In 2008, for the first time I went to New York to sell my work.

At that time, there was no iPhone and didn't know where to find galleries, but I decided to go to New York.

I decided to go anyway, because the demand for paintings in Japan had dropped considerably due to the Lehman Shock, and the street sales I was doing at the time and the exhibitions and sales at rental galleries were not doing well.

I had heard that New York was the home of painting, so I decided to check out every place I could find, and I brought a canvas with about a size 10 painting on it, as well as smaller works.

At that time, the situation of galleries in New York was not as clear as it is today through the Internet and other media.

I read in the guide book that the center of the art area was shifting from Chelsea to the Lower East Side, where the Jews first settled in New York, but I had no idea what that meant.

I didn't have much money then than I do now, so I decided to stay at a cheap inn called the Japanese Guest House.

It was 30 dollars a night. After that, I would often use this inn every time I went to New York.

When I landed at John F. Kennedy Airport, I took a shared bus with instructions from the inn.

I took the bus because it was an hour far from Manhattan and I didn't have the money to take a cab.

I don't remember the details of the bus anymore, but there were only colored people on it.

When we arrived at the inn, the driver told us to get off the bus and go here. But there was no sign of the inn.

I panicked, but I got off and looked carefully at the sign and saw the name of the inn in small letters.

To be continued

This is Takuma Tanaka's Art Samurai Training Series.

When I was staying at a guesthouse in New York and going back and forth between Japan and New York, I met a rather cocky student named M. from Kyoto University. He told me that I was lacking in the logic and basic ideas of art.

Sure, I had learned how to draw, but I didn't have any knowledge of the logic of art or other fields of art. For example, architecture, photography and things that went beyond those, like gardens.

So I enrolled in Yotsuya Art Studium, an experimental art school in Yotsuya that was funded by Kinki University and was established at the time. It was an experimental school, famous for its cutting-edge instructors and experimental approach.

The chief director of the school was Kenjiro Okazaki, and I took his seminar and some classes. When I told Mr. Okazaki that I studied the law in Waseda University and studing for the bar exam, he asked me if I had learned basic law. In this way, we explored the basics, which is one of the characteristics of this school, and there were graduates from overseas art universities and foreign students who studied at japanese Art University.

The first fieldwork was to dismantle Rikugien. We all went to a garden called Rikugien in Tokyo and were given five pieces of paper. The assignment was to take apart Rikugien and show the whole picture. I was puzzled by this. To be continued.

Last time, I wrote about Mr. Kanazawa, who first taught me how to draw art. I learned some basic techniques from Mr. Kanazawa, while also learning on my own. At the time I did not have money to buy art books, so I borrowed a large number of art books from the prefectural library in Kuki to study them. If any of those art books had paints in them, they were probably the ones I borrowed.

To learn art, you need to master the pattern of the painter. This pattern is different for each artist. First of all, you have to copy the pattern in order to master it. We try to reproduce as faithfully as possible. The shape, the color, the touch and the surface of the painting.

After that, as I mastered various patterns, I was able to improve them. And eventually, you will be able to break away from the molds and create your own worldview.

It was around this time that I was looking for a way to create a mold. At the time, I came across a book titled "The Art School for Thieves" by Yutaka Sasaki in the Kuki library, and I saw it. When I read the book, it described the various artists who had recently been influencing the work of the landlord.

Inspired by this, I decided to go to Yokohama Station to learn from Yutaka Sasaki, who was teaching at the station building. He was a graduate of the oil painting department of the University of the Arts and worked as an assistant at the Tokyo University of the Arts, but he left there because it was too formal and conservative and went on to become a professor of art at Meisei University, which had a more liberal school culture. To be continued.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Today I would like to write about how Takuma Tanaka has learned the techniques of art.

My first encounter with painting and art originally began as a form of rehabilitation after I became mentally exhausted. After that, I became interested in art, and I learned how to paint from Mr. Hideaki Kanazawa at Yuzawaya, an art supply store with several locations in the Kanto area.

He was an accomplished artist who had become a member of the Nika-kai at a young age without using any money or connections at all. At that time, he was one of the junior members of the Nika-kai, a title he held at that time, a friend of the society.

I remember the first time I met Mr. Kanazawa, when I showed him a drawing, he said, "You draw like a maestro", which I remember. In the beginning, I learned the basics of drawing, how to draw an abstract painting, and how to create colors.

I went there for over two years.

After six months of studying painting, I decided to participate in the Saitama Prefectural Exhibition, which was to be held in Saitama Prefecture Museum. Mr. Kanazawa told me at the time that it was reckless and impossible because the exhibition is for someone who had studied painting for 10 years .

However, I took up the challenge of creating a painting of size 50, which was a big challenge for me at the time. As a result, it was selected and hung in the Prefectural Museum of Art.

To be continued.

Now I'm reading a book of David Hockney. 
He says that all of flat, 2D arts are what reality, 3D world translated. Of course there happens the gap and lag. The function and uniqueness of each art is how to fill it in.

The book said the Greek philosopher Plato didn't like the realism artworks.
These realism art had a great influence at that time too, and often used to cheat people.So he thought it is harmful.

Socrates said the similar thing too：
The pictures matter how it is seen, not actually what it is.
A branch in a water looks ｂend, but it is not the truth.
Those who draw knows our weakness and tries to deceive us.

At that time there was a realism painter Zeuxis who used a lot of techniques to paint a kind of trick art and made a big money. What Socrates said considered these situation.

I'd like to share what I thought interesting from this book.

after going to the museums in Paris one after another, I've been to the Montmartre hills. 

As I haven't enough money, I used metro to move around. Only one exception was when I got lost. I had no idea and caught a taxi. and I was soaked. Yes, it happens a lot.

In the park of the Montmartre,  there were a of street artists painting and selling their woks for tourist. I found a Japanese artist there. He was living there in Paris some how and told me how is it like to be en street artist there. He said it is necessary to be approved by the city. 

At night, I went to a bar. But it was a rip-off bar actually.

 On the next day because of that accident, I'd only have one thousand euros. So I had to spend the rest of the time in French saving even more. I hardly stayed in Paris to see around all the museums their.

After the Paris I was planning to go south France, province.

Before that I've been to Museum Marmottan Monet. The famous museum with the great paintings of Claude Monet. It was about 25 m wide, but it seems to have more width. Also the museum was where I've got to know Berthe Morisot. She is female impressionist painter of that time.

After here finally I've got to the southern France.