Internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Hiroshi Senju is known for his large-scale paintings of waterfalls painted in the tradition of nihonga, a traditional Japanese style that uses pigments ground from natural materials such as minerals and shells. The New York-based artist’s series Nightfall is a departure from his usual style, as Senju used acrylic and fluorescent pigments on Japanese mulberry paper to create the gorgeous forms of cascading waterfalls.
While the paintings are beautiful in every light, they truly shine in the darkness. The fluorescent materials make the artwork glow with a ghostly aura, transforming the serene nature scene into a mysterious, almost supernatural nighttime landscape. Water gushes from the undepicted top of the waterfall, flowing down in powerful, luminescent streams to crash into the pool below, creating hazy sprays of foam and droplets.
“The biggest characteristic of Japanese culture is an awareness of being in nature. We are trying to express the joy of living in nature or the notion that nature lets us live,” the artist told J-COLLABO in an interview. “Peace, in other words, is the biggest characteristic of Japanese culture.” That profound connection with nature and sense of peaces come across in each of Senju’s paintings, as viewers can easily imagine themselves enjoying a tranquil moment in front of a rushing waterfall, feeling the power of the landscape wash over them.
