At the end of April 2024, I went on a solo trip to Fukuoka, Japan. I had been accepted into artist residency in a rural town Itoshima, very close to the Main city of Fukuoka. As part of my residency I worked on a series of paintings and riso prints, to display at the final art show at the end of May.
My time spent in Japan was predominantly focused on it's landscapes and surroundings. My main goal whilst on the residency was to focus on background and environment illustration, as I noticed that my work was laking both of these things.
I took with me various materials, inclusing a small 5"x5" sketchbook, which housed most of my painting studies. A slightly larger A5 sketchbook for sketching, some of my normal watercolour paper for any final pieces, and my weekly hobonichi journal, for a daily doodle.
The environment in Itoshima was magical. From mountains to bamboo forests, rice fields, shrines, torii gates, and a beach only a 5 minute walk away. It was a perfect place to gain inspiration from.
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Whilst in Japan, I wanted to try my hand out riso printing for the first time. Did you know riso printing originated in Japan? It felt like a prefect opportunity to try it, and with the help from YALLWALL printing and Okin (a fellow artist from Fukuoka), a lot of head scratching on my part, and switching photoshop layers on and off constantly...my first two colour riso print was created.
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I was also loved the eki stamp's you can collect at train stations all over Japan. It fuelled an idea in my head to form an entire world through the illustrations I created during my residency. From train tickets to it's own eki stamp. It made sense to me, to collect my final pieces into a story, into a world of its own.
