In Japanese art history, Hokusai was a particularly imaginative and experimental artist. He is said to have dabbed the feet of live roosters with red paint and left them free to be stamped on white paper, eventually creating a beautiful picture of an autumn maple. Hokusai was an extreme perfectionist, whose talent was not only in painting but also in writing. The many masterpieces he produced during his eighty-year career have had a great impact on future generations.

I was struck by Katsushika Hokusai's control of line, a technique derived from line drawing in Chinese painting, which has had a great influence on my work.