Fumiya Odagawa: Dream and Memory

Fumiya Odagawa won the Acrylic Award in Jackson’s Art Prize 2026 with his work The Poppy Sways. In this interview, he discusses his nocturnal routine, the conversations between his painted figures, and the beautiful colour combinations he finds in nature.

Above image: Fumiya in his studio

Josephine: Could you share the story of how you became an artist and tell us more about your artistic background?

Fumiya: I’ve loved drawing ever since I was little. My earliest memory is of a teacher at my nursery school who was good at drawing – I was always so happy whenever she drew animals or dinosaurs for me. From then on, I was always drawing.

Josephine: What does a typical working day in the studio look like for you? Do you have any important routines or rituals?

Fumiya: Nighttime is when I can concentrate the most, so drawing at night could be called a habit of mine. I’ve tried to fix my lifestyle many times, but I’ve always failed.

Josephine: Which materials or tools could you not live without?

Fumiya: Painting is the most fun for me, so paint and brushes are absolutely essential.

Josephine: Do you work from a reference? Tell us more about your process.

Fumiya: In my university days, I worked from sketches. I believed that carefully observing and understanding objects was necessary to create a real sense of presence in my work, so I made sketches outdoors and elsewhere, building up a store of reference material.

For the past three years or so, I’ve wanted a bit more play and looseness in my lines and shapes. So rather than focusing on the quantity of reference material or getting things ‘correct’, I now value whether a shape or flow looks interesting or simply feels good.

Josephine: Do you regularly draw or keep a sketchbook? If so, how does this inform your work?

Fumiya: I feel like before, I was doing far more than I needed to, without much purpose. Now I try to make sketches that are more like doodles with ideas in them – ones I can carry directly into the painting itself.

Josephine: Have you ever had a period of stagnation in creativity? If so, what helped you overcome it?

Fumiya: Sometimes I do struggle to come up with new ideas. Travelling and watching lots of films help bring about change in a stagnant situation. Going to see a good exhibition is nice too.

Josephine: Are there any specific artists or mentors who have inspired you?

Fumiya: The painters I’ve been influenced by are Edvard Munch and Pierre Bonnard. I’ve also been influenced by Japanese woodblock print artists.

Josephine: What were you thinking about or exploring at the time you made The Poppy Sways? What inspired it, and how did it come to be?

Fumiya: I’ve long been working on a series of pieces centred on relationships and conversations between figures – works that make you wonder about the connection between the people in them. That’s because it’s easy to imagine the story the characters suggest, which makes the painting easier to create.

But with this piece, I wanted a different structure – one where the background and small objects catch the eye more than the main figure does. The person was simply part of the painting’s overall scenery, a piece meant to make the shapes and flow of colour more intriguing.

Josephine: What made you submit this piece to Jackson’s Art Prize?

Fumiya: One appealing thing was how easily I could take part in a London open call exhibition. I’ve been influenced a great deal by European artists, so I wanted my own work to have a presence in that space too.

Josephine: There’s a distortion of the figure in your work that creates a dizzying, dreamlike sense of space. Could you talk us through how you achieve this effect, and what role it plays in your paintings?

Fumiya: First, that might be a way of avoiding getting too close to realism. Another reason is that I’ve always liked photos that are blurred or out of focus. I find uncertain shapes and colours more interesting and appealing than sharply rendered images. That quality suited the atmosphere of my paintings, which feel like a mix of dreams and memory.

Josephine: What’s your relationship with colour, and how do you decide on the colour palette for a painting?

Fumiya: Originally, I wasn’t very good at choosing colour. So rather than deciding freely on my own, I gathered reference material on which colours would come together well and look beautiful. Lately, I’ve been using the colours of butterflies and flowers as reference.

Josephine: Are there any new techniques or ideas you’re excited to explore using the materials from your prize?

Fumiya: The Golden acrylic paints I will be receiving are wonderful – finely milled and remarkably vivid in colour. Acrylic paint tends to lose volume as it dries, but I want to create works that bring out, to the fullest, the beauty of colour and texture these paints have when seen in person.

Josephine: How did it feel to move through the stages of the competition and win the Acrylic Award?

Fumiya: I was delighted to have been chosen from what seems to have been a very large number of applicants.

Josephine: What’s coming up next for you?

Fumiya: I’ll be doing a residency in Spain at the end of the year. There will also be an exhibition on-site, so I’m really looking forward to it. I would be very pleased if more and more people could see my work going forward.

Follow Fumiya on Instagram

Further Reading

Meet Angela Lizon, Winner of Jackson’s Art Prize 2026

Jackson’s Art Prize 2026 First Prize Winner Announced

How We Collaborate With Artists

Expert Advice on Making Your Way as an Artist

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