This is the 28th work in the "Pile in the Water" series. In 2006, it was included in the VOCA (Visions Of Contemporary Art) exhibition, a select group exhibition held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo. Artists nominated by interested parties from all over Japan exhibit their works once a year, and the works are displayed at the Ueno Royal Museum. The "Stake in the Water" series is a simple style with only a colored surface and a stake, so I challenged myself to enjoy various variations in coloring and composition. This work is characterized by its dark green tones and calm atmosphere. This was the first color scheme and layered composition I used in the "Pile on Water 17" series, and I felt it was very fresh and received positive reactions at the exhibition. Since then, I have used it in other works as one of my "unique palettes," and I took the opportunity to exhibit this work at the VOCA exhibition as a major work. The process of making this work is similar to a large scale sketch of a Japanese-style painting, where a full-size line drawing is made on a separate piece of tracing paper from the screen, mainly showing the arrangement of motifs such as stakes. Then, the layer composition of colors to be painted over is planned. Once the plan has been finalized to a certain extent, the line drawing on tracing paper is transferred to the panel and the main painting process begins. The panel used is double-sided. The panel is painted on the entire surface of the screen, sides and back. The same color as the background is applied to the sides of the panel. After the screen is pre-painted by underpainting and scraping to destroy the grain of the wood, more than 20 layers of paint, including partial and solid, are applied as a descriptive layer. Then, grinding with water-resistant sandpaper is repeated until a finished screen is found. The slit on the back of the work is a ventilation duct inside the panel, but pins and hooks can also be hooked during installation. The smooth machined matiere also allows the work to be wiped clean with a dishcloth. The technique of painting out the picture surface by layering and grinding acrylic paints and the matiere) is the same as that of the non-objective free painting "Layers of Color," so the matiere and coloration are consistent in the works in this series. I take advantage of one of the characteristics of painting, "multilayered magic," to build a scene that can only exist by paint on a support. I discovered "layering" in 1999, a method that has been in line with my desire since the time I started creating paintings. Since then, I have been pursuing the possibilities of painting with this "layering" method.
