Flowering plants and fruits of the four seasons

KANO/RINPA hybrid
Stylistically, this work is a hybrid of Kano and Rinpa elements. The artist's Kano training is evident in the foreground rocks' parallel ink strokes and the composition of a stream— framed by trees—that meanders on the right and cascades from the hills on the left. Rinpa elements appear in the refined decorative handling of the plants, the smooth, flat areas of bright color in the hills and ground; and the repeated, ribbon-like curves of the stream on the right.
The right screen features flowering azaleas, bamboo grasses, a loquat, and a young bamboo, all suggesting spring and summer. In the left screen are a pomegranate tree bearing fully ripe fruit, bellflowers, a red-leafed maple and other plants associated with fall and winter.
"There is a beauty in this six panel painting, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the limited palette, perhaps the limited subject matter— or the subject matter that is not completed, as in the trees without tops. But weirdly there is a story that I feel that I am left of. A narrative someone is telling someone else and I am so far way; out of ear-shot. But wanting to hear. Like eavesdropping."
Comment by Elizabeth Vahlsing, graphic designer