For over 15 years, Japanese artist Tatsuo Horiuchi had been creating landscape paintings with intricate details of hills, cherry blossoms, and forests with Microsoft Excel.
“When I started to do this, I had a defiant and experimental mind. I thought, ‘How can I paint with my PC?” Tatsuo Horiuchi told on a documentary.
Horiuchi back then was retiring from his work when he decided he wanted to paint, but he didn’t had much money.
But with Microsoft Excel, “you don’t need to spend money on paints and you don’t have to prepare water and so on. This kind of stingy idea made me prefer Excel. And with a cheap printer, you can do something like this.”
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The 77-year-old artist said he prefers Excel even over Microsoft Paint because it has ‘more functions and is easier to use.’
Using vector drawing tools developed for graphs and simple shapes, Horiuchi instead draws landscapes as seen in rural Japan.
“I figured out little by little that you could do those kinds of things. I started painting with excel in 2000. I set a goal in 10 years, I wanted to paint something decent that I could show to people,” Horiuchi told the media outlet.
But doing something such as painting in Excel is a bit kind of weird. And so, Horiuchi experienced getting insulted by other people.
“There are many people who make fun of me. ‘Why are you making effort on something that is not useful, are you a fool?’”
Horiuchis answer? “Yes I am fool. But I think that even if you don’t have talent for paintings, you can paint as long as you have excel.”
“Paintings are hard to sell, I don’t know if anyone wants to buy one, I would of course appreciate it,” he added.
Tatsuo Horiuchi’s Artworks
Here are some of his amazing artworks:
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To see more of his wonderful paintings, visit pasokonga.com
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