Create! is pleased to present a new artist interview with still-life painter Yuri Tayshete (1970, Ichikawa City, Japan). Yuri is a self-taught artist who mainly works with oil painting. By applying dynamic brush strokes and fresh colors, Yuri creates intense poetic moments created by means of ordinary subjects. She currently lives and works in New York City.

Yuri’s ultimate goal is in finding harmony in the universe by looking at everyday things that affirm each other. She wants to portray this view of the world through her still-life paintings. Her paintings also bring out the dialog between light and shadow; inorganic and organic; and natural and synthetic.

Characteristics of Yuri’s painting such as contemporary aesthetics, minimalism, bold brush strokes, fresh colors, are influenced by her teacher and guide, Karen O’Neil. However, isolated feelings and harmonious connections among the subjects are uniquely her own.

See more on the artist’s website or Instagram account - select original paintings are also currently on view in the online exhibition “Treats” at PxP Contemporary, which runs through the end of August!

Were you always interested in art growing up? When did you first begin painting?

I have loved to draw anything since I was in kindergarten. Even when other children were playing in the schoolyard, I was the kind of kid who would sit alone in the classroom and draw. In my elementary school class, I would draw cartoon characters and other things for the kids who wanted me to draw for them. However, I had no intention of going to art school, so my life after junior high school had nothing to do with painting.

After I moved to my current apartment in 2016, I noticed that there were many art schools and museums in my neighborhood. In the summer of 2016, I took "Introduction to Drawing and Painting I" in Continuing Education at the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca. I was very nervous every time I took the class because I was not used to learning about art. The instructor taught us the basics of painting, such as drawing the value scale in black and white, and how to use a paintbrush for the first time. I am still grateful to my instructor, Mark Opirhory, for his enthusiasm. If it had been any other instructor, there is a great possibility that I would have given up painting after that semester.

I started taking Karen O'Neil's still life class in December 2016 at Art Student League of New York in Midtown, which continues to this day, and I can't thank Karen enough for teaching and leading me as a painter with her rigorous instruction and passion for teaching.

How did you learn your technique and develop your style?

I learned all of my still life techniques and style from Karen and was also influenced by Sarah Sedwick and Carol Marine. They are all great artists.

What do you think is the most exciting or important part of your creative process? The most challenging?

I am most excited to find unexpected colors in my still-life paintings. For instance, where the still life is mostly green but I find a mysterious pink color out of nowhere. The most challenging part is posting my painting images to my Instagram. Showing my painting makes me feel vulnerable but empowered at the same time.

Since you're based in New York, do you have any favorite museums and galleries you visit for inspiration? Best exhibition you've ever seen?

Years ago, the John Singer Sargent Watercolors exhibition at Brooklyn Museum was so memorable. This year I saw an intimate collection of Morandi (‘Albers and Morandi: Never Finished’ to Open at David Zwirner Gallery, Chelsea. My favorite museum is Rubin Museum of Art. It’s usually a quiet and very private spiritual space to connect myself by sitting and meditating with a lot of statues of Buddha.

Harmony is certainly one aspect of your work, but tell us about some of the other themes or ideas you explore in your paintings?

Light and shadow are the main subjects of my painting. Maybe the main still life, i.e. apples and oranges, is just the medium to show what the source light is. My paintings are very dependent on the type of light - I like to experiment with all types of light - artificial light or natural light, a morning sun list or evening sunlight, direct sunlight or overcast light, summer sunlight or winter sunlight, an eastern window light or western window light, etc. The shadow changes accordingly as well.

What is your favorite subject paint and why?

I love painting sweets, cupcakes, candies, glasses, and ribbons. Sweets make me feel happy. I love anything cute. Generally, cuteness may not be considered art. Can cuteness be art? I believe cuteness will conquer the art world with vengeance.

What are you currently working on?

Currently, I’m painting a fruit by my East-facing window in my apartment at different times of the day. I experiment with the same theme and composition again and again under different lights. It’s a very simple still life but the light reflects all kinds of buildings in Manhattan, red brick buildings, tall glass buildings, and the gold pointy top of the New York Insurance building. My apartment doesn’t have a west-facing window. Luckily, I get sunlight from the sun setting on the Hudson River, reflecting the tall glassy condo building on West 15th Street and 6th Avenue. It may be a simple piece of orange painting but it also portraits the light in Manhattan at that time of the day.