One of my favorite things to do is visiting art exhibitions, and a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a museum in Kyoto Station on my home from visiting my parents.

I like this museum because it's convenient to visit and always introduce me to artists I wasn't familiar with before. Kunio Makino is one of them.

Kunio Makino was born in 1925, and when we was seventeen, he made up his mind to become an artist. At that time, abstract art was very popular, but he went against the trendy and pushed his own style, which feels very dreamy and fantasical. He admire Rembrandt and spent his entire life trying to follow in his footsteps, so he studied abroad to Holland.

Some of his paintings were allowed to take pictures, so I'd like to share them with you. The painting in the picture below was unfinished and became his last work. He passed away from cancer at the age of 61. The intricate details of this piece were amazing.

Since I really loved his style, I bought the exhibition catalog.

He was an expert at painting self-portraits, and the man you see is himself. When you stare at his piece, you can find many human figures hidden in his clothing.

This piece was painted on cardboard.

Painting on musical instrument is such a cool idea. I once had a similar thought and I tried to paint on my piano when I was still living with my parents. My mom didn't like it, and I had to give it up.

He also painted a dead sparrow on a record jacket, which I thought was a really neat idea.

The woman holding a teacup is his wife, Shiho. She often modeled for him. This is one of my favorite his pieces. I think he's really good at blending unrealistic elements such as a dog customer sitting in a chair, creepy looking human faces on each chair, human faces hidden on a red jacket, a frog had, a snail hat and more. It's fun to find these little hidden things.

His unique paintings made me feel like I had wondered into a wonderland.

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