{In what seems like an entirely different lifetime}, in early March we went to the seaside village of Setouchi for an exhibit of paintings by wonderful youthful artist, Michal Korman – originally from Slovakia and mostly based in Paris but he’s wandering soul – going places to draw inspiration from “set piece” scenes created in a charming bright and evocative style. 

Note: The exhibit was organized by the effervescent Yoshida Yoshioka-san, A wonderful calligraphy artist with unique style who you may have met previously in this archive. (Also worth noting she shares a  kanji character for her name with my dear Ryoko but of course and obviously, a different pronunciation – Japanese is like that.)

Anyhow, I quickly realized Michal was a kindred spirit and we enjoyed barrages of convos and sips of tea in between him being whisked away to greet more and more people and i managed a bit of translation for him and his LOVELY MOTHER who brought back flashbacks of my dear late Mom supporting my endeavours. 

Dude speaks half a dozen languages, has travelled here in there and has an interest, again obviously, in culture, scenes and emotions. 

His art is crafted diligently, deliberately and carefully and thoughtfully (contrasting in this respect to my own technique of wild brushstrokes and barely tamed chaos) mixing techniques including pointillism (in a way) like Georges Seurat with scenes that somehow seem Renoir-ish and daring fauvist contrast of Matisse and controlled unmudded/mixed colour suggesting modern pop artists like Haring or ole Andy. 

Anyhow, I noticed this painting of a Kyoto garden with a bridge and well,… I felt strongly that this painting should remain in Japan as it instantly evoked feelings of van Gogh’s remixes of Hiroshige plus Hokusai prints we’d seen at his museum a while back. 

I wasn’t packing a big wad of cash, and the amount wasn’t readily available from a machine or by bank transfer so, with a calligraphy pen and the wrapper from a bar of fancy chocolate, I wrote up a contract – which was duly duly witnessed by another exceptionally interesting community ringleader at the gig (i know his name as well… really… ummm).  I duly made a down payment on site by PayPal (which required him setting up/resurrect in his account) and we had a deal. Hooray!

So we picked up “Warm Autumn night in Kyoto” from his hotel a couple days later as he rushed to the train station > airport amongst an avalanche of fond goodbyes from his well-wishers.

While this painting seemed absolutely and immediately perfect, there were several others – really all of them – which were very tempting. Certainly any wise collector will be eager to get their hands on one of his masterful, nuanced and whimsical originals.

This fine gentleman ^ (umm i know his name…) saying a song and so then Ryoko did one as well – she selected a Chinese song with references back to a plant which appears in one of the paintings. Yep, she’s clever like that.

As is our custom, Ryoko and I gifted Michal with some various postcard treats of original art that we had brought along. He was very gracious about our offerings.

Michal himself shared tender sentiments from the event: 

One month ago the ” Inner Garden” Show held in Setouchi City Museum of Art! I’m still so moved by memory of this wonderful event, new friendships with all the marvellous supporters and helpers, all this thanks to amazing artist Yoshiko Yoshida and the great members of the friendship committee from Okayama-shi and beyond! Thank you dear friends for offering me and my mother such a wonderful time in your company, thanks for the hard work.

Worth nothing that Michal headed to Osaka after this event for another exhibit (minus the painting now hanging in our genkon) then to Sri Lanka for a commission, and then had a perilous journey bumping full-on into the pandemic/ quarantine situation when arriving in Europe which involved in walking across borders and being sequestered in strange places with no art supplies and the like.

Regardless, with his cheery disposition position and intrepid spirit, he organized a little Instagram contest (spoiler: i won!) to score his watercolours. 

The paintings safely arrived (despite various postal restrictions) and will soon hang (once safely framed) in Ryoko’s “Kimone” office where she does her work for arborist/garden design business.

Find Michal at Michal-Korman.com and follow his work via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – by doing so, you’ll see that he seems to be settled back into to “work mode”. Nice to see ya pal!