Tsutae's Art Gallery

painter tsutae yamamoto

Oil PAINTING WORK

About

Painter Tsutae Yamamoto

I was born during the wartime and spent my childhood in a turbulent world. My family ran a teahouse. When I was in primary school, my neighbours called me “the teahouse’s elder sister”, and there were some good times when I was well liked as the salesgirl. However, the time was right in the middle of the Pacific War, when supplies were scarce and we were forced to live in poverty.

I liked to study and would do my school homework and preparation late at night after I had finished helping at home. Even though I studied hard, sometimes I was not allowed to go to school the next day, and was forced to help out at home.

When my mother went shopping in town, she bought me small souvenirs. I was really happy at those moments. I still have vivid memories of those times. When my mother bought me coloured paper, I used to play with it using a stencil, making patterns on it with great enthusiasm. From these childhood experiences, I feel that I developed a love for designing and drawing. However, coloured pencils and paints were expensive and I could hardly use them.

Due to poverty, I was sent to live-in work after the age of 15 and had to serve an indentured apprenticeship. There was no way I could paint, no matter how much I liked it. I had to work day and night to make ends meet, but when I reached retirement age, for the first time in my life, I was able to live a life with more spare time.

Since my childhood, I had always wanted to paint, and in my mid-sixties I started painting as a hobby. The joy of it was indescribable, and I often found myself painting through the night until I realised it was morning. Although I started out as a complete amateur, my oil paintings went on to win prizes at art exhibitions. The work I painted at that time is called ‘Hot Sweet’, which can be seen on the very beginning of the page “OIL PAINTING WORK.”

I may have been projecting my own childhood onto that work, although I didn’t particularly intend to. Perhaps I wanted to express my way of life itself, that everything has light and shadow, and that they become one and become human life. Like light and shadow, there are good times and bad times, but if you do your best in each moment, you will naturally find a way. Perhaps I wanted to express this spirit that lies at the bottom of my being in the form of a ‘painting’.

I hope you enjoy my work with this background in mind.

31/12/2023

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