Ken Lamb
Tomnoko Oka
Vittoria Vieceli
Nick O'Sullivan
Through elegant brushwork and masterful restraint, each artist channels the spirit of traditional Japanese ink painting while exploring its relevance in a contemporary context.
Ken Lamb
Ken Lamb is a distinguished Sydney-based landscape gardener, artist, and author, celebrated for his expertise in Japanese and Oriental garden design and Sumi-e painting.
Ken holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales, where he specialized in modern landscape painting and abstract steel sculpture, with a particular interest in Oriental aesthetics, including Japanese sumi-e brush painting and traditional Chinese landscape ink paintings of the Sung dynasty .
After a decade as an exhibiting artist with successful shows in Sydney, Colombo, and Sri Lanka, Lamb transitioned into landscape design. In 1984, he founded Imperial Gardens Landscape Pty Ltd, an Australian company specialising in the design, construction, and maintenance of Oriental gardens . His work includes notable projects such as the Gosford Edogawa Commemorative Garden and the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Lamb is also an accomplished author, having written several books that explore the philosophy and techniques of Oriental gardening and art. His publications include Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia – Pruning Guide, Gosford Edogawa Commemorative Garden: Japanese Gardens in Australia, and Zen and the Way of the Brush, which delves into the practice of sumi-e painting .
Beyond his design and literary contributions, Lamb conducts pruning and sumi-e painting workshops from Hidden Orient Nursery in Belrose, Sydney. He collaborates with local and state governments on specialized pruning, training, and garden renovations, aiming to establish a new future for gardens in Australia and the USA .
For more information about Ken's work, you can visit Imperial Gardens Landscape or follow @imperial_gardens2085 on Instagram.
Tomoko Oka
Tomoko Oka is a Japanese artist based in Sydney and the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, specialising in Japanese calligraphy, sumi-e and abstract ink art.
Tomoko began practicing calligraphy at the age of ten, exploring various established styles and developing her own unique forms and abstract works.
Since relocating to Australia in 2011, Tomoko has conducted workshops and demonstrations in schools, galleries, and various venues across Sydney, the Central Coast, and Melbourne. Her art has been featured in high-profile marketing and advertising campaigns, including collaborations with Japan Airlines (JAL) and Opera Australia. Notable commissions include calligraphy for restaurants such as Sokyo, Edomae Sushi, and Kazan Dining in Sydney.
Tomoko's work often reflects a fusion of traditional Japanese art forms and the natural landscapes of Australia, aiming to bridge cultural understanding through her creations. She offers large-brush calligraphy performances, workshops, and commissioned artworks, sharing her passion for Japanese culture and aesthetics with diverse audiences.
For more information about Tomoko's work, you can visit https://tomokooka.com
Vittoria Vieceli
Vittoria Vieceli, a Sydney-based artist with Italian heritage, creates diverse works from oil paintings to Japanese sumi-e ink art that connect people with nature.
Vittoria's artistic philosophy embraces Zen principles of presence, asymmetry, and process-focus, while she builds community through teaching and creative events at her Brookvale studio.
Although classically trained in oil painting, in the past few years she has been studying and practising in the Japanese tradition of sumi-e ink painting. “Western oil painting and the Japanese ink tradition are such complete opposites,” she says, “but I enjoy the paradox of switching between oils and ink,” Vittoria says.
“The more I learn about the Zen aspects of sumi-e painting and the core values of the Japanese aesthetic – such as being in the moment, honouring nature and the seasons, embracing asymmetry and empty space, and focusing more on the process rather than the end result - the more that influence spills over into all areas of my art creation, no matter which medium I’m working in.
“For me, each painting has an energetic vibration and connects us with the nature by capturing a moment in time and space. In this way, art becomes a living representation of the life force of the land and the sea.”
While Vittoria lives and works on Sydney’s northern beaches, her parents both grew up in northern Italy and her love of Italian culture, food, language and everything “la dolce vita” infuses her life and her art. Her spacious studio in Brookvale also allows her to balance the solitude of her working life with bring people together through the creative process by teaching small classes and running monthly events such as Life Drawing Drink & Draw.
For more information about Vittoria you can visit https://vittoriavieceli.com.au
Nick O'Sullivan
Nick O’Sullivan is a Sydney-based Artist whose sumi-e practice reflects a playful yet reverent engagement with classical traditions, reimagined through a contemporary and character driven lens.
Co-Creator of the BBC funded animated series Vegesaurs, screening globally, Nick began his career as an editorial cartoonist before hitting his stride as Character Designer and Story Artist on the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two.
Visiting the exhibition "Zen Brush, Zen Mind" at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2006 Nick was struck by the paintings of Zen Artists such as Fugai, Hakuin and Sengai, and immediately recognised their kinship with western cartoonists in their wit, spontaneity, brevity of line and audacious use of space.
Following the inky breadcrumbs Nick began studying Sumi-e with Ken Lamb in Sydney's Norther Beaches, absorbing the lessons left by the Artist Monks and Kano School Painters of 17th & 18th century Japan, who in turn drew from the great Classical Artists of Sung Dynasty China (960–1279 AD).
Nick balances his full time role as a Commercial Artist and At Director with an independent Art practice spanning works in ink, charcoal, graphite and digital media, drawing inspiration from both the great graphic satirists of the west and the zen artists of the east.
For more information on Nick you can visit https://nickosullivan.myportfolio.com