Edutainment > 36 Views of Green Island (5) - Rock Platform

Rock Platform
copyright Tom Kristensen, 2004

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."

Rock Platform - No. 5

"In most respects making a woodblock print is a time-consuming process compared to other ways of making pictures. There is however, one effect that is most easily achieved with woodblock printing: bokashi, an even transition of colour. There are a dozen ways this can be done, but in general the ink is applied to one part of the block and gradually diluted by working it back and forth. Repeated impressions and applications of different colours can produce a wide range of pleasing effects.

In Ukiyo-e landscapes, ichimoji-bokashi is often used in the sky at the horizon, to create depth, or more typically, at the top of the print to bring a sense of weight and balance to the composition.

In this view the island is seen across a sheet of still water covering the intertidal rock platform of Cunjurong Point. In the foreground fukisage-bokashi is used to show the rock fading downwards, another fukiage-bokashi to show the surface of the water fading upwards. In each case a single colour is graded from one density, or tone, to another: katabokashi. The rock is done with a drastic change in tone: hakkake-bokashi. In the middle ground there is another bokashi suggesting seaweed, in this case there is a change from one colour green to another: tsukeawase-bokashi. There is no limit to the variations of bokashi and no shortage of different ways to print from a set of blocks."

Tom Kristensen
April 2005

Video Presentation of Tom Kristensen

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We produced a video with a short presentation of Tom Kristensen. Please click on the image or on the link to go to the video page.

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