TW Creatives Goes Offline: Watercolor Workshop With Kailene Falls

Last summer, we launched our TW Creatives series. Through weekly features, we wanted to highlight the talent in the Tokyo Weekender community and show our support to everyone out there who has a story to tell or an artwork to show. Following a successful round of articles featuring short stories, poetry, photography and illustrations submitted by creators from all over Japan, we decided to take it a step further and launch our first TW Creatives offline event.

In late December, we brought together five readers (we wanted to invite more, but in consideration of the pandemic, it was a small group event) to join us for a watercolor workshop led by Kailene Falls, who we featured in our TW Creatives series in September. The event was held in ArtBar‘s Sendagaya location and welcomed the participants to dip their fingers into painting a delicious-looking pair of dango.

ArtBar has been one of our biggest supporters since the early days of the pandemic. We featured their online classes in our special May issue (which you can still flip through via our archives) and we were happy to work with them again to make this first event come to life.

Working with Kailene, we put together a workshop that made watercolor accessible while showcasing her unique style. In just under three hours, participants were able to follow the artist as they recreated the traditional Japanese confectionary. Kailene, a Tokyo-based professional illustrator and TV commentator, was looking to start giving workshops on the regular for anybody interested in watercolor. She was able to swiftly guide each participant to recreate the dango at a comfortable pace.

Once the state of emergency is lifted, we hope to host another round of events in 2021. If you have an idea in mind, or would like to lead an event based on your expertise, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected]

Here are some photos from the event! See you at the next one!