A few weeks ago, I went to see the colourful works of Japanese painter Ayako Rokkaku. I even wrote a blog about my experience visiting her gallery and meeting her in person as seen here. Rokkaku uses a lot of brilliant colours in her work, including lots of neon shades like shocking pink. What further makes her special is that she uses only her bare hands and fingers as she intuitively paints away. She then adds cute characters when she feels the time is right. So impressed with her work I was that I created an Ayako Rokkaku inspired piece but of course in my own style and version. Once again, it all began with smearing some leftover paint on a blank paper and working on from there. It was so much fun getting messy with my paints and inks and smearing away with my fingers!
It reminded me so much of my nursery days when we fingerpainted on our little desks. I felt like a 4-year old again! In particular, using bright vivid shades indeed radiates positive vibes and brings out the inner child in me. Like Rokkaku, I used quite a lot of neon colours, pink in particular as it’s my favourite. Added layer after layer of ink, paints and oil pastels as well as bubble wrap imprints. And now:
And how sweet! I had Little One in mind lying there diagonally with her cats. They were painted in with darker shades of primary and secondary colours or white to contrast with the brighter background colours. Firstly, I outlined my little creatures with raw umber paint. Rokkaku would use her fingers even for the characters, but she can afford to since she uses a huge canvas (and has far more experience). I myself used an A3 paper for this as a trial so a brush is far easier. Of course, in future I may try using my fingers. It will be fun! So here is my kawaii version.
I wanted to name this piece Vivid Dreams but discovered that it could also imply having bizarre and disturbing dreams. Could be negative to some, but why not make it positive? Bizarre maybe, but not disturbing. Visualise cute little characters floating around in a mist of bright vivid colours! I think the painting turned out rather well, although I could have used less characters. Maybe just stick to two or three instead. Anyway, I had so much fun with this sort of work, I may well do it again using canvas or larger paper. Plenty of opportunities to practice!
Meanwhile, I thought I’d also share some close ups. So kawaii!!
My Kawaii Quarter 