A Japanese in Paris, this is how Nagao Usui appears to us.
Though he was born in Japan, Usui settled permanently in France in 1970 while
presenting his works in his homeland every year.
His first exhibitions raised art collectors’ interest who enjoyed those paintings tinged
with somber hues, reminiscent of Cézanne’s accents, emerging from still lifes,
bunches of flowers and landscapes.
All his paintings are imbued with restraint and nostalgia which intersperse his
artwork with touches of poetry and melancholy.
Enthusiastic about Western painting, Nagao Usui soon discovered the typical light
of the South in his masters’ works, that is why he quickly set up his easel in
Provence where he painted the type of landscapes Paul Cézanne loved so much.
Further south, the Var coast equally inspired him as in his paintings of Saint-Tropez
and its harbor or the seascapes at Cogolin… Through radiant, vibrant and sensitive
paintings, he displayed for us the poetry of a Provençal mas, of a country-house
buried among vineyards or of a Marina with its sailboats.
Nagao Usui has also painted wonderful landscapes in Burgundy, Paris and Ile-de-
France.
While painting on canvas, Nagao Usui has at the same time produced a larger
variety of works on paper such as oil paintings, drawings, gouache, watercolors and
pastels.
All of them describe the journey of this Franco-Japanese artist from the beginning
with his models posing in his studio up to his mature years with his landscapes of
Provence.