Series Spotlight - Yumi Kimura

Growing up in a small town in Shikoku, Japan, Yumi Kimura spent her childhood painting and drawing as a hobby. She eventually created her own website to display her works and quickly garnered attention for her art, being featured in adverts and hired for illustration jobs. She has created colourful creations made for magazines and calendars as well as idyllic illustrations perfect for pretty packaging.

These interesting illustrations are unique and cutesy and, with an almost childlike whimsy to them, Yumi finds the fun in abstraction and the endearing in the everyday. Her watercolours are both fluid and structured; textural and rich, the vibrant colours add a touch of sophistication to the eccentric. Although Kimura’s style and medium may have changed over the years, only starting to paint with watercolours in 2022, what hasn’t changed is that she is motivated by her love for creating art.