“I was born in Kyoto, Japan and grew up in both Tokyo and Kyoto with my two elder sisters, also artists, and my elder brother. I was educated in Japanese schools until moving to Sydney in 2001 and am bilingual in Japanese and English.
I am essentially a figure painter and portrait artist. All my artistic work is rooted in my relationship to line and drawing as the foundation of my paintings.
The formative years of my childhood were spent in a traditional Japanese house in Kyoto, surrounded by ancient and modern Japanese art. This early experience has had a profound effect on me as a person and as an artist. It is also why I began my life as an artist in ink and watercolours on paper.
My paintings are all, in essence, an exploration of the emotional life of human beings. Elements of colour and line are brought together to synthesise a surface world which captures a moment in the inner life of the figure portrayed.
I have always been fascinated by Kabuki and Noh theatre, where emotional climaxes in the dramas are often expressed in frozen moments. The ‘mie’ in Kabuki occurs when an actor poses motionless but with extreme energy, bathed in dramatic lighting, as the whole theatre holds its breath in the moment.”
Lucy was elected an RI in 2025 , we are delighted that she makes her Masters debut at IWM2026.
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