Maki Kuchida

"The Seed" Japanese figurative painting pigments on silk discovery trueself girl

2023

Maki Kuchida was born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1979. Passionate in painting she devoted her time to study at the Tokyo Zoukei University majoring in Oil Painting and graduated with her first fine arts degree. That did not end her pursuit for perfection in her art career, she went to Beijing to further her studies and in 2007 she obtained her MFA degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing with major in Chinese painting. She likes to use the traditional delicate Chinese brush technique, which is also prevalent in Japan, to paint her works on silk or Japanese rice paper. Maki is inspired to paint landscapes and figures, she combines the Chinese and Japanese style painting on silk and rice paper with using mixed media materials like mineral pigments, color inks, and gold leaves. In one of her debut series “Premonition Dream,” she painted herself as that protagonist little girl wandering inside her dream and facing various dreamy landscapes and adventures. When she paints she puts focuses on the greatest details to perfect her works: almost hyperreal protagonists in a dreamlike and surreal fantasy world. Her works arouse and awake the inner world of viewers and remind them of their childhood, long-forgotten dreams and the imaginary fantasy land inside.