Friday, September 23, 2011

Exhibition Marathon Part 1

O.k finally an update of all the exciting events we had in the last week. I can not post everything, because it was soooooo much, but before I get too far behind, I will try to give a short overview.
One week ago, my father and I took the train to Makurazaki again, where we saw the grand finale of Kinuko-san's and our exhibition "Wind from Europe".
Here you see the "Tengu nose" an impressive rock in the southern part of Kyushu... I already saw it last year, but forgot to take a picture. 

After we arrived I met Els, one of the artists from Holland. She is a nice person and I was happy that she could come to Japan and see the exhibition, too.

This is "Kaimondake". An impressive volcano near Makurazaki. I always wanted to see it, but I was never lucky, because of the weather. But I was lucky this time.
I would love to hike it once together with Kinuko-san.

And here you see the famous rock "Tategami" of Makurazaki. There are many legends in this place. One says it is the god, which protects the port and city... another one is about two gods fought each other and in the fight the gods of Tategami spit fire and so the shape of the rock is like a flame and got it's red color.

Here is Els and me infront of Kaimondake. 

This is "Akebi" or "Uba" as it's called in the native slang of the people in Makurazaki. When it's ripe it will turn purple. The flesh of the fruit is bitter, but part in which the seeds are is very sweet. I always wanted to find them in nature, but I was never lucky, because I did not know exactly how the plant looks like, but I found some growing right beside the museum.

Later we came back to the museum and did a little Hindelopen workshop organized by Kinuko-san and her daughter.


Everybody got this sample and we needed colored it.

This is my picture. I did not paint for 8 weeks or so, so it was really so refreshing to do it again.

My Dad went at it, too. It was his first try with acrylics and he liked it very much. I hope he will start painting again someday !!!

Later, the great festival/party started.
Here you see my Dad, Kinuko-san and the major of Makurazaki.
Once again CONGRATULATION, Kinuko-san, for 20 years of your beautiful art !!!!!

Later, after everybody held there speeches, various artists performed different kinds of modern and classical music.

It was a great event and I would like to thank everybody for their kindness and for the wonderful time we had. I hope I can visit beautiful Makurazaki next year again !!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Exhibition in Tokyo

Sept.14-19 is the annual exhibition of "Salon Blanc" in Tokyo. I'm already excited and I will be there on Sunday (Sept.18). 
For further inforamtion, please check:

Here is my painting for the show. Done with acrylics and airbrush on board. Size is 70x100cm.
Original available...

In the meantime, please let me apologize, that I did not do a lot of updates here lately. I was so busy with the exhibitions and other things and I still do my best to catch up with e-mails and letters inbetween. After November, things will hopefully get calmer again.
I did not even touch a brush in the last 4 weeks and I miss painting so much :(((
Well, anyway, looking forward to Makurazaki and Tokyo again ^____^

Monday, August 22, 2011

Makurazaki / "Wind from Europe" Part-2

In the evening after we arrived, we went to the famous local Brewery, the Kedogawa beer house. The beer is very special and tastes delicious.


The Chef himself is an artist, too. Not only for cooking and making beer, but he also loves making ice sculptures.

So while we enjoyed the delicious buffet and beer, he made this fancy sculpture.

The kids instantly found new friends. Later, the chef took a picture from us, too and wrote in his blog about us and the group-show.

 
The next day, we went to the opening...

Here you see Kinuko-san's beautiful Hindeloopen art...

...and also other paintings. I especially love her hanabi pictures.
Please visit her homepage, too. 

Here are Toshiko, me and Kinuko, ready for our speeches.
I was so nervous to talk in Japanese infront of all the guests, but everybody seemed to like it, even if it was not perfect sometimes.

Here we cut the band together with the major of Makurazaki and open the exhibition symbolically.

 
Later, some of the visitors wanted to talk with me about my art and it felt great to recieve so much lovely feedback.



Toshiko-san did a wonderful job representing the other European artists there. 

Here is once again the three of us... Toshiko-san, Kinuko-san (in the middle) and me.
Thank you everybody, for the wonderful time we had in Makurazaki !!! I'm looking forward to September to see you all again on the party !!!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Makurazaki / "Wind from Europe" Part-1

After a 6 hours drive, we reached beautiful Makurazaki and went for Katsuo-Ramen.
Katsuo is a special fish, famous in this area. It tastes a little bit like Tuna and Japaneses often use it dried as flavour for soups and other food. 

This is "Kagetsu" (香月) Ramen, the shop, where Katsuo-Ramen was invented. The Ramen were delicious and I can understand, why it became famous all over Japan.

Later, we met my wonderful friends Toshiko-san and Kinuko-san and had a first view on the exhibition.
The show is held in the Nanmeikan museum on mt. Katahira and I'm always impressed by the size and architecture of this building. 
Last year I visited the famous Trienale here and it's an incredible feeling that I can take part here in a show as well. Kinuko-san did a wonderful arrangement for all of the paintings. Each artist has the "perfect place" for his/her painting. It was a big joy to see the all of the works form Europe and Japan together. Tomorrow I will take part in the opening-ceremony and I'm already excited. Here are some photos I took today... enjoy!










Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Wind from Europe

Dear friends,
I can finally announce our group-exhibition in Makurazaki, called "Wind from Europe".
Different artists from Holland, Belgium and Germany will show their works in the Nanmeikan Museum of Makurazaki from Aug.20st-Sept. 19th.

I will come to the opening and hopefull also September 16&17.

Here is a the list of all the artists:
Please take a look at their websites to see their works:

Nagae Kinuko, Japan: http://kinuko.jp/
celebrating 20 years of her beautiful Hindeloopen-art

Els van Baarle, Holland: http://www.elsvanbaarle.com/
She is coming toward the end of exhibition.

Helene De Ridder, Belgium: http://www.helenebatik.be/

Jacques Coenye, Belgium: http://www.jacquescoenye.be/

Ria van Dijk, Holland: http://www.riavandijk.nl/

Erika Fiedler, Germany... a wonderful friend of mine,
who has already exhibited in Japan several times.
She will also have an exhibition of scarves in Makurazaki from Sept 13st- Sept 18st
http://www.erika-fiedler.de/


 and Julia Takagi (me)

Here are my works, which will be displayed and also available during the show.
Looking forward to see you at the opening !!!






*** SOLD ***


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Umi no hi 2011

Yesterday was a public holiday, "Umi no hi" which means "day of the sea". We had a long weekend and decided to drive to Nanayama (7 mountains). Here you see typical countryside-food with all kinds of herbs and vegetables from that area. It was less than 5 Euros and very delicious.

Beside the restaurant is a wild river. People use it as public bath and the kids had a lot of fun playing in the cool water.

Later we drove up the mountain to our fave spot...

I always love to visit the shrine there...

It's a nature resort and you can spot all different kinds of animals, flowers and plants there...


even some snakes, which try to catch the frogs there.

Later, heading back home, we found a great shop in one of the small villages... they sell all kinds of homemade smoked saussages, ham and other foods and won a lot of German awards. The shop is called Kunya http://www.kunya.net/
and they even have things like Zwiebelmettwurst. We will definettely go there again, because it tasted delicious !!!


Driving along the mountains gave us a beautiful view on the islands...

This is Fukuoka direction. It's difficult to show here, but behind one of those peninsulas and islands is out appartement.

In the mountains there are also some wild rivers and we want to go there during Summer vacation and have a picknick.

In the end we saw another stunning sunset. Before typhoons they are always totally amazing.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Koi and Sakura

Just finished this painting. My friend gave me wonderful hard paper to paint on and I wanted to try it out. This is the result... Koi and Sakura petals... done with airbrush, acrylics and watercolor on hard paper. Size is 29 x 44 cm
Original available.