Under the auspices of the European Parliament in 1994, the European Federation of Artists´ Colonies (EuroArt) was officially founded. 
The organization comprises 107 members, 45 artists’ colonies in 13 countries (as of February 2025).

How did the artists’ colonies develop?

As a phenomenon, the artists’ colonies came into being in the first half of the 19th century.  French, and later foreign painters went to Barbizon in the woods of Fontainebleau and Grez-sur-Loing further south. After Barbizon, small, or bigger artists’ colonies sprang up all over Europe, in England, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, Hungary and Switzerland among others. After the First World War, most artists’ colonies of the old style lost their appeal. 

Today, lots of the old artists’ colonies have survived and are blossoming in new ways. 
I, Mayumi Yamakawa, have been a  membership of the Künstlervereiningung Dachau (the Dachau Artists’ Association) more than 1.5 decades, EuroArt.

In February 2021, euroart was granted the “Participatory status with the Council of Europe (see logomark below)”, assessing the federation as “a unique European network working towards a greater cultural understanding and cooperation”.

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Mayumi Yamakawa

Born and raised in Japan. Studied fashion design. 
Mayumi Yamakawa Studied Sumi-e (Japanese ink-wash painting) with the renowned artist Hozan Matsumoto in her home town, Kobe.

Following her relocation to Germany in the late Eighties, she founded and managing director of an advertising and PR agency in Munich.

Currently focused solely on creative art activities. Yamakawa immersed herself in the use of traditional and modern European methods and recipes to make her own paints, and in handling these paint "raw materials". As a result she discovered egg tempera and tempera grassa (egg oil tempera) as effective mediums for painting, and at the same time broadened her artistic range.

Tempera Gallery: Direct Sales 
Sumi-e Gallery: Direct Sales