Akiko
92 x 110cm, oil on board
The subject of this painting, Akiko, is a Japanese woman and a lover of the Dutch Delft school of painting, particularly Vermeer.
It is one of my most highly fabricated paintings, with the table, screens and most of the floor constructed from other sources.
We wanted to make gentle reference to Vermeer’s work, which led me to study his painting in greater detail.
I looked at the way in which his compositions were broken into sections, a foreground, mid-ground and background, with the figure often contained in the background.
The inclusion of a Japanese painted screen is designed to reflect motifs with special significance to the sitter. The pine tree depicted is the emblem of her home district and the flowers represent the influence of Dutch flower painting in Japanese art during the Edo period.
The overall effect I was hoping to achieve was that of having interrupted from another room.
