Idemitsu Art Award 2021 Grand Prix Winner Interview

─ Do you always take photos and draw?

Everywhere I go, I take photos with my smartphone and look at the scenery while thinking about how to turn it into a painting. When I take a photo, I always have an image in mind of what I want to draw and how I want to draw it.

This time, I did not depict the city lights that appeared in the photo, leaving the location and time up to the viewer. I wanted the viewer to relive the sense of freedom of meeting a friend for the first time in a long while while driving when the coronavirus pandemic had calmed down, and the feeling of wanting to travel somewhere different, at least in the painting.

Although I personally associate this painting with fond memories, some of the judges interpreted it as “disturbing, but hopeful”. When I became a viewer myself, I thought, “It certainly looks like that.” I believe that if there are 100 people, there will be 100 different ways of feeling the viewer. As for the title, I intentionally chose “untitled” because adding a title would limit associations.

─ I can feel the swell of the wind in my strokes (handwriting). The painting seems to have a lot of momentum, but how long did it take you to draw it?

Some works are quick to create, taking about 30 minutes to an hour, while others take several days, but I was able to draw this one in just a few hours. The traces of the flow in the sky were drawn with a large plastic broom that I bought at a 100 yen store. In addition, for some parts of the grassland, I put paint on the bottom of a tissue box and rinsed it off, and then I used a scrubbing brush or other things around me as brushes. I thought there would be different flavors in some places. I want to feel fresh when I'm drawing, so I try drawing with various tools, and I try to stop before I draw too much and the drawing becomes stiff.

I thought it would be more interesting to submit two points with different systems, but I'm really glad I submitted these two points. The winning work took a few hours, and the other one took about a month. The other piece I drew was a group of plants based on a photo taken of the forest behind my grandmother's house, and I was able to utilize what I struggled with with this work in my winning work, so it was quick and fun. is not it. The work that won this award was completed so quickly that I drew several of them in quick succession. By the time I submitted it to the Idemitsu Art Award, I had enough pieces, so I submitted it to other public exhibitions as well. But that one fell off (laughs).

During my second year of university, I became so fascinated by the drawings of my classmates that I lost sight of myself. Still, I struggled through my four years at university, mainly focusing on painting, but after graduating, I even thought about running a gallery and bar in order to support my fellow artists.

─ Why did you apply for the Idemitsu Art Award?

Over the past year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, I wasn't able to work much part-time and was wasting my time, when a friend who I was renting an atelier with got really angry at me and told me to live with a purpose. He recommended that I apply to Shell. That's why my classmates were surprised when I won the award. Most of my classmates probably thought I didn't continue drawing. My family was understanding, and I don't think I could have achieved this result on my own.

─ So you restarted your business and are now continuing your activities as a painter.

yes. When I think about my future as a painter, I continue to create works with the idea that I need to create them at a certain speed. Among the best-selling artists in Japan, Yukimasa Ida seems to be able to draw quickly. I'm currently working on the third floor of my grandmother's house, and I'm working on about 10 paintings independently and simultaneously, and while I'm preparing the base and waiting for it to dry, I'm going to work on another painting. Sometimes I use leftover paint from drawing another picture. I think this flexibility will be my strength.

For the winning work, I drew people out of my desire to draw people, but I honestly didn't think I was good enough to draw people in oil, so I tried to change the perspective, such as the cityscape seen from above. I'm drawing. Lately, I've been wanting to create works that allow the viewer to relive my own point of view, and that allow the viewer to stand from my own point of view.

Also, lately I've been drawing on my smartphone. (Showing the gallery on his smartphone) This is a night view I saw while driving on the Shuto Expressway, capturing the moment when the outline of a building and the outline of the sky become blurred, and also an image of how to paint the clouds reflected on the building on a canvas. I also drew while holding it. Since I don't draw people in oil paintings, I sometimes draw sleeping friends or people in front of me on the train. There's a training aspect to it, and I think I'm the type of person who gets bored easily, so I'm trying to keep my enthusiasm up.

yes. I think I'm learning from that too. The award-winning work is also influenced by Miriam Kahn, who I have seen before, by putting red in front of the green grass, and by Wilhelm Sasnal, who uses the silhouette-like part. While I'm drawing, I instinctively choose what colors to use to make it interesting, but sometimes I realize later that the work was inspired by an artist's work I've seen before. I want to learn about the context and historical background of paintings, so recently I've been reading books such as David Hockney's “History of Paintings, From Cave Paintings to the iPad”, which is about the history of images.

─ Having come into contact with various works from various eras, what do you think about the meaning of painting in this era?

The works of our predecessors, such as Van Gogh and Monet, give us a sense of the atmosphere of that era, the landscapes that the artists were looking at, and even the smells. I think that's the beauty of painting. There are various methods of contemporary art, and I myself like to appreciate contemporary art, but I want to live as a painter and create paintings.

─ Please tell us about your plans for future activities.

Three solo exhibitions have been scheduled for spring, summer, and fall 2022. I've already accumulated nearly 50 works, so I'd like to continue presenting them.

─ Lastly, do you have a message for those who are thinking of applying for the Idemitsu Art Award in the future?

I believe that submitting your work to a public exhibition is a competition in that you will be compared with others, and you may be rejected or selected. Of course, since it's a picture, there's no direct winner or loser, and it also depends on the compatibility with the judges that year and the luck of the moment, so I can't say for certain... That's why I would like to tell you that the process is important when submitting works to public exhibitions, not just the Idemitsu Art Award.

I had heard in advance that many of my classmates would be exhibiting at this year's Idemitsu Art Award, so I approached the Idemitsu Art Award with the mindset that I didn't want to lose to anyone. As a result, my motivation increased and drawing itself became fun. I thought that rivals and friends are important people, and I'm glad that I decided to apply and that I worked hard and had fun during the process.

For those who are considering applying, I hope you enjoy the process of creating and exhibiting your work, and draw, draw, and draw! I'm really looking forward to seeing the masterpieces at the next Idemitsu Art Award.