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painter of beautiful flowers
Sixty watercolors by Manabu C. Saito float across the walls of The Nature Conservancy. The great green wings of the Lycaste orchid fly above its diminutive yellow flower. Vertical leaves and blossoms of Masdevallia rolfeania appear to languidly wave at the observer while another's detailed flowers and foliage have seen the ages of life. While a castle of Mormodes floats heavenward on a cushiony vine, a bee tries to catch its divine nectar. Bulbophyllum purpureorhachis twists its dark sword high and slinky yellow orchids dangle sepals like old men's moustaches. And pardon me, slipper orchid sir, but your eyebrows are dripping to the ground. Butterflies sparkle; mushrooms tempt; orchids zigzag in air fern. From eccentric orchids to brilliant bromeliads, beauty and strength unite under the brush of Saito. A line of bold tropicals marches across a wall. Trumpets please! And roll out the green foliar carpet of Musa velvetina near the soft powder-puff feathers of Protea repens. Now the touch-me-nots flame into view. Red-headed Mexican Fire Barrel, a blonde bombshell, naked Cereus peruvianus monstrosus, a pink patch of hedgehog cactus, and melon-colored flowers of Echinopsis robusta, soft enough to rub your cheek on, but careful! Pulp fiction? No! Jack-in-the pulpit, this one “Dragon Arum" with a sorcerer's bloom among a trio of sinister charm. But in quiet drama the sunflower, southern magnolia, and maidenhair fern greet gallery guests. Manabu C. Saito, painter of beautiful flowers Fortune separated Manabu C. Saito from all the other boys when the artist, as a young man and now a mature man, chased his passions across the world. With childhood art awards from all over Japan tucked onto his palette, he struck out on a lifelong adventure. First he studied English Literature in Japan, then Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in 1953. His parents were not happy that their son chose art over a respectable profession. Four years later there was no place for him in Japanese industry. “I was two steps ahead of society in Japan in 1959. They didn't know what to do with me,"¯ he says. So he came back to America, his new home. Saito worked in Industrial Design including for a display company where he designed an exhibit for The New York Botanical Garden for a flower show at the Coliseum. His professionalism attracted the attention of the garden's director. “He came to me and asked what he could do for me. I told him I'd like to go someplace and sit on the ground to paint wild flowers." The director sent him to Suriname with a letter of introduction to a hotel manager there. “It was just like a little Garden of Eden with tropical fish swimming, the Macaw flying in the sky. Just unbelievable flowers there."¯ The hotel manager liked Saito's paintings and gave him a letter of introduction to artist Don Eckleberry in New York. Saito brought his portfolio to Eckleberry one particular day when the house was full of people and laid it out on the floor. “The chief editor of Audubon Magazine saw this and asked me to bring it to him. He published my cactus paintings - eight pages in 1972. When I came out of his office I couldn't touch my feet on the floor."¯ Before that, Saito had unwaveringly tried to have his work published, but no one looked or listened. On his job at lunchtime, he trotted the portfolio out and dropped it off to agents for a week at a time. A piece of paper stuck in the zipper exactly where he had left it told him his art had gone unseen. But after Audubon, everybody wanted him, even the ones who had told him to scram. “I became a botanical artist. I had to quit my job." Golden Books and the U.S. Post Office called. He joined the Society of American Botanical Artists. He had a one-man show at New York Horticultural Society. A gallery in Louisville made 1,000 prints each of four paintings per year for nine years and sold them to 350 galleries all around the country. In '79 he joined ZYT Gallery, Silicon Valley. “I had a heyday that time until 9/11. Too many companies just sizzling - so many people. Young girls and boys came in and said, 'Id like this and this and this.' They bought so many of them. It was coincidence that the computer industry hit the bottom. Since then, all artists are complaining." Now, Saito sells his work at museums and botanical gardens and his parents are proud. Every July, for 15 years now, he travels to Costa Rica to paint tropical plants and their blossoms. “They have so much variety - a little desert, rainforest, dry forest, almost a miniature world climate is there. It's wonderful to see the ocean one day and volcanoes the next day. Inland is 4-5,000 feet high. I've never seen any place so flamboyant." So what exactly brought Saito good tidings and enabled him to live his dream? “I just love to paint non-stop. Every day I painted seven to eight hours for 30 years. That's bringing me good luck. I think my happiness is painting. That's the secret to my success."¯ Manabu C. Saito lives and works in Stillwater, New Jersey, where he has earned the nickname, “Eccentric Anti-social Oriental Artist." He says, “Good. Let's keep it that way."¯ *** Photos taken through the glass of framed works result in reduced light and clarity with some reflections. View Manabu Saito's cards: www.peconicbayoriginals.com |
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