Description
‘Hyuganatsu’ by Kevin Jay Stanton
Artist: Kevin Jay Stanton
Title: ‘Hyuganatsu’
Medium: Gouache on cedar wood panel
Dimensions: 8.5″ x 3.5″ x 1″
Framing: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2025
About the Artwork:
Hyuganatsu is inspired by a fruit I desperately wanted to try when I got to Japan. The story goes that the original tree was found in Miyazaki, Japan, and has been cultivated there ever since. The citrus itself is most like a lemon, but is usually eaten with the pith removed but the white remaining for an extra hint of sweetness. During a residency in March, I was able to find and eat a bunch of them. I was enchanted by how bright and sour (yet lightly sweet) they are.
When the store stopped selling them though, I went back to the hunt, eventually finding a bag that said “haruka” but my phone translated as “hyuganatsu.” I wondered then if all of the citrus I’d been eating was actually this descendant of the fruit I wanted instead. Until I took the first bite: still distinctly lemon and not orange, but incredibly sweet. Tasty. But most of all I was relieved that the original fruits I’d been eating were the real thing. Even if I can no longer seem to find them right now, I have the memory of exactly what I’d been searching for to take with me. – Kevin Jay Stanton
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)