Artist
Mitsuo Shoji is best known to his Australian devotees
as a potter who has ventured into the eclectic, with
his more recent exhibitions leaning towards painting
as a favoured medium combined with ceramics. ....
Each of the paintings is a masterly controlled piece
adhering to a well-conceived theme whose construction
follows a similar methodology to ceramics – he
fires his paintings. He does not use paint, but crayons,
gold and silver leaf on masonite, layered, burnt,
layered, softly and robustly to create nuances as
well as explosions of colour that take distinct geometric
forms.
......the application of the potter’s craft
to painting does not produce an aberration but a new
dimension to artwork, technically and aesthetically...
it emphasises and elevates the natural harmony between
pottery and painting.
June Cummings
Mitsuo’s work is
an important part of my work. There is a Japanese way
of thinking that looks on a piece of ceramic without
food as unfinished. But put some food on it, and
the piece has a life, a reason to be. The plates
that Mitsuo makes for the restaurant are functional,
visual art. Their texture and colour are unsurpassed,
and an inspiration for
what I do.
Tetsuya
Wakuda
Christine Shoji possesses the rare skill of interpreting
the spirit of beauty that surrounds her, whether it
be windswept Australian dunes and salt marshes or the
rich, luminous landscape of a late summer in Provence.
Her landscapes are accurately and sensitively observed;
her free sketch-like technique gives a personal impression
of the landscape as she captures the changing light
and atmosphere. Through the energy of her drawing the
senses are evoked; you can smell the salt, feel the
wind and the sea spray or experience the soft pastel
glow of the evening as peacefulness descends and gives
rise to the sounds of the water lapping gently at the
edge of the bay, as a silvery, shimmering moon rises.
Christine demonstrates a wonderful sense of light
and shade and her use of colour creates depth of field
as she captures the many faces of the Provencale landscape
with its vineyards, red earth fields bursting with
fragrance and colour and the monumental rock mountain
of Sainte-Victoire looming in the background.
A passionate love for life drawing is apparent in
Christine Shoji’s sensitive and evocative, minimal
nude studies. Her calligraphy brush captures the softness
of the body; the voluptuous curves of the female flesh,
accentuated with a soft blush of watercolour.
Christine Shoji’s impressionistic landscapes
and beautiful life drawings are sure to delight the
viewer.
Marianne Newman
Catered by Azuma,
Japanese Resteraunt
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