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Atsu Harada
A
tsu Harada was born in southern
Japan in 1962. He has been
painting animals for as long as he
can remember, with his primary subjects
being cats and other wild predators. “I’ve
been fascinated by their beauty and physical
prowess ever since I was a child, and I’ve tried
to depict the strength and dignity I sense in
their lives,” he says.
The artist considers himself a Western-
style painter. He works mainly with oils but
over the years he has felt the influence of
traditional Japanese art. “This is especially true
in my backgrounds, which tend to be limited
to a few elements of nature, like a single plant
or a handful of stones,” says Harada. “I hopeby focusing almost entirely on the animals
themselves I can bring their emotions even
more strongly to the scene [to] convey the
pure emotion they feel.”
He adds, “I also try to give a sense of what
isn’t in the picture. What just happened to the
animal; what’s about to? I like hinting at the
tension, the mystery of ‘moments in between.’”
In his youth, he found these animals to
be symbols of immortality. “But their natural
environments have rapidly changed over the
years, and more and more of them are now in
danger of extinction,” Harada says. “Wildlife
art to me is a search for humanity in nature,
an expression of how we as human beings
should view nature and the lives within it.
The respect we should have for them and the
inescapable fact that our destinies are linked,
that we must move forward together.”
Harada will have a solo exhibition at
Maruzen Gallery in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward
from May 22 to 28.ARTIST FOCUS
To mor row, oil on wooden panel, 39 x 39" White Ghost, oil on wooden panel, 28½ x 36"A Feast of Red, oil on wooden board, 13 x 22"