九大バスミュージアム

　Multicolored fruit explode out of their basket. Strawberries, bananas, watermelons, grapes, oranges and pineapples – each and every fruit is expressed in powerful and dazzling color, exuding a gorgeous sense of presence. Their distorted shapes and patterns create a unique and rhythmical impression.

　A sportsman with many hobbies, Arima also burns off the calories on farm work and maintains a record of high times and scores in marathons and the ten-pin bowling lanes. His creative work started to blossom when he first painted his beloved motorbike, since then he has spent 15 years deepening his powers of expression. Rather than capturing the outline of his subjects it looks as though he captures the planes of color and composes his works from there. Composing complex color surfaces, his other works incorporating unique patterns are not to be missed.

　A white house stands out against blue skies and the sea. There appears to be the shadow of something in front of the house; or perhaps it’s a road leading to somewhere.... The outlines use bright reds and yellows, giving the viewer a sense of strong sunlight. Whether the painting is depicting a fictional world or reality, it feels as though time passes slowly here.

　Kobayashi’s paintings are mainly done after looking at photographs of overseas locations. The photos show a wider landscape, but he focuses on one single point and paints that. It’s as if he climbed into the photographs and painted what he could see from where he stood. When he was younger he enjoyed painting deities and Buddhas in black and white, but in the course of interacting with many other people he started to paint various motifs in with his unique sense of color. It’s fascinating that his landscapes and pictures of deities and Buddhas completely differ not only in terms of color but also in the way they are painted.

　The rocket with its vigorously painted outline looks as though it could keep on flying to anywhere. The similarly black-rimmed stars are each endowed with a feeling of the power of life. Yanagita says that the red he uses depicts the warmth of blood coursing through the veins of living things. The purple on the rocket represents light, and the blue shadow. By adding the blue shadow he has managed to create a sense of depth, and his aim was to express the confident existence of the rocket in outer space.

　The main motif of his works are the human form. Having pursued a unique way of expressing people it was his ‘red outlines’ that he arrived at. As he suffers from involuntary movements the act of painting a picture is a real effort to him. He continues by trial and error to see just how much he can control his body, which moves in conflict with his wishes. As he leans over the panel to be painted placed on the floor, he seems to give off a silent power that is enticing to those watching.

　Composed from black and different gradations of bluish hues, this unusual work contains both geometrical patterns and a sense of vitality. The numerous fine lines sprouting upwards from the lower central part of the picture look like the branches of a tree, but can also be seen as the beautiful cracks that appear on the surface of ice. The angular swirls dotted here and there are attractive and tickle the imagination.

　Ishii studied traditional Japanese painting, and enjoys painting landscapes, but stimulated by the unique creative styles of those around him he has started to create his artwork in many different modes. There is no particular motif in this painting, and he began to paint it just by moving is hand and letting it take him where his fancies led him. There is something large in the center of the painting. The spots in which he expresses his humor are not be missed despite his apparently cool demeanor.

　The bustling streets of London spread out in gentle blues and light hues. The buildings that face in every direction, passersby, buses and boats going back and forth all engender a sense of the bright town’s buzz. The memories of a trip to London, the pleasant conversation, walks through the streets, and places visited.... Minoda’s recollections are vividly reborn on the canvas before him, fusing with his imagination and resulting in a chic and amusing work of art.

　Minoda and his family have visited tens of countries, and have enjoyed experiences such as floating in the Dead Sea and going to the Nazca Lines in Peru. A whole works unfolds in his works, thanks to the replete sensitivity nurtured within him during these journeys, and his meticulous and neat brushwork. Looking at his works gives a sense of almost having travelled together with the artist. When he speaks of his travels he is always smiling, and just a little bit proud of himself.

　All sorts of shapes painted with a light touch are tightly packed into every part of the picture. Each and every shape is unique, and by including clocks and birds here and there Minoda imparts the viewer with a bright sense of rhythm. This work expresses the various memories of the artist such as the happy moment when he saw a marionette clock in a busy shopping street.

　Using his fantastic visual memory, Minoda says that he combines the visual information of his experiences with the impressions he felt at that moment in time. His weekends are a very enriching time. He has formed an ‘exploring club’ with some friends, and they stroll together through parks and traditional Japanese gardens, and go to Italian restaurants. He also travels alone to various parts of the prefecture to look at manufacturing plants and old theaters. These abundant experiences serve as the seeds generating the color in his paintings.

　There is something beautiful about the contrast between the boldly colored blues and yellows in this painting. Perhaps it represents an island somewhere. It looks both like a midday landscape upon which brilliant sunshine is pouring down, and a mysterious night scene with reflections of moonlight. The title, ‘Rakaan,’ is also very individual and its meaning undecipherable. It seems as though it’s just a random string of letters, but said out loud it has a sort of comfortable sound. It appears that there is some sort of clear intention here, but Nakamuta is silent on the matter.

　Nakamuta declared on a certain occasion that “I want to paint the things I feel, in the way I feel.” Over the past five to six years he has continued to paint without any motif. Just like their titles, the apparently abstract shapes he paints probably have a clear intention to the artist himself. What is it that he sees as he continues to paint things exactly as he feels them? There is no end to this fascinating question.

　A car races through a busy town. The body of the car is painted in bright patches of color, and is really amusing. Depicted using a watercolor pigment pen, the artist has applied so much pressure that in places the paper is ripped, imparting the viewer with a sense of almost having been present while he was at work. It may appear at first that it has been painted randomly, but the accurate depiction of the wheels and side skirts suggest that it was produced very particularly.

　Known as being laid-back, for Nakamuta the act of painting is not for any particular person’s sake. He has thus far used all sorts of drawing and painting materials ranging from watercolors to wax pencils. His subjects also vary widely, and include sports like baseball and football, as well as animals. While it has its strengths and drawbacks, he is in the habit of using the same sorts of motif almost obsessively for a certain period of time, and then abruptly moving on to another. He is enormously productive and has thus far created over 3,000 works.

　A group of gently colorful penguins are having a pleasant chat. The gentle brushstrokes with which they are depicted looks almost rough, but each feather is full of expression and all the penguins appears as though they might be the main character in a story. Penguins are an animal that Watanabe really likes, and says that what attracts him to them is the way they huddle together to stay warm in the freezing cold, and the gentle manner in which the male and female parent help each other in bringing up their young.

　Within Watanabe’s style of painting, its gentle, colorful and soft touch, one can detect a sense of playfulness that matches the impression his character exudes. He can turn a simple picture of a vegetable in an encyclopedia into a full-of-life character that looks as though it’s about to speak. The obvious enjoyment with which he explains his works is also full of kindness and peace.

　Three tulips placed in the shape of a fan. The petals are divided into red, white and yellow, exuding a vibrant sense of presence, while around them bilily flutter. The onomatopoeic word ‘Bilily’ derives from the strips of paper left when the artist’s colleagues at the studio ripped up pieces of paper. Yamada likes these shapes, and incorporated them into her own work. Filled in with an array of patterns, the colorfully painted bilily are enjoying a picnic.

　Yamada is a real chatterbox. She is always talking to those around her and helping them out. She gives each of the creatures in her pictures their own names and asks them “Are you hungry?” “What would you like to eat?” and so on. She says that she has had lots of conversation with them. Her works, filled with affection, are all enveloped in an air of happiness.

　Holding a red toothbrush against a bold blue background is a snowy white lion. It appears as though the lion is expressing some happy feeling as it raises high the toothbrush. The composition is extremely simple, consisting only of the white lion and tooth brush, yet it entices the viewer into an amusing world.

　Faced with a fresh canvas Kawakami shows no hesitation. He completes the rough design in a matter of minutes using a black pen. He then takes up a brush and rapidly applies the paint in brilliant colors, while fringing the motif in a thick black. The painting is finished off when he adds his large-than-life YUUKI signature. His working space is surrounded by objects that he has colored himself, looking like a veritable citadel. Giving the people he meets copies of his beloved animal books is his style of greeting.

　A mysterious world surrounds some flowers arranged in a vase. The contrast between the black-rimmed outlines and pallidly intermingling colors is striking, and reminiscent of stained glass enveloped in light. The beautiful woman with her eyes closed in the upper-left background is perhaps an image of the Goddess of Spring. The vase is inscribed with the artist’s name ‘Omine’ in a graphic script. The work arouses within the viewer feelings of both the vigor of plants and a sacred silence.

　Omine’s way of working is to express the world of his imagination. In order to create a supporting point for his difficult to control body he places the canvas on a knee-high stand, and while maintaining his balance with his toes paints the canvas placed at his left hand, hovering over it from above. The gentle curvaceous lines he produces from his very tense body are, along with his friendly and tender nature, sure to continue to attract those who encounter his works.

　Colorful but slightly distorted ‘circles’ are dotted all over the canvas. Each circle contains numerous further ‘little circles.’ Lines extend from the little circles to connect with other little circles like a hand stretching out to touch. The composition consists of somehow tottering circles and lines, but they impart the viewer with a sense of the links between contiguous lives.

　Izumi has painted many abstract works with these multiple circles as their motif. For Izumi, the process of painting pictures is exactly the act of communicating with other people. The staff who find something mysterious in the colors and shapes with which he paints throw various comments at him, and he enjoys listening to them. His works also serve as the tracks for his links with other people.