Artwork Description.

Abstract

A horse is painted, big and colorful. The note on top tells us that the horse comes from a festival in Iwate Prefecture. There, dozens of horses with extravagant ornaments line up and parade the streets for approximately 15 km. This painting is bold as well as delicate. It is highly colorful and yet shows no shading. Only two legs are visible. The painting still manages to present depth because attention has been paid to details. The right ear, for instance, is made of straight lines, and in contrast the left ear employs a slight curve on one side. Such asymmetrical elements have been multi-layered, which gives subtle movements. The background is equally intriguing. The horse (i.e., the figure) is painted against the background (i.e., the ground), which is segmented by different colors, and the segmentation seems to have been determined by the attempt to bring a harmony of hues into the painting as a whole, rather than an attempt to be realistic. Whether the observations made above were intentional or not cannot be confirmed with the painter, because she has an intellectual disability. However, this is not an issue since even professional artists often make decisions unintentionally (or unconsciously). What is more fascinating is the fact that she was always fond of coloring-in as a child. Some segmentations are done by lines, whereas others by colors only. Yaegashi has developed the format of coloring-in into a means of unique expression as it suits her.