Empty Icon, Empty Mind Drawing

Philip Sugden formally studied in Paris under French master, Arnaud D'Hauterives (winner Grand Prix de Rome). Since graduation from the New York School of Visual Arts and the Paris American Academie des Beaux Arts, Sugden has made twelve journeys throughout the Himalaya and Tibet creating drawings on location. In 1990, he and his wife, Carole Elchert, were awarded grants from the Ohio Joint Projects in the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, to create a PBS presentation and companion book based on their 1988 Cultural Arts Expedition to Tibet. They were guests of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and completed the project entitled, White Lotus, An Introduction to Tibetan Culture. In 1991, the Dalai Lama was their guest for two days in their Findlay, Ohio home. Sugden's work has been exhibited in more than 90 solo and 130 group shows in museums and galleries internationally including New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Washington DC, Melbourne, and Kathmandu. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Bluffton University. Philip's drawings have been published in a full-color exhibit catalog entitled, Visions from the Fields of Merit; Drawings of Tibet and the Himalayas. The book includes a Forward by the Dalai Lama.