Shaking things up!

Artist Michelle Harton made quite the impression with her latest exhibition in South Korea where her painted works have now inspired a range of unique cocktails at one of Seoul’s most exclusive hotels.

So taken with Michelle’s talent, the Grand InterContinental Parnas have created a menu with drinks capturing the essence of her paintings through “five different colours, flavours, tastes, and shapes”, from rum and strawberry ‘Pink Sky, Pink Lake’ to the heady gin, lavender and blueberry ‘Magical Pond’.

The curious collaboration inspired by Korean folklore came about during the Cavan artist’s recent trip to the East Asian peninsula as part of Start Art Seoul at Gallery Chapman.

Michelle was invited to Korea having previously exhibited with Start Art at London’s celebrated Saatchi Gallery. After CEO of Start Art Korea, Jason Lee, displayed a love for Michelle’s work, he invited her to fly halfway around the world last year to show her paintings to an entirely new audience.

Last year’s exhibit encompassed some of Michelle’s past work - including two large paintings from her collection inspired by Oscar Wilde’s book of fairytales.

Such was the success of that first visit that Michelle was invited back to conduct a solo show in July-August 2023.

“I found the Koreans really loved the [Oscar Wilde] stories and that gave me the inspiration for when I was invited back for my solo show to look at the idea of doing it on Korean folklore. I’d done [an exhibition] on the folklore of Cavan before, so I thought it’d be really interesting to contrast that with another culture and see what that’s like.”

Michelle brought with her two collections - her ongoing transversible mystical landscapes collection ‘The Land of Gemini’ and an entirely new collection inspired by Korean folklore.

Ever wonder the reason why the heads of millet, or sorghum as its known in Korea, is red in colour? It has to do with three little sisters who became the sun, moon and stars, who when fleeing from a tiger prayed to the sky and climbed up a rope. When the tiger prays to follow his prey the basket breaks and he falls all the way back to earth where he’s impaled onto a sorghum stalk.

It ended up inspiring one of the largest work’s in Michelle’s Korean exhibition.

Michelle’s research began online, and then later by purchasing English translated Korean children’s tales.

“I looked for the better known ones, what was unusual, and what stood out. My process begins with reading - lots of reading, and watching documentaries, and I just write all the things I feel gives me visuals in my head. Once I’ve compiled a list I begin painting, in a very abstract way at first with colours on a page, before I see things take shape, characters appear, and then see how these stories could work on the canvas.”

A lot of the people who came to see Michelle’s Korean exhibition could “scarcely believe” that a person, living close to 9,000 kilometres away, could tap into a wealth of tales some had only been told by their grandparents.

The subject matter also presented Michelle an opportunity to bring back her “more realistic portraits and animals”, and to mix that with her already recognised abstract style.

“I noticed Irish stories tend not to have the nicest of endings, but the Korean tales, the majority of them, have a more positive, uplifting ending, or some hope. I’m not sure what that says about our cultures,” says Michelle laughing.

“In a lot of cultures they have a symbolic use of animals. In Irish folklore as well, the shifting of something valuable. So that was quite interesting, having read the Irish folklore before, and especially from Cavan, to see the similarities then with the stories people have grown up with in Korea.”

She adds: “They found it hard to believe how an Irish person was able to find Korean folklore, never mind translated into English. But they seemed to really appreciate that I’d done the work, and they also really connected with the work, which I felt was really special, because I’m doing my work, but it’s an interpretation of Korean people, their culture. These tales are precious. I was worried I might I offend somebody? But no, that didn’t happen, and they just really seemed to love the dreamlike nature of it and embraced what was before them.”

Michelle also painted a giant dragon, again a strong and important symbol of good luck in Asian culture. She incorporated the Asian zodiac’s Black Rabbit also, symbol of 2023, and featured the cute little dogs that now proliferate Korea, a modern day symbol of prosperity.

Michelle took particular inspiration from one tale about a young boy who collects stories and keeps them in a bag, never sharing them until one day the stories, yearning to be heard, turn on him.

“That’s the whole theme behind the exhibition for me. Sharing stories and the bridge that builds between cultures because when we get to the bottom of it all, we’re really alike. Whether that’s me bringing stories from Ireland over there, or helping someone in Korea reconnect with a tale they’d been told but maybe had forgotten.”

Will this latest exhibition move Michelle and her painting in new directions in future?

“It’s strange. One thing I noticed about the landscape paintings, when I went to Korea last year, I visited temples and they had very old Korean paintings in the backgrounds. It’s not something I’d looked at before, but what struck me was the way they did their mountains, hills and valleys is the same way I’d been painting my drumlins of Cavan.”

Along with inspiring a cocktail menu, Michelle’s exhibition is set to travel around Korea, to another gallery in Seoul, and to the southern port city of Busan.

Michelle is understandably delighted with the reception to her work, and to have one of her paintings purchased by the Irish Ambassador to Korea, Michelle Winthrop.

“She bought a painting called ‘Waiting for the Sparrows’ for the embassy there, so it’s nice to be supported in that way.

“There is a good Irish community in Korea as well, in Seoul, and it’s lovely to have one of my paintings with the embassy there.”