Yoko Akino

“I grew up near Kyoto with my grandmother Fuku Akino, a well-known painter working with traditional Japanese pigments. I learned the qualities and the spirit of art from my grandmother; that an artist should be fearless and experimental in outlook while respecting and learning from the vision and techniques of the past. Apart from the time spent at her side I am self-taught. My interest in crisp lines led me to study etching. I am inspired by the constantly changing Irish weather, the dance of light and shadow and shifting colours. In recent years I have been particularly captured by the the coastal environment and offshore Islands. The movement of waves evokes in me a sense of the ocean being alive and I have tried to capture this experience in my prints."