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Tom Kristensen

Lake Conjola
copyright Tom Kristensen, 2005

Tom Kristensen, born 1962, is a young artist from Australia who works in the tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking. On this page, he writes about his latest print from the series "36 Views of Green Island ".

Here is the original text written by Tom Kristensen. Text and images are copyright protected and may not be used or distributed for other than private use without the prior consignment of the author/artist.

36 Views of Green Island

"These 36 views are presented in the Sosaku Hanga tradition: self-carved and hand printed, using Japanese tools, Japanese mulberry washi and traditional pigment colours. Each print is made from 4 to 6 blocks and printed in an edition of 25 copies."

Lake Conjola - No. 12

In the late 1850s Japan opened its doors to increased trade. Woodblock prints proved to be popular in Europe and vast numbers were exported. At the same time the Japanese began a drive to modernise and adopt the way of the west in most things, including printing technology. Over the next 50 years the woodblock print declined in popularity with the Japanese people.

In the early 1900s a few publishers began the new print movement, shin hanga, deluxe prints produced largely for the foreign market. These prints were often timeless romantic Japanese landscapes. Night scenes were especially popular. Shin hanga may have catered to western taste, but they were still produced in the traditional manner, where a publisher commissioned work from an artist and employed the carver and the printer.

Another group of artists decided upon a radical departure and began producing creative prints, sosaku hanga. These artists produced prints that embraced modernity. The careful perfection of the traditional approach was abandoned in favour of the expression of the individual artist. New tools and new techniques were used.

In this print I have used gouges to carve texture into the blocks. The movement in the lake side sedges and the reflection of moonlight off the sand and water, were carved freely, in a flurry of modern plywood chips."

Tom Kristensen
April 2005

More about Tom Kristensen

The artist was first discovered by Eric van den Ing, co-author of a classic ukiyo-e book "Beauty and Violence" and owner of Saru Gallery. After Eric van den Ing had placed Tom's woodblock prints on his online gallery, a few days later a collector had bought the whole set. Mr. van den Ing seems to have a "magic hand" for new artists. He was the first to introduce Paul Binnie in 2000 to a larger online community of friends of Japanese prints.

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