As the first post on my blog, I thought it would be nice to introduce myself and tell you what I will talk about in this blog. My name is Daniëlle (다니엘르), I was born in 1995 and live in the Netherlands. You may wonder where my interest in Korean culture and art comes from. The quick and short answers would be:
When I was five years old, my parents adopted my brother from Korea,
In 2010, I went to Korea for the first time with my family and fell in love with the culture!
During my Bachelor studies, I did an exchange program in Korea,
My husband is Korean, and we lived in Korea for two and a half years.
My love for art started when I was young. Since childhood, I have enjoyed drawing and painting and attended weekly art classes after school. Later, during my studies in Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Delft, I took design drawing classes where I learned a lot about perspective drawing, shading, etc. After moving to Korea, I learned about Minhwa and am still learning more. In my blog, Cosy Colours, I will share my experiences painting Minhwa, visiting exhibitions, Korean art history, materials and techniques, and other stories about Korean Folk Painting. But before telling you more about Korean painting, I will first tell you how I got introduced to Minhwa.
The first time I saw Korean folk art
When I was fifteen years I went on a 3-week holiday to South Korea with my family. That was the first time I travelled with an aeroplane, my first time outside of Europe, and my first time in Korea. It was the greatest journey I ever made. Because of that, I can still remember almost everything we did.
For example, at the Lotus Lantern Festival, there was a culture market, where we painted lotus flowers on paper fans. Also, we went to a Hanji paper factory. Hanji is the type of paper used for many things. One usage is painting Minhwa (Korean folk art). We visited palaces and temples, which were decorated with beautiful paintings.
I still remember the last day of that trip very well. During this holiday, I fell in love with the country and culture. And because I knew I couldn’t return for a while, I sat in the window of my hotel room behind the curtains all night. I admired the view of the old palace, calmly resting between the modern buildings with lots of bright lights on them. I would get jetlag anyway, so I would rather spend my time enjoying the last hours as much as possible.
The second time I went to Korea
After waiting for six years, I could finally go to Korea again. I went on a 5-month exchange program. During that time, I followed classes (in English) in 수묵화 (sumukhwa: oriental black ink painting). I liked admiring these kinds of paintings and enjoyed the classes. But it didn’t stick with me, and I didn't do it outside the classes. I didn't have the confidence to practice without the teacher.
I took Minhwa classes in Korea for two years
In 2020, during COVID-19, I quit my job and moved to Korea to live in Seoul with my Korean husband. Those days, it was hard to go to Korea because there was no travel visa. So I decided to study the Korean language full-time at EWHA.
I am so glad I made this decision, I loved living in Korea. And because my Korean improved a lot, I was able to follow regular Minhwa classes in Korean. I remember my first class, where I was nervous about being able to understand the teacher. I only studied Korean for about five months back then.
Luckily, I found an amazing teacher who was very patient and good at explaining things in simple language. I learned so much from her, from Mixing paints to the meaning of the painted subjects.
What I like about Minhwa
Before I learned about Minhwa, I painted mainly with watercolours and acrylic paint and enjoyed drawing on my iPad or in a sketchbook with a black pen.
During the art classes I took as a teenager, I enjoyed painting large artworks, but I didn’t do that at home because I was afraid to waste my materials. But the best practice is to paint as much as you can. Now I have had a lot of practice in painting Minhwa specifically, I feel confident and excited to start a new painting.
Also, like watercolours, Korean paints do not smell and are quite clean to work with, making them easy to use. Another nice thing about Minhwa is that the paper is big (75 x 140 cm), and I can cut it to any size I need. And because I prime the paper myself, I know what to expect from it.
Before painting Minhwa, you need to prime and dye the paper. I also learned to use 분채 (bunchae, a pigment powder) to make my paints. I find this process very relaxing, and it’s a good preparation to warm up your fingers and get into the painting mood.
On top of that, I love the vibrant, graphic, and detailed painting style, with many different themes that all have a hidden meaning or story. Most paintings have a lot of nature depicted in them, which I also like a lot.
Minhwa exhibitions in Seoul
While living in Korea, I enjoyed visiting art exhibitions, museums, and art fairs. One of my favourite places is KyungIn Gallery in Insadong.
KyungIn Gallery is a place with traditional Korean hanok houses, arranged around a garden. Every week, they have new exhibitions in multiple different exhibition rooms. Often, one or more rooms have a Minhwa exhibition. This place also has a Korean tea house where you can order traditional Korean teas and snacks. My favourites are omija tea with rice cake snacks, which taste even better after viewing a beautiful exhibition.
Also, every year there is a huge Minhwa art fair in Seoul. I went there in 2022, and it was amazing to see so many current artists. In a later post, I will write in more detail about the current Minhwa scene in Korea.
Learning more about Korean Folk Art
I regularly went to Insadong, a street in Seoul with many art material stores and galleries. There, I bought my first set of materials. I wanted to be able to paint myself at home as well.
In 2022 I took the minhwa instructor exam. For this, I had to send in my portfolio of paintings and do a written theoretical exam. Again, I was so nervous because it was in Korean, but in the end, I answered only one question wrong. I passed the exam! And since then, I have been dreaming about opening my own Minhwa art studio in the Netherlands.
My dream: starting my own Korean folk painting studio in the Netherlands
Painting Minhwa is so fun and relaxing to me. I cannot imagine what I would be doing if I never got introduced to Minhwa.
That is one of the reasons that I want to start a Minhwa art studio in the Netherlands. For people like me five years ago. I liked oriental art, but finding good information about styles like Minhwa was hard. And I couldn’t find classes or materials, so I never thought about trying it out.
The Cosy Colours blog is about everything related to Korean painting
Because I need some time to prepare for teaching Minhwa classes, for example searching for a location, materials, etc. I am already starting with this blog.
Besides painting Minhwa, I find the stories behind the paintings, materials, and artists very interesting, and I would love to share these with you all.
I will write about the materials used for painting Minhwa, the history of Minhwa, museums and exhibitions and everything related to Minhwa or Korean art and culture.
Get more information on my painting classes
I aim to start giving Minhwa classes after the summer of 2024.
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