The John Dyer Gallery in association with Hibell in Japan has just returned from a highly successful tour of four of Japan's major cities, Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka & Tokyo.

An exhibition titled 'Happy Summer Paradise' has been on tour in nine of Japan's most prestigious gallery spaces across these cities and John Dyer made personal appearances at six of the venues.

One of the galleries is in the world famous 'Matsuya' store in the Ginza district of Tokyo. This store and the district are the equivalent of Park Avenue in New York and is the center for business and high quality retail and art outlets.

"This has been a fantastic experience for me - people have travelled from all over Japan to meet me on the tour and it has been incredibly interesting to listen to my new Japanese collectors discussing my work. We have launched a vibrant new range of limited edition prints in Japan to accompany the exhibition of original paintings and the images of St Ives and the Helford Passage are very popular. Many collectors are buying my print of the Helford Passage with a yellow sky to hang on the west wall of their homes, as in Japan a yellow sky hung on the west will will bring the family good fortune."

John Dyer

The Japanese are very familiar with the UK, London and Harry Potter but they have never come across Cornwall before so this has been an amazing opportunity to promote Cornwall as a destination. We are sure that many people from Japan will now be looking into traveling to Cornwall as a holiday destination to track down the famous John Dyer Seagulls and the amazing tropical plants that grow there. With nine galleries in the top retail locations in Japan actively promoting John's work and Cornwall as a destination this is bound to have an impact.

"We are delighted with the work of John Dyer, in Japan we usually promote western artists for 3 to 5 years before embarking on a tour, but in the case of John's work this has been put together in under a year due to the popularity of his unique style of work. We already have plans to expand the range and we have commissioned the artist to paint a new painting called 'St Ives Happy New Year' that we will launch in December" 

Art Director of Hibell

At each location visitors came to see John Dyer and many polaroid photographs were taken with John that the artist also signed for the customers as a souvenir of their visit and purchase. The sales team also loved to have their picture taken with the artist.

John travelled to Japan with his family and his wife, artist Joanne Short.

2007 Japan Tour dates and Venues

KYOTO
July 14th Sat Daimara - Kyoto

79 Shijo Takakura

Shimogyo-ku

Kyoto-city 600-8511

KOBE
July 15th Sun Daimara - Kobe /Hyogo

40 Akashi-cho

Kobe-city

Hyogo 650-0037 

OSAKA
July 16th Mon Umeda - Osaka

3-1-1 Umeda

Kita-ku

Osaka-city 530-8202 

TOKYO
July 20st Fri Tobu - Ikebukuro - Tokyo

1-1-25 Nishi Ikebukuro

Toshima-ku

Tokyo 171-0021 

TOKYO
July 21st Sat Tokyu - Kichijoji -Tokyo

2-3-1 Kichijoji-Honmachi

Musashino-city

Tokyo 180-8519

TOKYO
July 22nd Sun Matsuya -Ginza -Tokyo

3-6-1 Ginza

Chuo-ku 

Tokyo 104-0061