Maki Horanai | Fantasy painter

Maki Horanai was born in Japan and presently lives in South East Queensland, Australia. She grew up in small seaside villages in Hokkaido, northern Japan, where she often sat or played along the beach.

Maki's early influences were the ocean, the shore, the birds and islands she saw both in reality and in her imagination. She began painting in high school and continued through college and graduate school where she was strongly influenced by the colors and themes of western and eastern art.

The works of Giotto (14th century), Fra Angelico (15th century) and Kano Eitoku (16th century) have particularly impressed her.

Maki has exhibited widely in Japan and Australia. Her paintings show a world that exists both nowhere and everywhere, in the real world and in our dreams. They display a combination of oriental and western sensibilities and defy single term categories.

Primarily a painter working on both canvas and wood, Maki also works in ceramics and mixed media (charcoal, pastels and pen). All of her work takes us into a her own fantastic world of dreams that exists both nowhere and everywhere, displaying a unique and imaginative combination of artistic sensibilities. Her work defies any single label, yet has its own immediately recognisable style, often touching or quirky, but always evocative.