World Black Belt Founding Member Sid Campbell wields a brush with the same panache and masterful skill that he does a samurai sword, at his historic renowned shorin-ryu karate studio in Oakland, California.

Few outside of the martial arts will have known of his creative artistic and literary talents until his latest books begin appearing in bookstores worldwide. His first official art-filled coffee table book that will feature about ninety of his select pieces of warrior art is set to be in fine book stores and international book chain stores, in the fall of 2006. In fact, the first hardback book with over 400 pages titled “Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawai’i” will include many of his warrior art depictions that superbly represent the caliber of his oil paintings.

His artistic moniker - known usually by his close friends and martial arts peers - is simply the “Warrior Artist of Dragunshire,” a descriptive that pretty well sums up the type of art he paints and the locale of where he paints and pens books. Sid affectionately refers to his old historic dojo as the “Dragon’s Lair.” Actually his old dojo landmark, of which has been in operation 40 years, houses about 700 dragons of many sorts that have been presented to him over the past four decades. Somehow he always manages to find a place for the many dragon statues, figurines or motifs that represent the fighting spirit of the martial arts. Over the years he has shortened the descriptive to “Dragunshire” and thus the reason for his present day moniker, “Warrior Artist of Dragunshire.”

A New Beginning
In the artistic sense, Campbell began painting portraits in oil of his daughter Kimmie, almost forty years ago. Then, before he really got rolling on a possible secondary oil painting career, he set aside the brush, canvas and easel and focused his attention on book writing (of which he has penned 50 books), as well as instruction formatted VHS, Audio, DVD and MP3 educational programs. Except for the release of the Bruce Lee Dragon and the Tiger book series; he had remained pretty much in the instructional genre experimenting with the current informational mediums along the way. Somehow, he always finds a way to express his martial arts teachings and shares knowledge with his students, in the most comprehensive way imaginable.

In fact, World Black Belt founding member and Grandmaster Sid Campbell has almost single-handedly developed the martial arts E-book (electronic book) concept, to share his lifetime of martial arts knowledge with serious devotees of the martial arts beyond the scope of only his students. His efforts have resulted in the creation of over 20 comprehensive educational E-books that are, in many cases, over five times larger and more detailed that his normal trade paperback works that are in bookstores worldwide.

At the behest and encouragement of his longtime friend and fellow martial artist Nathan Kamisato, who recently passed away in Maui, Hawai’i, Campbell decided to write about the warriors of ancient Hawai’i. Over the past ten years he diligently pursued this goal of historically detailing the life, times and exploits of the fabled Hawaiian “Koa” warrior and the infamously brutal style of a fighting art of “Old Hawai’i” known simply as “Lua.”

In his years of historic research and numerous visits to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Sid of Dragunshire was granted permission to enter the vaults of the museum and see firsthand the enormous collection of ancient weapons, tools and artifacts that are protectively secured there. Campbell reveals that the first time he saw the real koa warrior weapons, (not the modern-day replicas in island gift shops and tourist attractions); he got a chill down his spine. Campbell relates that, “It was as if I had touched Hawai’i’s ancient past, it was certainly one of the most incredible experiences for a historic writer to embrace when writing about a culture that existed about a thousand years ago.” Campbell has done additional research all over Hawai’i and has conducted numerous interviews with the elders on the islands that remember stories their parents and kahuna told them when they were children. What ultimately came about, since there were sadly, very few pieces of authentic art of the warriors of those times of yore, was Sid began to draw, create and paint scenes depicting the warriors the way he imagined them during those times. That was essentially his new beginning into the world of art.

Since then, the Warrior Artist of Dragunshire has painted over 200 pieces of exquisite art depicting to topic he knows best - The Ancient Warriors of Asia and the Polynesian Islands.

His latest work, “Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawai’i” will be his first literary work depicting his exquisitely detailed fine art. His second work which is presently nearing completion is titled, “Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Japan.” Naturally, the latter will feature samurai warriors, ancient Okinawa toudi-jutsu masters, time-era depictions and settings that have long since disappeared from the landscapes of both Japan and Okinawa respectively. With his artistic paintings he has tried to capture the pure essence, spirit and soul of the times, places and events of the ancient eras before western intervention into the Asian cultures. According to many martial arts historians and researchers of Hawai’i, Japan and Okinawa, Sid of Dragunshire has done a superb job of capturing the quintessential essence of what made these ancient cultures distinctly different from each other.

Enter the World of Giclée
After much encouragement by his martial arts cohorts and fellow World Black Belt founders such as Bob Wall, Eric Lee, Al Dacascos, the late Howard Jackson, Max Pallen and many other close confidants, Grandmaster Sid Campbell decided to take his artistic fine art paintings public, beyond the scope of the martial arts world in general.

To do so, Campbell realized that the best way to “go public” was to enter the world of Giclée limited edition canvas prints and paper-based renditions that could represent his work in art galleries. The Giclée process uses high resolution cameras to capture the likenesses digitally and then it is faithfully printed on canvas or other mediums using the latest and greatest printing technology in the way of high-tech printers. It is a process that is now so advanced that the inks used are almost identical to the pigments used to actually paint fine art using a brush.

Martial artisté Sid Campbell’s penchant for creating exotically beautiful Warrior Art is not mere luck or attributed to artistic talent alone. He experiments with various mediums, high-tech digital computer technologies and styles of art that reflect both Asian and European cultures. In essence, he is on the cutting edge of where art just may be going in the future.

Capturing The Spirit Of Ancient Warriors With His Giclée Fine Art
To quote from gallery brochures used to espouse the qualities and characteristics of his artwork, “Sid Campbell masterfully captures the essence of ancient warrior traditions, cultures, weapons and fighting styles with his beautifully vibrant oil paintings.” His art has been featured in books, posters and various media that convey historic significances. He has traveled throughout Asia and the Polynesian Islands studying the ways of war that these ancient Old World cultures practiced long before the advent of firearms. His fascination, passion and versatility is reflected in the minute detail that Campbell incorporates into his fine art.

His contemporary flair at capturing Old World Warriors is evident in each and every original creation that he has painted over the past decade. Texture, bold and richly intense color schemes, background ambience and diverse medium mixtures takes his modern day art to a level rarely seen in capturing his version of Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian art.

As a grandmaster of Okinawan shorin-ryu karate, with over 45 years of training in the martial art disciplines, his knowledge and experience of the Asian fighting arts serves him well when rendering these one-of-a-kind pieces of fine art.

Japanese ukiyo-e, nishiki-e, sumi-e (woodblock printing) techniques created with a brush and pen combined with overlays of gauze, mat textures, canvas and digital imagery can be found in many of his works.

His knowledge of ancient Asian artistic techniques is constantly evolving in his art and each new piece is nothing short of incredible. No medium is without functionary use in his art.

Just as importantly, many of his fine art renderings are created with historic significance and featured in his books about the Warrior Arts of Asia, Hawai’i and the Polynesian Islands.

The Art Agent...an Artist’s Connection to the Gallery World
Sid of Dragunshire then took the next step in presenting over two-hundred pieces of fine art, by selecting an artistic agent that could best represent his art to worldwide galleries, establish showings and deal with the marketing of his limited edition numbered Giclée canvas prints to the mass media who would be interested in such artistic fare.

He selected fellow martial arts black belt Christopher Wallace to represent his work both nationally and internationally through a broad array of potential markets. In addition to entering the gallery world of fine art, Wallace is pursuing other viable markets such as warrior art post cards, licensing venues for t-shirts and other viable motifs, limited edition artist’s proof sets and numerous other media outlets where such bold, vivid and incredibly rich in eloquent detailed art can be used in décor.

Art Representative Christopher Wallace believes that Campbell is the preeminent warrior artist of our time and certainly among the handful of artists across the globe that focuses exclusively on martial art warriors of ancient times. He feels that some artists dabble in warrior art among many other styles and genre, but very few have amassed the huge body of work that deals exclusively with one genre. Wallace believes that Sid Campbell is also one of the few distinguished artists that can tout the fact that he is a grandmaster of martial arts, an accomplished writer with best sellers and a consummate artist all rolled up into one person. Wallace unrequitedly states, “Sid Campbell is in a league all by himself, and it is time the world discovers who this very special person is, and what he stands for in the martial arts world.”

Wallace also relates, “That sometime in the not so distant future, martial artists who number in the tens of millions worldwide, will walk into an art gallery somewhere in Waikiki Beach, Hawai'i, Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago, Australia or hundreds of other tourist spots and see Campbell’s warrior art on display.” “In all likelihood,” Wallace adds, “Because of who Sid Campbell is, a true grandmaster of the martial arts, people will know that they are getting authenticity in his work. For someone that has spent his entire adult life as a professional career warrior, it stands to reason that he would know about the genre that he paints. I think people enjoy owning a piece of art when they can know a lot about the artist who paints it.”

Wallace follows up by stating, “It wouldn’t surprise me at all, that in the next several years the prices of The Warrior Artist of Dragunshire’s limited edition fine art Giclée canvas prints could triple or quad-triple in value. From a modest $400.00 per signed unframed copy to several thousand dollars, thus, making them an excellent value investment, since there are only so many created of any particular piece and each piece comes with an officially registered (numbered & artist signed) Letter of Limitation and authenticity. What is notable is that the baby boomers that have studied martial arts somewhere in the world are now possibly in the hundreds of millions and many have an affinity and fascination with the mystique, lore and deeper esoteric meanings of the martial arts. They will undoubtedly find Sid Campbell’s art to be right on the mark and in sync with their likes in artful décor of a martial arts nature. Besides, the baby boomers today, can afford such exquisite and beautiful pieces of art as an investment.”

To view a substantial portion of World Black Belt Founding Member Sid Campbell’s vast collection of art please visit the online Art Gallery at: www.Putfile.com/dragun3/images

You can also visit his official website at: www.SidCampbell.net for more information about Sid of Dragunshires books, art and martial arts.