Printmaker, Nishida Tadashige, and His Influence on My Recent Art

I recently became aware of a Japanese artist whose work I LOVE.  In many ways, it reminds me of my own.  When you look at some of the images below, I think you will see why.  

I could not find a lot of information about the artist.  His woodblock prints are represented in many galleries, but he does not have a website that I could find.  This is what I was able to glean from my research.  

He was born in 1942 on Amami Oshima Island in Kagoshima.  He pursued his studies at Chiba University in Japan, and then later, in the 1960's, traveled to Spain and the US for post-graduate studies in art.  He started out as a painter, but later became a woodblock artist.  He is very well known worldwide for his cat prints, and his landscapes.  Today, he lives in Chiba, Japan.

Here is some of his work.

Something that I like about Tadashinge's cat art is that he will use one cat image he has drawn, and use it in a few different background settings.  And at times, change the color of the cat from black, to a white cat, to a ginger cat. That inspired this last body of linocut art prints that I am currently releasing.  I like this idea so much, I know I will be trying it again in the future.

I hope you liked meeting, in brief, Nishida Tadashige. I'd highly recommend looking him up online just to see more of his beautiful cat art.  If you love cats, I know you will love his work too.