Tokyo Forest Painting

The 37th view, without Mount Fuji. This new painting was inspired by my recent trip to Tokyo during the cherry blossom season. You may wonder why I am not painting a cherry blossom scene but these curvy, twisted trees? To be honest I cannot tell you why exactly, either. I guess the view I saw in front of the Imperial Palace gave me a strong visual impact. There are lots of Japanese pine trees, arranged very neatly in front of the palace gate, and above this Japanese pine forest you will see the enormous skyscrapers. I feel these modern buildings meeting the classic Japanese pine trees is very conflicting and extraordinary beautiful. So I made up my mind that once I got back home, this would be something I would paint. However, it's always easier to picture something in my head than drawing it on paper. In order to capture the spirit of modernity meeting the classics, I spent a lot of time researching traditional Japanese painting style and techniques. Finally I found the Ukiyo-e painting style, in particular the works of Hokusai with his 36 views of Mount Fuji, which inspired me the most. The color tone goes from high contrast to mellow in one piece, such as dark blue, yellow, red, and somehow they magically add the gentle pink in between. I very much admired this color transition. In this painting you can see that I am using some of the techniques I learned from these pieces of art, and still maintain my personal style in it. I am not sure if this is the best of painting of mine, but I really had a lot of fun creating it! --- This painting is sold framed, as shown on one of the detail photos. The size with the frame is 51x41 cm.