Fukuoka City Art Competition & Exhibition is an annual art event co-organized by Fukuoka City Council, Fukuoka City Education Commitee, Fukuoka Art Exhibitions Commitee, Fukuoka Perfecture Art Association, Fukuoka City Foundation for Arts and Cultural Promotion, Nishi Shinbun Japan and Societies of Arts and Cultural. It has been held annually and officially by Fukuoka City Art Museum since March 1967.
This is one of the important art events that call for the participation of residents from Fukuoka Perfecture. The response towards it is overwhelming and the number of artworks sumbitted is increasing from year to year. Statistic by organizers showed that there were 1,247 participants with 1,448 artworks submitted for the March 2010 Show. Anyway, submission is limited to two artworks per artist and the fee is 2,500yen per artwork. Basically, one can take part in any categories ranged from Japanese style paintings, Western style paintings, photography, sculptures, applied art, design to calligraphy.
For this year, 1.74million yen is offered to 23 winners of special awards and 47 consolation prizes. There are 4 to 5 judges per category for the judging and assessment session and hence it has involved a total number of 32 judges in this competition.
I came across the competition application form during my first visit to Fukuoka City Art Museum in the mid of January, almost one month of my arrival in Japan. With no knowledge in Japanese language and characters, i spent a day time to read and tried my best to understand its' contents. Having know that i still have a month time to paint before the submission date on 15th February, i searched around the city centre an art materials outlet to buy things that i needed to get work started. Due to the tight finance and budget, i decided to paint in watercolour. I went out with a sketchbook and camera in chilling cold winter and headed for the nearby Minoshima street market. Walked alone, looking for the best angle of view and sense for my subject of painting.
After all, i was not able to start painting immediately in the rented unit located in Tenjin as we were going to move to another place. Busy with the shifting and falling sick had forced me to delay the painting work. Two weeks time left for me to complete the painting and got it framed properly before sending to the art museum. The moistness in winter had given me some difficulties in my own style of watercolour painting techniques. Finally, i managed to complete it in 56cm x 76cm full size watercolour paper and got it framed. My husband paid the expenses and helped me to carry it a long the way to art museum by bus and subway as we didn't have any car and friends who could lend us a hand that time.
All the hard work was worth it and paid off when my painting was selected for the competition and exhibition. A kind of satisfaction and pleasure to us as there was a lot of challenges along the process.
Finally, in conjunction with the Spring Sakura Festival 2010 in Ohori-Koen, the 44th Fukuoka City Art Competition and Exhibition was open to public viewing on 16th till 28th March 2010 involving 753 exhibits.
