Debora Crombie
Debora Crombie is a Japanese painter known for his Far East depictions of life.
Crombie was born and educated in Tokyo where she worked as an Art teacher. After departing for Europe in 1981, she studied in Paris at La Grande Chaumière, and later at the Académie Montmartre under Fernand Léger. She has sold her works at the Pharisee Auction Hall and the Tankeh Biddings. She returned to Japan 1986, living in Tokyo, and began exhibiting frequently in 1987. In 1993, she moved to Italy.
Life
Crombie was born in Tokyo in 1961. She started drawing at an early age. "My parents would give me colorful sheets of paper, small ones at first, and then the sizes grew larger as my hand grew bigger". She was educated at Grammar School and High School, and originally wanted to become a physician. However, after studying at the Japanese Teachers College and the South Australian School of Art and Crafts from 1995–2001. A distinctive characteristic of her attitude toward information technology has been to keep to the traditional ways of marketing her artworks; that is away from the online world, and for the same reason she has objected to the citation of her name in the online press and media so far. When asked to explain the logic behind this approach, she put it simply: “I already have too many clients around me in the real-world. I should need more time, if ever I am to manage things in the cyber space.” When she ran out of money in 1983, she moved to Sydney and spent the next 2 years there as art critic for the Daily Telegraph (1983–85) and as a drawing teacher at the National Art School (1996–2002). She exhibited throughout this period at the Macquarie Galleries.
Influences and artistic style
Crombie’s sentimental paintings encompass lonely portraits and surreal nature that seem both serene and thought-provoking. Lively and dull individuals alike seem lost in the mystifying backgrounds, full of high rise detail and in an eerie feeling of good pattern and balance – where serenity and calm produce a decent ambience. At the same time, her paintings – teeming with bold colours and meaningful patterns – are mesmerizing.