The Landscapes of My Life: a portrait of the artist Kaii Higashiyama-exhibition presents the productions of the Japanese painter Kaii Higashiyama. Higashiyama (1908-1999) is one of the most renowned and respected art painters of postwar Japan. His productions consist of over 2000 pieces of work, the majority of which are paintings.

 

The Lusto exhibition includes 26 of the artist’s original lithographs, as well as framed digital reproductions and photographic enlargements. Several of Higashiyama’s personal art utensils, such as paintbrushes, paint dishes, and sketch books are also on display to bring this Japanese master artist’s life history and portrait to life.

 

The artist also has surprising connections to Finland. Higashiyama and his wife Sumi travelled in Scandinavia for four months in 1962. During their travels the couple also visited Punkaharju, and the artist’s long lost creative power returned. Experiencing the nightless night and Nordic summer encouraged Higashiyama to create several paintings, which gained great popularity.

 

Higashiyama was deeply inspired by nature and music. Nature is a recurrent theme in his paintings, in which he often depicts forests, lakes, mountains, and the cycle of the seasons.

 

Higashiyama painted using a traditional and demanding technique called nihonga, and he is known as the continuer and reformer of this thousand-year-old tradition. The paint substance he used is made from natural materials, such as minerals, coral, shells, and semiprecious stones.

 

The Internet link http://virtual.virka.fi/fi/e-kortit can be used to send a Kaii Higashiyama e-card in Finnish, Swedish, English, and Japanese.