An exhibit on the ‘Songs of Apples’ can be viewed at Nanaimo North Town Centre during the month of May.
Keiko Bottomley, or Kay as she is known by friends, is the Art 10 Gallery’s featured artist and will show her still-life series on apples until May 31.
She joined the gallery in 1990, seven years after its official commencement in 1983.
According to a release for the show, Bottomley was born in Tokyo, and after finishing high school, she attended the Nippon Design School to study fashion design, an industry in which she worked until immigrating to Canada in 1969.
And yet, Bottomley’s continuous interest in art compelled her to pick up a paint brush and further her fine art career.
“Influenced by a series of paintings of hanging baskets by fellow artist Mary Ann Fleming, she was drawn to the round shapes and bright colours of the blooms. And had an ‘ah ha’ moment to paint round, luscious apples,” read the release.
Bottomley only works from life, which led her to grocery stores to buy apples and apple pies to take back to her studio. She then found baskets and pieces of fabric to use as reference for her apple painting series.
Her expressive and colourful paintings cover a wide range of still-life subjects, such as flowers and apples, influenced by her Japanese heritage, noted the release. Japanese patterns, colours and shapes are common in her paintings.
She is inspired by Japanese artist Munakata Shiro’s art and a rendition of ‘The Flower Hunters,’ gracing a still life of apples, is a feature of her most recent art series.
READ MORE: Painting exhibit rich in symbolism comes to Nanaimo’s Art 10 Gallery
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