Birds and Camellia

Small birds — perhaps bush warblers or silvereyes — perch in the branches of a flowering camellia, the red or white blooms providing a vivid chromatic contrast to the birds' small grey or olive forms. Kasamatsu's bird-and-flower compositions draw on the kacho-ga tradition of Japanese painting, but typically render the natural encounter with greater informality than the formal compositions of the Kano or Rimpa schools. The camellia's waxy petals and dark foliage give the birds a setting of unusual visual richness.