Sansui (Landscape)

Working in the methodical nihonga method, Kato is also fascinated by Chinese ink landscape painting tradition of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), where sceneries in scroll formats were rendered with finely executed strokes categorized as axe-cut stroke and fiber texture stroke. Kato applies comparable characteristics by painting his landscape, channeling the eye vertically through the foliage or horizontally through the mountain ranges, inviting the viewer to visually tread along a meandering path. By employing delicate brushwork over a softly color-washed paper, Kato forms a romantic vision of dense foliage that seemingly provides shelter for the hermetic literati scholars who similarly practiced this style of painting. The acute shading of beige and green are equally reminiscent of 18th Century artist Thomas Gainsborough's romantic paintings in which natural, untamed landscapes represent the grandeur of Nature. Kato follows in the footsteps of his British predecessors, using color to reveal the subtle nuances in clouds, greenery and ground, further extending the rich and complex idyllic landscape in our imagination. Kato's unique visual language revitalizes the tradition of landscape painting medium, as well as bridging the Eastern and Western aesthetic into a harmonious equilibrium.