Still Waters, Timeless Beauty: A Landscape Pendant for a Collector of Quiet Moments

His name is James Whitmore, an American artist and former gallery investor based in Portland, Oregon.

In his earlier years, James ran a boutique gallery focused on Eastern aesthetics—Chinese ink paintings, Japanese woodblock prints, Himalayan ritual art. But in recent years, he’s stepped away from the art business and found a different rhythm.

“These days, I just walk by the water, sketch the trees, breathe in the quiet,” he shared with us. “Art, for me now, is not something to sell—it’s something to live.”

He reached out with a simple request: “I’d like a jadeite piece that captures that same feeling—a quiet landscape, something with depth and soul.”

We selected a piece of fine ice-jelly jadeite—its texture smooth and delicate, with extraordinary clarity and a faint, cool luminescence. It looked like a still lake at the edge of spring, clear as glass, yet full of quiet depth—like a hidden mountain pool.

From this material, our master carver created a landscape pendant:

Gentle mountains rise and fall in elegant rhythm, carved with grace and precision. Ancient pines stretch skyward, their branches full and alive. A quiet stream winds through the valleys, rendered so delicately you can almost hear its murmur.

A humble pavilion rests beneath a tree—silent, timeless—inviting the viewer into a space of peace.

“It reminds me of the scroll paintings I used to collect,” James told us. “But somehow… more personal. Like I could walk into it.”

At TATHATĀ, we believe jadeite can be more than ornament—it can hold memory, mood, even a way of seeing the world.

If there’s a place that brings you peace—whether a mountain, a lake, or a moment in time— we’d be honored to carve it for you.