California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker

Name: California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker | Aeon Videos
Uploaded: 2025-03-31
Duration: 10 min
Description: Inspired by Japanese master artists, a woodcut printmaker is constantly reimagining the landscapes of his California home

Growing up in Mill Valley, California, where Mount Tamalpais is a constant presence, the US artist Tom Killion developed a deep reverence for nature. Influenced by the beauty of local landscapes, as well as Japanese woodblock masters like Hokusai, Killion has spent decades crafting woodcut prints that reimagine California’s undulating terrain via bold compositions and hues. In this short from the PBS series Craft in America, he leads viewers through his intricate process, from sketching on site to a final, vividly realised print. For Killion, it’s a practice of patience, intention, discovery and surprise, as it’s never quite clear how the resulting print will appear until the very end.

Video by Craft in America

31 March 2025