Ayaka Torimoto creates idealized portraits of children using classical techniques that combine tempera and oil painting. Her work evokes the stylistic beauty of early Renaissance religious portraiture, as seen in artists like Botticelli and Fra Angelico. By consciously referencing the tradition of portraying only central figures in pre-modern European painting and layering it with her own memories and emotions, she elevates her subjects into contemporary icons.

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​The children she paints are fictional creations based on her personal memories, longings, and experiences, yet they are also powerful self-portraits. They embody an “ideal self” projected through childhood and, at the same time, resonate as universal images of children.

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​Torimoto’s children carry an air of solemnity and grace, akin to saints or angels in religious paintings, yet they radiate a presence so delicate and realistic that they seem to exist in our own world. They offer a gaze into purity and vulnerability that resides in all of us—a quiet, powerful reminder of emotions we may have forgotten.