MASAKO ANDO

“The theme of my work is to pursue “something that can be expressed only by paintings”, interweaving bits and pieces of accumulated memories and words with real objects.

I create art works in pencil and oil painting. My pencil drawings have the characteristics of sketches made for paintings. However, because of their richly detailed depiction, and the fact that they are sometimes not accompanied by actual oil paintings, these pencil drawings are able to stand on their own as independent works of art.

With my oil paintings, I apply gray in many layers as a base on the canvas mounted on wood panel. When the surface dries completely, I polish it, trace the pencil drawing onto the canvas and gradually apply colors. Upon placing the pigments on the surface of the canvas, I pat and spread a thin layer with a brush or a palm of my hand, and I polish the surface with sandpaper until it becomes smooth.

What I find common both in my pencil drawings and oil paintings is that I use concrete motifs such as children, animals, insects and plants, and eliminate traces of my hand or thoughts intentionally so that it imparts unreal and abstract quality to the image as a whole, while the details are realistic.
I want to create pictures that resemble the world that is beautifully strange, and unemotionally humorous, and pictures that I would call the “world” itself and a prayer at the same time.” - Masako Ando