Artist Reception for painter Mayumi Watanabe

Join us for a reception for painter Mayumi Watanabe
Friday, August 30, 2024, 4:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Paintings will be on exhibit from August 20, 2024 - September 30, 2024.

Japanese-born painter Mayumi Watanabe moved to California in 1980 to obtain a degree in fine arts at Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA and the University of California at Santa Cruz. After completing her BFA and 5th year graduate degree, she forged connections in Northernn California which led to a number of museum, solo and group exhibitions. She moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2011 to pursue a full-time career in painting. Her work has been featured in several City of Mud Gallery group exhibitions, and is in prestigious, private collections both in the United States and Japan. She resides in Santa Fe and travels to Japan often.

Watanabe’s moody, abstract paintings draw on a personal vocabulary of forms inspired by aerial views of landscape, mixed and layered material including precious metal leaf and dry Japanese pigments. Her paintings have a mysterious depth and rich surfaces.

“I have developed a style that is personal and in touch with nature, seeking to combine the ‘Spirit of Japan’ where nature and uniformity traditionally prevail over personal experience, in contrast to the ‘Spirit of the West’ where the opposite is true.” Says Watanabe. “Light and space become expressive elements in my work. I try to catch the transparent essence of cold air or the opaqueness of Spring warmth.”