Genesis of a Style

Steve has been a photographer for more than 45 years. In 2015, he began exploring ways to meld the digital methods of today with the revered aesthetic of a centuries-old Japanese art tradition. The results are what you see on this page and in the “Flora” collections. The images  are not watercolor, pen and ink or painting of any kind; rather, they are digital photographs, carefully styled to emulate paintings from that Japanese tradition. Subject choice, lighting, Photoshop editing and printing all contribute to a look similar to paintings of the influential Japanese Rinpa school. More details can be found on the collection pages. 

The initial inspiration for the “Flora” series was Steve’s fascination with the work of the Japanese artist Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828). His research into this artist of the Rinpa school led to a deeper study of the school itself, which dates back to the early 1600s. 

Besides admiring the elegantly refined understatement so typical of traditional Japanese art, Steve was attracted to the delicacy of touch and reverence for nature embodied in the paintings. With much help from the Muse, he developed a method he hopes will contain a small amount of that same delicacy and reverence.  

His other much-admired Japanese artists of the Rinpa school are Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942) and Furuya Korin (1875-1910).