Embracing sunlight of late autumn

Oil on canvas

100.0 × 65.2cm | 25 1/2 × 39 1/4in

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This art work depicts “the late autumn sunlight” which indicates the end of a colorful season, through the appearance of a toddler embracing a pine cone with her hands under a cold gloomy sky.

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For me, Portrait can be successful only when a trust between the model and me is built. Just to tell you, the model in the painting, a girl named Tsubaki, has been my model since she was 2 years old, thanks to her parents’ cooperation. In the beginning, the appearance fee for her was some biscuits and she didn’t seem to know what she was doing. After painting her for some years, she became my youngest friend and a good understanding of my artwork.

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My artwork is thanks to the benefit from nature, so to speak, encountering with good motif is important.

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The toddlers of today are our next generation who will live in the 22nd century.

In this century, the world has been suffering from many unprecedented disasters and conflicts.

I wish the future when the world will recover from these disasters and conflicts, the future when the children living in the present moment will live, would be a bright one full of hope. With that prayer, I have been working on artworks whose subjects are toddlers for all these years. This painting whose motif is a toddler also indicates my prayer for recoveries from the wars and disasters happening right now.

 

It is said that Doraemon’s birthday is September 3rd, 2112. The toddlers of today might be able to meet Doraemon on the very day in the 22nd century.