Ari Tomita was born and raised in Japan, moved to the United States in 1981, and, then to Canada in 1994. After training and working in oils, in 1973 she decided to explore and study the art of Chinese and Japanese brush writing. This led her to synthesize the three styles inherent in the brush:

-The sensitivity of the classical (feminine) Japanese style under Japan national art treasure, Madam Takako Oishi (1898-2000)

-The structured Chinese style under Japan National Sho Association [awarded Shihan (master instructor)]

-The free spirit of brush under Zen monk Dairyu Hayashi.

In 1988, Tomita met Shiryu Morita (1912-1998), an internationally recognized avant-garde brush artist from Kyoto who invited her to the Boku-jin-kai (Ink artist society) and soon after became her mentor.

Tomita developed an original form of brush art and created a teaching method for the Western students that might enable them to grasp the spirit of this beautiful, meditative, and dynamic art form. She spent 15 years developing the method that includes simplified techniques and structures as well as Zen aesthetics, and Yin-Yang cosmology.

“I have experienced, while creating my work, that my brush movements were as intense as fire but when the moment was totally pure, the fire became frozen - it transformed itself into the tranquility of dimensional spaces.” (Translation from Japanese by Ari Tomita)

- Shiryu Morita , avant-garde brush artist

“An Oriental brush and ink painting by Ari Tomita, which represents a new, contemporary international language. This abstract brush painting... transcends the differences between cultures (and) the creative self in its moment of creating.”

- Helen Westgeest, Professor of Art History "Zen in the Fifties”