​Artist - Tamotsu Konno

I became an orphan at an early age.  I lost my father in World War II, who was a young major general, and my mother, who became sick from lots of sufferings. 

 

I have lived through my hardship all by myself being proud of my ancestors as samurai for 1000 years.  I worked as a high school teacher, and an editor of a publishing company, but my mental feeling of hunger for fulfillment led me to a new way as an artist.  The first painting was quickly sold.  My paintings kept selling for 25 years, but the wealthy life didn’t satisfy my heart at all.  I suffered a lot from the Authoritarianism and Mammonism, which exist strongly in Japan.

 

I was planning to move to Paris, but gave up that plan and bought a mountain cottage which is 100 kilometers away from Tokyo.  I made it my own atelier and have been stuck in there for my paintings for twenty years.  I sometimes go home, where my wife lives.  Every day I struggle between myself and my paintings.

 

Through many years, I obtained an original style of painting by using acrylic and varnish, which is against oil paintings.  I made a great use of the versatility and benefits of acrylic paints.

 

I can produce 300 paintings (1190×900mm) per year.  My full energy from the inside cannot be stopped.  I have created about 6000 paintings over the span of seven years.  I didn’t belong to any groups, and have fought a lone battle, which is the proper way of artists. 

 

You could see my paintings as figurative and expressionist-style, but I never make any sketches, nor take any photos.  What I am trying to express is something invisible, that is to say, the innermost part of the human mind.