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Akiko Fujikawa was born into what she describes as an 'arty family' and was an English teacher in her native Japan when she first came to England in the mid-1970s.

Falling in love with the country, she returned home after five years looking for a reason to make a permanent return. As she admits, there was little reason for her to be teaching the English language to English speakers.

Akiko has lived in Burnham for over 20 years

"When I went back home I thought about some sideline and then started to learn about block printing," she recalls.

This led her to studying for three years with Takeji Asano, who she describes as the 'picasso of Japan'.

"I fell in love with his work and his personality. Within a month of studying with him I thought 'I wish I could be like him' and that was the real start," she says.

So began her association with the art of woodblock printing, a return to England, and marriage to artist and sculptor, the late Geoffrey Wickham.

Rock around the block

Woodblock printing has its origins in China and is closely associated with East Asia.

The whole process is not the work of a moment either and Akiko estimates that she could produce between one and two A3-sized design in a month.

"First you draw a design.听 If you've used five colours in your design, then you need five separate blocks," Akiko explains. "So a yellow colour, for example, you trace onto one block, black onto a second one and so on.

"After you've cut the line on the block and chiseled or gouged听out the unnecessary parts, then it's ready to print. You put the paint on the block and the night before, or at least six hours before, you have to moisten the paper.

"You put the paper onto the block and rub it with a disc called 'baren' which is a very, very special thing. On one sheet of paper, each colour will go on, one-by-one."

Each colour has its own block

Akiko believes the most important thing to get right in the whole process is the moisture of the paper - if it's not right, when it dries it will stretch and the picture will not come out correctly.

"The moisture of the paper should be exactly the same percentage from the beginning of printing until the finishing of the printing. That is only [checked] by the finger, just by holding the paper - so really you need a good experience to know when it's right."

Akiko says she has noticed a gradual fusion of her Japanese roots with western influences in her work over the years.

"Colour-wise definitely," she confirms.听"Also facial expressions. I tend to do a very high nose, whereas the Japanese nose is very flat. So I'm definitely influenced by that sort of thing. But the eyes are still 'almond' shaped, for some reason I still stick to that.

"Colour-wise, when I've taken my work to Japan, people said 'oh, you are influenced by Europe and England'. But when I show my work here, people says 'oh, you are Japanese'.

Colours are vital to Akiko's work

"It's a slightly dim colour, so people say." she adds.

"I don't see it in that way at all as I do use quite vibrant colours. Maybe because for black I use a Japanese ink made of soot, which if you dilute with a lot of water you get a very nice grey.

"I often put this on top of vibrant colours which gives a really nice, subtle shade and maybe that's why people say 'you are still Japanese', I don't know."

Block party

For almost 30 years, Akiko has focused mainly on people, human relationships and emotions.

Good carpentry skills are vital to the end product

"I'm interested in psychology very much, since I was a child," she says. "Human relationships [with each other], also human relationship with nature, insects, birds or animals."

However, she has now decided to produce some prints inspired by landscapes and nature, helped in no small way by having lived in Burnham for 20 years.

"Essex is very flat and has lots of agriculture and that attracts me a lot," she says.

"I came from Kyoto and it's a beautiful city, surrounded by five mountains, but here has a huge horizon and it's beautiful and I feel a real freedom.

"That's why at last I have started this nature series."

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