the box. I especially enjoyed creating a little portrait of kapok’s founder Arnault.

Here’s the final simple and modern design, I love it!

It’s a super adorable box and can be purchased here on the kapok website.

Ojika Island

From Shin-Kamigoto, we took a short ferry ride to Ojika, a smaller, less mountainy island with a peaceful fishing village vibe. We hired electric bikes for our stay, and with the help of the incredible staff (thank you Victoria!) at the tourist office, started our perfect three day visit.

We explored the whole island, cycling over the gentle slopes and having picnic lunches. We wandered in the main village near the port, sat on beaches with turquoise waters, and watched glorious sunsets…

We stayed in a restored kominka and I loved this particular room with the tatami floors and lovely view. I sketched in the house, and used the large table surrounded by windows as a temporary illustration studio.

There was so much inspiration everywhere, I felt like I could keep drawing forever. Here’s my first sketch in the town, drawn while sitting on the steps outside a temple.

I particularily loved doing the local pilgrimage ‘stamp rally’ where you collect stamps for specific locations. I love these Japanese location stamps, and doing the rally meant we found places we might not have done otherwise. We got lost, but loved it!

This was honestly one of the best and most enjoyable places we’ve ever stayed in Japan, with many, many years of Japan travelling under our belts. It wasn’t that the views were spectacular, or famous, but that the atmosphere was truly special, the local people so welcoming, and the feeling of experiencing a genuine rural Japanese life. They’ve really gone out of their way to preserve something unique, while keeping up with modern times. I loved that there were no convenience stores, only local shops, and that the pace of life was just that much slower. I miss it already…

You can find out everything you want to know about going to Ojika here. I wish I could share this place with everyone.

Goto Islands

After having cancelled our planned early 2020 Kyushu trip due to the pandemic, we finally made it to the Goto Islands a few weeks ago. It was magical, and everything we hoped it would be. We took the ferry from Nagasaki and arrived at Shin-Kamigoto, picked up a car, and started exploring the island.

First stop, the hidden and peaceful Kashiragashima church. It’s one of the twelve Hidden Christian monuments in Nagasaki recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can’t photograph inside the church, so I drew a sketch of the pretty ceiling structure and let the atmosphere sink in. We were the only visitors.

We spent the next few days visiting different sites around the island, watching sunrises and sunsets and sampling the local delicacies. The water was beautiful (but a bit too cold to swim in) and the views of the sea at any time of the day was spectacular.

I sketched the first sunrise we saw, the light was neon pink and orange over the sea…

This is one of the beaches we visited, we almost always had them to ourselves. The water was turquoise and the sand was soft. Incredible.

From here, we took another ferry to our next destination - Ojika Island…

BEYORG 'Book of Organic Wonders' project

I created an illustration for BEYORG’s 2021 special Christmas ‘Book of Organic Wonders’, which is a sort of advent calendar containing organic cosmetics from Australian brand A.O.R.

I love how the illustrations are spread out onto the separate drawers on the box!

Here you can my sketches for the illustration, from stage one to the final stage before I start doing the actual artwork. In between these two stages the client made revisions and requested more animals and flowers. I designed the illustration to be partially pen and ink (animals and people) and for the botanical elements to be painted.

The illustration has also been used on a lovely tote bag.

I think it would be lovely, once you’ve used all the cosmetics and eaten the jam, to reuse the box for keeping things in!

You can purchase the box on the BEYORG website here.

Nagasaki visit

Last weekend we went to Nagasaki for one day and managed to do an amazing amount!

We visited Dejima, the island where the first Europeans who visited and traded with Japan lived. It’s in the process of being restored as a historic site, and the museum and buildings were fascinating.

And then we spent the rest of the day eating the local specialities (Turkish rice, champon, castella), wandering the streets, and riding the awesome old trams!

Nagasaki totally charmed me. One day was just not long enough. Can’t wait to visit again!

Art Biotop

I just got back from a wonderful week in Tochigiken, staying in an airbnb and working from home, but taking time out to go for walks in the mountain air and visit a few local spots. One of those spots was Art Biotop in Nasu.

biotop panorama.jpg

It’s a water garden designed by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami. It was truly magical. I wandered around the pools, admiring the reflections of the trees and watching tiny frogs jumping and hiding in the mud at the bottom of each pool…

sketches.jpg

I sketched a little, sitting on one of the carefully placed rocks, and marvelled at the balance of everything.

heron.jpg

A beautiful white heron flew in and walked right past me as I sketched, totally unafraid. If you’re ever in the area, I really recommend a visit!