A friend of mine visited Seoul and was obsessed with the night life and the lights of the streets and so I decided to paint something inspired by that. I pictured the landscape but instead of drawing the details of the building, I just focused on the lights and signs.
Do any of these signs and logos look familiar to you?
What do you think about it, follow me on instagram @mikeyespinosa
This is a meaningful place! When I was staying in Korea during the pandemic, the building that is lit up with gold wasn’t built up yet but I watched the renovation during my stay and by the time I had to leave, it was finished. I did a painting of this previously and was bought. Because I want every painting to be unique with no copies, I promised not to paint the same scene. However returning two years later I noticed that the area had gotten busier, probably because of the pandemic slowly coming to an end. The street lights were brighter, the streets busier, but I didn’t want to paint the image with people because I just wanted to focus on the wonder I felt with the buildings and the lights.
(In this picture the accessory on my trousers is a Norigae designed by Marron Pipa)
The image was very nostalgic for me, on busy nights the streets are filled with tents and outdoor BBQ, but they were located further down the left side, I painted a small tent in the corner to represent this kind of culture known as Pocha. The roads with all the street lights and signs was quite busy filled with cars as it was a road that lead to several crossings and was too narrow. This painting differs from the first as the original only focused on the building whereas this I feel, captures the energy of the night life.
What do you think? Follow me on Instagram – @mikeyespinosa
I was walking with my friend along Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea and saw the War museum. It looked really grand and we decided to walk through it. Then I saw the statue known as “Statue of Brothers” or in Korean “형제의 상.”
Seeing this statue was so emotional. A story of two brothers one from the South, the other from the North, who ran into each other during the Korean War, the elder brother was Park Kyu Chul and the younger Park Yong Chul. They meet expressing reconciliation and love. The dome they stand on are pieces collected from different locations of Korea symbolizing the sacrifices made and the crack down the middle symbolizes the division made by war and the hopes of unification.
What do you think? Is this the first time you’ve heard or seen this statue?
Wearing a Norigae designed by Marron Pipa
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I’ve painted a lot of night life and traditional buildings in South Korea but one thing that I wanted to showcase was every day living. In K-dramas you often see the rich CEO home or a super poor or traditional space so I wanted to capture an everyday scenario landscape. And I came with this!
I’d say this was one of my earlier paintings of Korea in a town called Wonju. We can see the street market and the old buildings in the background, the spaces unlike modern spaces are quite tight and small. Compared to the high rise buildings of central Seoul, these buildings are quite low but with its hilly terrain you can still see a lot of the other buildings. What do you think? Here’s a picture of me with my awkward pose to showcase the size of this piece haha.
This is a cute little fun art piece I decided to do, I’ve been painting a lot of landscapes of South Korea but what about food I like when I visit… EASY! Soondubu jiggae! Soondubu meaning soft tofu and jiggae meaning stew. It’s spicy and blends beautifully with rice and seaweed! I always loved this dish but then I went to a restaurant near Myeongdong that specialised on this dish, they definitely added something extra. Soondubu jiggae can be seen as a very basic meal and so it is often just served as a stew with a bowl of rice.
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The collaboration piece of Jeong Hoe Jin and my exhibition, Beyond Dialogue. The original concept of the exhibition was being inspired by each others home countries, how I feel about South Korea and Hoe Jin feelings towards the UK and creating pieces inspired by that. But then we realised that it would be more impactful and meaningful if it was expressing the idea of what home means to us. Home isn’t necessarily the structure that we sleep in but it can also be a feeling. And so we came up with this.
Because of this, I had to be very careful with the placement of my addition to the painting. I decided to use Dancheong in this painting.
I used Dancheong because the pillars of the palaces that have the designs hold a structure up, just like a home, a home should be something that is held upwards and over your head to protect you. Because of the personal relationships of Hoejin and his grandmother, I wanted to include the idea of the red string soul tie. A soul tie is a belief that people are connected to each other by red string and I want to represent this in the image through the pillars. Sometimes the feeling of home is not necessarily a building but a connection with somebody.
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and Hoejin at @jiam_hanji
This painting brought back so many pretty memories. Cheonggyecheon was once an old stream that people lived by, when looking back at old photos it almost looked like a Shanty town. With Koreas fast development after the Korean war a highway was built over the stream which was turned into sewage system. However after the development of the road, in the 90s there was a project to restore the stream, it was controversial as there were a lot of people against it because people around the area would lose their businesses. When it opened in 2005, it has slowly become a popular destination and has improved the ecosystem.
As the years have passed, the manmade stream developed and more greenery was planted bringing animal life to the area! This scene in particular was captured on a warm September day, people were just enjoying the last few moments of Summer and I saw a man resting underneath the tree. When I paint my Korean landscapes I don’t usually paint the people in them but I had to in this case, it completes the mood I felt.
The trickiest thing to paint were the steps, and showing how the sunlight was captured and reflected on the ground, I was playing around with white and yellow paint, even though it appeared white on the picture, yellow appeared suitable to capture the Summer glow. I had fun painting the stream and wanted to paint the local herons but I felt like it would be too much for the image and instead included the Koi.
I have been painting a lot of landscapes recently and if I had to choose what style I enjoy doing most, it would have to be my more illustrative style. Its been a while since I’ve done a big canvas piece like this. So here we go!
What is Najeonchilgi? Najeonchilgi is a handcraft that uses the rainbow, iridescence of the the abalone shell. The abalone shell is used to create intricate pieces and patterns which is then laid down onto furniture such as cupboards mirrors, tables etc and these days the technique can be used on rings, phone stands and cases and many more. Najeon 나전 means mother of pearl and Chilgi 칠기 means lacquerware.
Najeonchilgi patterns are often of flowers, butterflies and you may see mammals like herons and on a rare occasion, I believe I have seen a deer! Sometimes there are placements that look like it’s a landscape image and in those cases you would see mountains or waterfalls. I wanted to incorporate most of these elements on the final piece.
Achieving the Najeonchilgi iridescence was quite challenging, how could I create a reflective rainbow like surface? I decided to use metallic paints, the paints were able to give a shimmer especially when light reflects on it but it isn’t iridescent. I did my best to observe how colours move and changed when the light reflects on Najeon and I noticed it was slight patchy but mostly streaky. I would apply a white base, then a light silver base. I would then add a patch of light blue and then streaks of pink and green and a hint of yellow. Applying this on the mountains and finer lines was easier, the wider surfaces were definitely harder to create the look.
What do you think? Did I manage to apply it well? It was my first time so please be kind haha! Follow me on instagram @mikeyespinosa
I had my third exhibition and it was a collaborative one and it was in South Korea! My South Korean debut as a visual artist. I had met my friend Hayden who creates sculptures out of traditional Korean paper known as Hanji. Hanji is made from the inner bark of Mulberry. It was fascinating to see how Hayden also known as Jiam Hanji, could make even sculptures out of paper.
Due to our love for art we decided to collaborate together and have an art exhibition called Beyond dialogue, it was originally going to be called a feeling of home but that feeling could mean so many things. Home might be a feeling you feel with a person and not necessarily a place. Beyond dialogue felt like the right name.
With Hanbok fashion designer Guiroe Yeoback. The next set of pictures are the pieces I displayed for Beyond dialogue.
The Buddhist painting in Jongno.
A lot of people were interested in the city scape of Seoul painting (seen on the left.) I was very pleased to hear when people said they appreciate seeing the art because it gives them a new found experience for Korea. I understand their perspective, when you have lived somewhere all your life, you are just used to seeing your surroundings every day and don’t get to appreciate it, but when you travel abroad to another country like I did when i visit South Korea, your view of everything is different and open to appreciation.
With Hanbok influencer @HanbokC who is wearing Sheen Seoul, I am wearing a Denim Jacket and trousers also inspired by Hanbok by designer Leesle who designed for BTS!
With life drawing model Jess Moon Seo. I have drawn from him many times!
Hopefully I can have another exhibition in London! Please follow my instagram @mikeyespinosa and Jiam Hanji @JiamHanji, I will post about the collaboration piece!
mikey espinosa 