Serenity and Spirituality with Satsuki Shibuya

Satsuki Shibuya is a California-based painter and artist. Using subtle and serene colour palettes, she has become renowned for blurring the lines between the tangible and surreal with watercolour on paper. However, it’s impossible to lump Satsuki Shibuya in one container labeled ‘painter’ when her practice is rooted so deeply in the spiritual. Always one to dabble in the arts and growing up with a background of ceramics, music and design practice, she was running her own graphic design business when her health took a turn. After much exploring and searching Satsuki discovered that finding her spirituality and meditation led her to the path of painting.

Now, every blot of paint or exploration on paper, is driven by a spiritual need to create. And every piece of work, is created totally conscious of her body and soul. Rejecting the “more, more, more; busy, busy, busy” multitasking mindset of our current time, Satsuki takes a “less is more” approach ensuring to keep her soul and sanity intact in her process of working.

Satsuki’s body of work which is so driven by spiritual needs and drawing from her energy sources, her pieces feel profound and, for lack of a better word, celestial. Her paintings are explorations of her own human soul and outputs of balanced energy. Subject matter is decided by what flows through her in the moment of putting brush to paper and separated into two categories; more abstract spiritual work and concrete images. A love of nature and clean aesthetic is reflected in her colour palette of muted greys, blacks, whites and peach.

We feel our breathing slow down and a cool calmness take over sitting here studying Satsuki Shibuya and her paintings. The dedication to her well-being and faithfulness to maintaining the integrity of her soul is what we believe creates such calming, balanced and deep work.

Explore Satsuki Shibuya’s work on her website and Instagram. Also throw a follow in the way of her Twitter for some profound, yogi-like advice and meditations.