[Studio Visit] Visiting the Studio of Thick-Impasto Painter Nanae Mitobe

Visiting Nanae Mitobe’s studio

I was given the chance to visit Nanae Mitobe’s studio.
The day I visited was November 30, 2019, during the run, just after her solo exhibition had started.

Mitobe’s studio is in the suburbs, a little away from central Tokyo. She uses an old former factory as is, and the environment suits her production style: high ceilings, a wide frontage, bare-concrete floors, and, above all, a still-usable crane apparatus.

What draws your gaze right after entering the studio is the largest work. This is a heavyweight work reaching one ton (1,000kg), seemingly waiting for a chance to be exhibited.

Collectors, like me, occasionally visit and collect works, apparently.

A work hung on the exterior wall of the storage inside the studio

Because Nanae Mitobe uses large amounts of paint, she apparently buys it in 18-liter cans.

Walking carefully around the studio, you suddenly encounter works in unexpected places.

"The expression of white paint is difficult, and I'm still not satisfied," Mitobe says. — “The expression of white paint is difficult, and I’m still not satisfied,” Mitobe says.

The painter's chair; she lives in a residence on the same premises. — The painter’s chair; she lives in a residence on the same premises.

She suffered flood damage from a typhoon and apparently went through great hardship.

In the adjacent studio, her fellow painter Yuka Shiobara has set up her studio.The sight of the two of them amiably searchin… — In the adjacent studio, her fellow painter Yuka Shiobara has set up her studio.
The sight of the two of them amiably searching for four-leaf clovers together was warm and impressive.

The several hours I spent at the studio passed as elegant, luxurious time unlike any previous studio visit, as if swallowed up by the peaceful scenery surrounding the studio.

Whether talking about production beside a work boasting one-ton weight, or talking over tea in an off state, Mitobe always conversed in a natural, straightforward manner.

Nanae Mitobe continues to create in a stoic environment with no noise whatsoever in her work.
Stepping into the environment where she keeps making incomparable works, what I felt was the way of a straightforward art practitioner who relentlessly pursues artistic expression.