Mouse and Persimmon Commission
Recently I finally finished this commission. I was asked to do just before I had an issue with the median nerve in my right hand an had to stop carving for much of 2023. So it is a great relief to get it done on three levels. Firstly that my had has healed enough to ...
Fashion and Fantasy: The Art of Netsuke Carvings
Running from February 12, 2022 - April 17, 2022 at the beautiful Portland Japanese Garden, 611 SW Kingston Ave., Portland, Oregon, USA, this exhibition shows work from the netsuke collections of James R. Coonan, Denise C. Bates and Lurline C. Menzies. It also includes a display titled 'Making Headway - Netsuke of Today' which features ...
Netsuke No Shizuku magazine issue no.81
In October 2018 I was invited to give a talk at the Japan Netsuke Association’s autumn meeting which I titled ‘25 Years On – Reflections of a Netsuke Artist’. An article by Mr Shimatani about my talk has been included in the Associations latest newsletter, ‘Netsuke No Shizuku issue no.81’ along with photos from the ...
Tokyo Contemporary Netsuke Exhibition
The annual Contemporary Netsuke Exhibition at Tokyo Takashimaya Department Store will be running from 10th-16th April 2019. This is a group show consisting with 90 netsuke on display. I will be exhibiting 2 work this year one of which is the python represented in the image above. Doors are open from 10:30am until 7:30pm.
Restraints of Making Netsuke
The uniqueness of netsuke is derived from its function. When designing a netsuke if the artist was to ignore its function the result would either be, a poor quality netsuke or an object which is a small sculpture but not a netsuke.
So there are several consideration netsuke artists must make. These are size, durability of ...