Yuko Nagayama is a renowned Japanese watercolour artist from Tokyo. Her work combines luminous colours, delicate transparencies and a free, intuitive approach to water and pigment. Her distinctive artistic language brings her subjects to life in an atmospheric and emotional way, going beyond pure representation. As an experienced artist and educator she inspires watercolour artists worldwide.
Your Passion for Schmincke - 9 Questions for Yuko
What’s your name, where are you from?
My name is Yuko Nagayama, I’m from Tokyo, Japan.
Since when and in which techniques do you mainly work?
I’ve been painting with transparent watercolours since 1995. Along with that, I also do life drawing using watercolours, pastels and other media.
Do you have favourite themes? What inspires you?
My favourite themes are flowers, fruits and other plants. I also enjoy painting portraits.
Rather than painting from photographs, I always arrange the subjects right in front of me in the morning and paint them only while they are bathed in sunlight.
My theme is to paint while being thankful for the fact that we are all living together on this Earth, breathing the same air at the same time.
And where do you prefer to paint?
I paint all of my artworks in my studio
Do you still remember your first Schmincke colour?
During my college days, while looking through an art book by a German artist I admired, I was captivated by a watercolour sketch.
I was amazed by the paint’s striking transparency and captivating depth of colour—qualities unlike those of the paints commonly sold in Japan at the time—and that is how I discovered Schmincke.
I went to an art supply store and bought a few tubes of Schmincke, but ended up running out of money. Once I experienced the vividness of their single-pigment colours the joy of painting doubled and I could no longer use any other, more affordable paints.
Even while trying to save money, I kept buying and using them one tube at a time.
What are your favourite colours and what is special about them?
Transparent Orange 218
Transparent Yellow 209
Peony Pink by Yuko Nagayama 987
Lagoon Blue by Yuko Nagayama 989
These colours you won’t find in other brands’ range. They are vibrant even when used on their own, and when mixed, they don’t dull the other colours but instead create new hues while maintaining their transparency. We can really see the true quality of a colour in the shadow tones, which tend to look muddy. Schmincke colours don’t become muddy even when mixed. When transparency is present in the shadows, the atmosphere within the painting becomes clearer as well.
How can one learn from you?
Artefacto School (Online lessons)
And where can one look at your work?
Which two of your artworks should we show to our readers?
