Katsumi Kimoto
born: june 29th, 1976, sidney, b.c., canada
Canadian artists are widely known for landscapes. It's apparent that our remarkable and beautiful natural terrain nurtures the creativity in any of us. Like so many artists, past and present, I too am greatly influenced by where I've been and where I am now, and these experiences are the foundation of my work.
I was raised up in the small coastal community of Ucluelet, BC, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. For the greater part of my life, this place I call home has been my inspiration. Quintessential westcoast images were featured throughout my childhood paintings and prevailed even until my university years in Concordia. As an art student in Montreal, I started removing representational images from my paintings and delved into pure abstracts, working with a deliberate selection of bright colours and lines, and focusing on urban themes, such as the city's nightlife. When I moved back to Vancouver in 2001, I noticed quickly that my colour palette had changed, and I was fixated more on colours that evoked British Columbia. My abstract themes also changed to be more focused on the most vibrant images of the west coast, such as the ocean, waves, and forest.
I cannot help but paint the beauty of Pacific westcoast because it's where I grew up and it will always be part of my soul. Living in Vancouver only enhances these cherished themes of my formative years and I pay homage to the beauty of this city with nearly every brushstroke. The city also allows me to indulge my fascination with the colours of contemporary design and the trends of fashion. These blow me away. I love seeing a new colour, dreaming of it, then painting it.
With my abstract paintings, I focus on achieving a contemporary look and style. My subjects range from landscape and nature, to a sensory feeling of our urban existence, of which fashion and new media technology are celebrated. When examining the work closely, an observer will find a heavily textured surface and investigate the painting process and materials. From a distance, the paintings may act as a visual field; upon closer inspection you find that they deceptively animate with different colors and lines that consistently move the focus all over the composition.
My intention is to provide our eyes with a constant stimulus which provides instant reaction and also gives the painting a deeper sensory feel, much like that of the scene depicted– light shining through the depth of the ocean or rushing water from a breaking wave.
I want to present an observer with something pleasing and intuitive when I'm painting nature-themed pieces. I want the paint to imitate what you find in nature, some kind of fascinating pattern or flow beneath the surface of the subject. Rather than paint you a postcard of the ocean, I want you to see it from the back of a fishing boat, looking down at the foam of the vessel's wake and into the depth of the water. I admit I frequently take liberties with these scenes, playing with psychedelic undertones to make the image more contemporary and exciting.
When creating a painting of contemporary colour, I take a completely different approach because as far as I'm concerned, nature doesn't really have a place in this realm. But these themes are part of our world, the stuff we see everyday on television, in movie theatres, in our interior design, and in magazines. Here's where I stop emulating anything and simply feel a colour or colour combination in a different way, an abstract way. My goal here is to take something in fashion, and twist it into another fashion, in the hopes it still comes across as fashionable.
Usually, the finishing step of a piece is an ample amount of varnish. Traditionally, varnish is used as a thin, protective layer on top of a painting. I use varnish in layers and layers, applying it generously. I often build up the varnish medium to be as thick as a sheet of glass on top of the painting, but more protective. This may cover all the texture of the paint, but that's my intention, to give it a factory-made finish. Every material part of the painting is industrial, the paint, the canvas and the wood, therefore I like to present my works as objects. Paintings have always been objects of amusement and dècor in peoples home or places of work. They are escapes into different worlds, with different views. My paintings are my world, and these are my objects of amusement, like your flat screen television, but will last much longer.
I was raised up in the small coastal community of Ucluelet, BC, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. For the greater part of my life, this place I call home has been my inspiration. Quintessential westcoast images were featured throughout my childhood paintings and prevailed even until my university years in Concordia. As an art student in Montreal, I started removing representational images from my paintings and delved into pure abstracts, working with a deliberate selection of bright colours and lines, and focusing on urban themes, such as the city's nightlife. When I moved back to Vancouver in 2001, I noticed quickly that my colour palette had changed, and I was fixated more on colours that evoked British Columbia. My abstract themes also changed to be more focused on the most vibrant images of the west coast, such as the ocean, waves, and forest.
I cannot help but paint the beauty of Pacific westcoast because it's where I grew up and it will always be part of my soul. Living in Vancouver only enhances these cherished themes of my formative years and I pay homage to the beauty of this city with nearly every brushstroke. The city also allows me to indulge my fascination with the colours of contemporary design and the trends of fashion. These blow me away. I love seeing a new colour, dreaming of it, then painting it.
With my abstract paintings, I focus on achieving a contemporary look and style. My subjects range from landscape and nature, to a sensory feeling of our urban existence, of which fashion and new media technology are celebrated. When examining the work closely, an observer will find a heavily textured surface and investigate the painting process and materials. From a distance, the paintings may act as a visual field; upon closer inspection you find that they deceptively animate with different colors and lines that consistently move the focus all over the composition.
My intention is to provide our eyes with a constant stimulus which provides instant reaction and also gives the painting a deeper sensory feel, much like that of the scene depicted– light shining through the depth of the ocean or rushing water from a breaking wave.
I want to present an observer with something pleasing and intuitive when I'm painting nature-themed pieces. I want the paint to imitate what you find in nature, some kind of fascinating pattern or flow beneath the surface of the subject. Rather than paint you a postcard of the ocean, I want you to see it from the back of a fishing boat, looking down at the foam of the vessel's wake and into the depth of the water. I admit I frequently take liberties with these scenes, playing with psychedelic undertones to make the image more contemporary and exciting.
When creating a painting of contemporary colour, I take a completely different approach because as far as I'm concerned, nature doesn't really have a place in this realm. But these themes are part of our world, the stuff we see everyday on television, in movie theatres, in our interior design, and in magazines. Here's where I stop emulating anything and simply feel a colour or colour combination in a different way, an abstract way. My goal here is to take something in fashion, and twist it into another fashion, in the hopes it still comes across as fashionable.
Usually, the finishing step of a piece is an ample amount of varnish. Traditionally, varnish is used as a thin, protective layer on top of a painting. I use varnish in layers and layers, applying it generously. I often build up the varnish medium to be as thick as a sheet of glass on top of the painting, but more protective. This may cover all the texture of the paint, but that's my intention, to give it a factory-made finish. Every material part of the painting is industrial, the paint, the canvas and the wood, therefore I like to present my works as objects. Paintings have always been objects of amusement and dècor in peoples home or places of work. They are escapes into different worlds, with different views. My paintings are my world, and these are my objects of amusement, like your flat screen television, but will last much longer.