Tomoko Yamashita, from Nara, Japan, has a Master's Degree in Painting from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and currently lectures at Nara College of Arts.
She writes, "I have been interested in natural beauty of New Zealand. New Zealand’s season and Japanese are always completely opposite... This idea of combining different kinds of things is just as the same as “ka-chō-fū-getsu” (lit. flowers, birds, winds and the moon), the Japanese term appreciating the harmony of the nature. If the different elements are combined together, some incident occurs and I can start painting.... I think NZPS has the ideal environment."