Category Archives: Printmaking

Ikki Matsumoto (1935 – 2013)

Ikki Matsumoto is the son of the artist we featured yesterday, Katsuji Matsumoto.  Ikki travelled to the United States to study at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana, where his older brother was a sculpture student. He transferred to the Art Academy of Cincinnati to study under the renowned wildlife artist, Charles Harper.  After an unsatisfying work in the advertising field, he established a new career as a painter and printmaker using the native birds as his subjects. Matsumoto intended for his work to make people feel good as he said, ‘there are no heavy messages in my work, I just simply wish to delight’.

More of his art can be viewed here on his posthumous website.

Images:  Courtesy of various sources.

Shiro Kasamatsu (1898 – 1991)

Born in the Asakusa section of Tokyo to a middle class family, Shiro Kasamatsu started his art studies at a young age. In 1911 he studied Japanese style painting under Kaburagi Kiyokatahe.  He is one of the most highly respected of the Shin Hanga artists.  His designs were mainly of landscapes, but also included bijin-ga (female beauty), interiors, and Noh masks (one of his particular interests).  He worked with two publishers before going independent carving and printing his own designs in limited, numbered editions.  

Shirō produced about 290 prints during his life.

Images:  Courtesy of various sources.

Stephanie Sloan

Stephanie Sloan is an illustrator and printmaker based in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.  She graduated from the Royal College of Art in London and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.   We love her minimalist illustrative style as she explores depth, light, texture and pattern. She combines her passion for the craft of screen printing with hand drawn and digital  techniques: “I embrace the combination of technology with drawing and the organic process of printmaking, allowing the work to develop at each stage of the process.”

More of her work can be viewed on her website, Facebook and Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Stephanie Sloan.

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