British-American painter Timothy Betjeman's work combines influences from Rinpa painting (particularly bird-and-flower painting) with elements of Pop Art, 19th century European and American botanical painting, analog photography, and contemporary printmaking. By combining the medium of Nihonga with his distinctive drawing style, Betjeman has imbued these diverse influences with his own sense of harmony, achieving a distinctive expression that hovers between Japanese and Western visual idioms.
Born in New York in 1982, Timothy Betjeman has been based in Tokyo since 2017. He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at the University of Chicago (BA) before receiving a two-year scholarship to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma in Drawing at the Royal Drawing School in London. In 2016 he was awarded a fellowship from the Terra Foundation to paint in Monet's garden at Giverny. He received an MA in Japanese Painting from Tokyo University of the Arts and a PhD from Tama Art University. His work has recently been published in The Independent, Country Life, The Lady and British Chamber of Commerce Japan Magazine, and is held by His Majesty King Charles III, Clare College, Cambridge, the Moritz Heymann Foundation and various private collections.
