STATEMENT

I work under the theme of a "Japanese realism": painting a Japanese sense of beauty realistically through the Western technique of oil, so that the result belongs neither to Japanese painting nor to Western painting, and feels at once new and somehow familiar. Just as the Impressionists were once inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e and opened up a new expression, I am searching again, in our own time, for a meeting of Japan and the West. To paint in oil the way that formless things move and waver, I chose water as my motif, and I keep painting it, drawn by the interest of a subject that changes shape each time and by its beauty as form. I aim at an expression through which the formless can be felt — something swayed by the wind, changing colour with the light. At university a teacher said to me: "I want to make work that, when it is found hundreds of years after I am dead by people of a future whose language and culture are entirely different, will be taken for a treasure and kept with care." Those words stayed with me. Wanting to express a universal strength that lies beyond fashion, I aim at work that is not showy but does not tire the eye over long years. I use a technique based on traditional oil painting, with a gesso ground as the support, so that layers of transparent colour add depth to the work. Because oil adheres very well to a gesso ground, this technique is also known for lasting a long time — which suits my wish to make work that will be loved for many years. These are not famous places or celebrated views but landscapes close at hand, at our feet. They are never showy: gentle, unhurried works that keep painting the beautiful and important scenes hidden within the everyday. The reflection of water, or a deliberately close angle — like a haiku, they let us imagine the part that is not painted.