One of the hottest spots in Seoul is Hongdae, it is filled with restaurants, cafes, clothing shops in various styles and so much more! There is a night life too, especially with young people busking where you can sit and enjoy the performances. I wanted to capture the busy atmosphere of this nightlife.

This particular canvas gave me the realisation and passion to paint landscape pieces of Korea and eventually Asian landscapes. I originally was painting a scene of Montmartre in Paris but as beautiful as the image was, I just was not passionate enough to continue on.

Here is the Montmartre painting I was originally painting. The reason I lost interest was because I have seen so many paintings of western architecture and it didn’t feel like anything new. I then realised that I have been trained and inspired by western artists but I’ve never seen my style of painting with Asian backgrounds/landscapes, I’m sure they do exist but it isn’t mainstream and those painted in Asia in the old days are stylistic. This realisation inspired me to continue painting Korean landscapes. Hongdae is also a place of creativity just like Montmartre so I think this is also poetic that the Hongdae landscape should replace the Monrmartre scene.