Up until about two years ago, I had never heard of this artist, let alone seen her beautiful fairy tale portraits. Kawasaki is an American painter from Los Angeles and left art school in New York before she completed her degree. She cites the New York art scene’s inability to accept her illustrative style in a time when everything seemed to be about conceptual art. However, she has since gone from strength to strength.

I really love the slightly child-like quality that Kawasaki  achieves in her work. They remind me very much of the illustrations I loved in fairy stories I enjoyed as a child. I can see the clear influences of artists like Gustav Klimt and Alfons Mucha in her work. Indeed, her beautiful, decorative pieces have been likened to Art Nouveau joined with Japanese Manga and that is exactly how I would describe them.

Kawasaki creates her work using oil directly on to wood panels, which may be one of the reasons they have a slightly translucent quality to them. The grain of the wood in the backgrounds becomes an integral part of the image in itself and I love how you can often see it through the paint as well.

Kawasaki has created beautiful, individual pieces and has developed a really strong, instantly identifiable signature style.

In the image below, I can clearly see the influence of Klimt and the Fin de Siecle style of Vienna in the height of the Art Nouveau movement. I love the deceptive simplicity of the image. Kawasaki’s girls often have a slightly Mona-Lisa esque knowing look around their eyes, making the viewer wonder what they are thinking.

For me, as a Textiles specialist, this artist perfectly crosses the boundaries between Fine Art and embroidery.