OSHIE Chieko was born in Osaka prefecture in 1969, and completed Master’s Program of Graduate School of Kyoto City University of Arts in 1995. By painting with oil pastel using her fingers, she represented the life of familiar plants and flowers; like American pokeweeds and cluster, and that allowed her to received attention even when she was a student. Her fresh feeling and works filled with her affection to the motives has received a high evaluation, and she awarded Takashimaya Prize, VOCA Prize and Kyoto City Art Prize in 2001. After that, her subjects has spread to not only plants but also landscapes through her travel to Europe, and fulfilled to paint a lot of works with the motives of mountains, forests and woods which she had visited and met there. During her two years stay in Belgium by Japanese government overseas program for artists, she drawn townscapes and nude bodies, and surprised people for her new subjects and development. At the exhibition “In the Forest” in 2007 (Tanabe City Museum of Art, Kumanokodo Nakahechi Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama) and her solo exhibition at our gallery in 2008, she painted the rich green and noble mountains of Kumano’s forests, and captured flesh and mysterious atmosphere of rich nature into daring but polished construction. And also, at Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama in 2008 and Minokamo City Museum, Gifu in 2012, she stayed by artist residence program for each and represented the fresh breathe of the forests into her grad paintings, and got high reputation.

Recently, through getting married and giving birth, she became to paint close motives to her every day life; vegetables grows up in her kitchen garden. She said, “The cropped onions are hanging under the eaves. They come to my sight when I open and close the window. By and by I realized the fibrous roots are spreading freely, and I realized this onion is not just a food but a life. Letting them even after that, the onion heads grow with vigor, and also, little full-orbed flowers like sparklers are in full bloom. Then, at last, I thought to paint them.”

In this exhibition, she will show 4 painting and about 10 drawings, which are newest works in such days. You will feel like to see her silent but tender conversation with the motives.