Miho Ichise

Miho Ichise strives to fully experience the atmosphere of a painting by engaging all senses, not just sight. She paints to immortalize her daily life, with her two daughters providing constant inspiration, she photographs fleeting moments before rendering them on canvas, where she heightens colours and crops compositions. Drawing on her Japanese upbringing, where the appreciation of each season is encouraged, she observes the changing scents and sounds and the emotions that they evoke, then incorporates them into her paintings. Ichise's paintings feature intimate moments of hers while drawing inspiration from Alex Katz's refined compositions, particularly his use of subdued shadows. In her work, Ichise achieves a similar delicacy, avoiding overpowering reality with paint. She is dedicated to an honest craft, reflected by the canvas' subtle textures and the mottled remnants of her brushwork. Ichise's small paintings capture the marvels of habitual life, such as a fluttering curtain, an empty glass on a table, pre-dawn skies, a hand counting candies, or the bright full moon shining behind icy clouds. Despite their ordinary nature, these everyday objects take center stage in Ichise's poetic fantasies, which emphasize their beauty and significance.