Exhibition opening: Sat 22 July 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Aarwun Gallery.

Exhibition dates: 22 July - 13 August

For opening RSVP please click Here

Animalia is the scientific name for one of the great families of living organisms on Earth. Almost all of Sophie’s paintings depict animal life. In this exhibit she has included a selection of new works inspired by both her ongoing relationship with Japan and Japanese art and her love of nature and animals. In many of Sophie’s works, including those in this exhibition, the central image is set against a scheme of coloured squares or rectangles. These shapes and colours represent the traditional way of using squares of gold leaf applied across the backgrounds of large Japanese painted internal doors. Because traditional Japanese architecture had no glazing, the deep internal spaces were dark, and the gold leaf had the effect of adding reflected light. Gold is incorporated into many traditional Japanese arts and crafts because of its beauty and relative abundance in Japan.

About the Artist

Sophie was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Kyoto. She studied environmental science at university; and much of her work is linked to this background of scientific education and her childhood in Japan. Sophie has been fortunate enough to travel widely both within Australia as well as Europe, East Asia and the Pacific. Many of her paintings are of animals that she has seen in the wild or animals that have fascinated her. Because of Sophie’s interest in science and scientific training, she creates images in her unique colour schemes, while always remaining as faithful as she can to the actual morphology of her animal subject. She maintains strong links to Japan and continues to visit often. Many of Sophie’s most characteristic works are her unique re-interpretations of traditional Japanese images, as well as European works of art.