- ARTIST`S BIOGRAPHY -
| Keisai Kinshi was born in Aizubange, Fukushima
in 1947. At the end of sixties, she was impressed
by feminine graces painted on a surface of
old-ceramic and developed a great interest
in the art of Ukiyo-e of Edo period. She
was self-taught and was influenced by the
works of Ukiyo-e masters of Edo days. In
1985 she had her first solo exhibition in
koriyama and an American collector who had
met her works in Tokyo had brought back with
him one of her Ukiyo-e paintings titled "A
beauty reading a book. "It was her first
collector in overseas. In 1986 she received
an Award of Excellent from the great Nihonga
contest held in Fukushima. She has been painting
for over 30 years and has had her solo exhibitions
more than thirties in Japan and the Netherlands. |
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| Her way is to combine Edo's Ukiyo-e tradition
with the modern-day Japanese aesthetic sense.
In so doing, she hopes to infuse new life
into the Ukiyo-e paintings and establish
her own unique style. Nowaday Kinshi specializes
in "bijinga(picture of feminine grace)."
She also portrays beauties in everydays life
in a colorful manner. Creatively transformed
and resurrected, Kinshi's beauties attract
a wider public and the collectors. Another
reason for the popularity of Kinshi's paintings
is its expression of the festive atmosphere
of the floating world, which was a thing
of the past at the time of the Meiji enlightenment. |
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| "Hokusai is my teacher, and there were thousands
of minor discoveries to be made in
my study,
and one major revelation, which is
simply
that Hokusai belongs to the modern
world
by right." she remarks. Kinshi
is using
the traditional Japanese technique
of water
soluble color on paper or silk. She
works
the flowing contour with the fine point
of
the brush on paper laid horizontally
on a
table. Her technique is quite different
from
European water-color, and based on
thin-coat
of pigments on paper, called "Usunuri"
in Japanese. Her colors vary in density
and
the procedure in thin-coating paper
is usually
repeated at least sevn or eight times
until
a color she satisfies with appears
on paper.
When she added the scene to paper,
her brush-strokes
dried almost instantly and no errors
could
be erased, then people also put much
value
in her Ukiyo-e paintings. Nippon TV-network
and other leading TV-network made several
programs about her paintings.She would
like
to visit the great museums collecting
the
finest Ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock
prints
of Edo period, where she learns new
techniques,
immerse herself in their art, and continually
gains inspiration for more of her glorious
Ukiyo-e paintings. |
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