Toshi Esumi
 Toshi Esumi hadn't started painting until 2003 when he learned oil painting in a class room at University of Washington Extension. When he was a kid in Japan, he was very curious about almost any activities around him from playing succor to calligraphy. He showed some talent in watercolor painting and woodcut printing as a school kid. But he didn't consider becoming an artist. Instead, he got education to be an engineer and pursued his career in high-tech industries, which eventually brought him to this country.
After moved to Seattle, WA, from Dallas, TX, he wanted to learn painting in oil. The climate in Washington is relatively similar to where he grew up. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and the ocean, as well as animals around, all of those seem to have helped him to revive his old memories. Once he learned how to handle oil paints, which he loves for forgiveness and capability of the media itself, he mainly paints landscapes and animals in oil. Since he's fallen in love with nature, he wants to share his passion toward the subjects with viewers of his paintings. Therefore his paintings are representational. He admires colors and light in paintings created by local landscape painters, such as Ned Mueller, Jim Lamb, and started stepping into nature and paint the subject right at the place. But those are considered as color studies in order to learn from life. He brings them back and paint in larger format in the studio.
As his relatively short career might indicate, he's still learning and establishing his style gradually but persistently. He often attends workshops taught by well-known local artists and classes at Gage, Pratt, and so on. His artwork now can be seen in some local art shows and at smaller venues around Seattle.
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