Fireworks Painting

Tamaki Kawaguchi Nationality: Japanese Birthplace: Osaka, Japan Website: She had her first solo show at the age of 10 in Osaka showing 26 imaginary oil paintings. From this early age, she discovered a joy in painting that has lasted throughout her life. She graduated in BA fine art from Chelsea College of Art, London in 2004 and from Kyoto Education of Art in 1994. During these degrees, she developed her style into a more contemporary one utilising modern ideas and concepts such as performance and installation. Between 2002 and 2020 Tamaki developed and honed a unique performance art experience where she would paint local insects, such as butterflies, ants, dragonflies, bees and flies, etc. inside a transparent box and so people could watch her work and communicate with her as she painted. By undertaking a number of Artist in Residency in Iceland and Germany over the last few years she rediscovered the beauty and connectedness of nature and wanted to reflect this deeper understanding of her place within the landscape in her work. The outcome of these residences has been to enable her to move away from the performance aspect of her work and to concentrate more on painting. Her more recent paintings reflect this, being about light, nature, mountains, moss, insects, snow, and the pervasive green, and her place within this captivating and illuminating landscape. Now in her midlife, she wants to further indulge her simply a joy for painting and love of nature and to continue to explore her place, and our place, within it. She has recently started exploring portraiture as a way to express some of these ideas within the faces and postures of people. For Tamaki, an inherent aspect of her work has been the healing journey that painting enables her to undertake. A paintbrush in her hand is a vital way for her to live, and fully experience life, and appreciate nature. For her, all these things are a combination. In conclusion, for Tamaki, painting is a passion, a healing process, and an opportunity to reflect on the universe and our place within it.