A focus on exploring painting's material and chemical properties, layering of specific processes, and a desire to create a different viewpoint (over depicting 'landscapes' in the more traditional sense of the word) has led Julia Brown forward into a more abstract body of work, exploring aspects of dendrology, intertwined with the Japanese concept of 'Komorebi', and unpacking her own memories and experiences recalled through sensory triggers associated with/evoked by trees.
Komorebi 木漏れ日 (pronounced ko-mo-reh-bee) is a Japanese word that means something like 'sunlight filtering through trees'. As with many translations into English, this is a clunky and one-dimensional approximation of a beautiful and complex word, with no equivalent in the English language that successfully captures the essence of this concept.
Komorebi has a wider connotation than just the literal translation. It is not just about the beams of dappled sunlight, but also about the hypnotic interplay of light and shadow through moving leaves. It considers atmosphere, feelings and our senses—the whole experience, not just the visual. The word evokes a mental image of a warm, honeyed dance of light and shadow shimmering through trees, the smell of moss and leaf mould, and the susurration of leaves.
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