EDUTAINMENT

Select Category

Edutainment > Articles on Art > Australian Artists > Tom Kristensen - born 1962

Tom Kristensen

Tom Kristensen, born 1962, is a passionate ukiyo-e collector and printmaker from Australia who works in typically Japanese 'sosaku hanga' style: self-carved and self-printed with natural Japanese pigments on hand-made washi paper. Tom was first discovered by Eric van den Ing from Saru Gallery, where Paul Binnie was first introduced. In 2004 Tom Kristensen has begun to work on a series '36 Views of Green Island'.

The following text is a statement written by the artist.

Born in Australia

"My parents migrated to Australia in the year of my birth. My father grew up in a fishing village in the north of Denmark. My mother grew up in war-torn Dusseldorf in Germany. They came to make a new life in an ancient land. My father was an architect and my mother was a potter. As creative people they helped to establish a new type of "free school", where children would be encouraged to explore their own creativity. My brother, sister, and I spent most of our school days churning out artworks and building tree houses. Our holidays were spent under canvas at the seaside and this is the landscape that I love."

Education

"Later in life I went to University to study Science. My degree was in biology: botany and ecology. My interest in the natural world and my practical background soon had me working with my hands and back in the garden. I have spent much of the last 20 years building gardens large and small. This has been a creative outlet together with a career in music. I have always had an urge to combine my interests. In the landscape print I am able to mix a little of everything.

My belief is that art should reflect the times. Just as the Japanese artists of Edo times were quick to toy with telescopes and microscopes, I am also intrigued by current technology. My first print was of a medical catastrophe as seen by Xray. I went on to do a print of an image of Saturn taken by the Cassini space probe."

36 Views of Green Island

36 Views of Green Island - Rock Platform
Woodblock Print by Tom Kristensen, 2004

"In September of 2004 I started work on my Green Island series. These are images based on my digital photography and they carry the unmistakable signs of computer manipulation. In redesigning the landscape from a set of "filtered" shapes a new type of beauty emerges. While I embrace new technology I make use of the old methods and traditional materials. Thirty-six views will be made, using Japanese tools, mulberry washi and mineral pigments. The prints will be made from 4 to 6 blocks in an edition of 25 copies.

Each view will illustrate some unique aspect of the island. Inspiration will come from the history of the place, from people past and present, from the geology, geography, ecology, botany, zoology, or from the salt air itself. Each print will come in a glassine folder bearing a short explanation of the picture.

Hopefully, the Green Island series will deliver a sense of both the beauty I see in the landscape, and the beauty I find in the process of making woodblock prints."

Tom Kristensen
April 2005

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, and before artelino, to introduce Paul Binnie in 2000 to a larger online community of friends of Japanese prints.

Search for Tom Kristensen

You can buy art on this site in our ongoing art auction, or direct. See also our upcoming auctions and our art products. If you have any questions, please contact us.

The images on this web site are the property of the artist(s) and or the artelino GmbH and/or a third company/institution.  Reproduction, public display and any commercial use of these images, in whole or in part, require the expressed written consent of the artist(s) and/or the artelino GmbH. . 

	Web www.artelino.com

Australian Artists