Artist spends 6 years painting 1,300-year-old Bangye-ri ginkgo tree
Every autumn, social media fills with photos taken in front of the Bangye-ri ginkgo tree, a 1,300-year-old natural monument in Munmak-eup, Wonju, Gangwon Province. Anyone who has visited the tree recently may have unknowingly crossed paths with painter Choi Seon-gil, 63, who has been visiting the site almost daily for six years to capture the tree on canvas. Choi’s work has now been published in a book titled “One Day, I Met a Tree,” a collection of his paintings and reflections on the ancient ginkgo. Speaking by phone Monday, he said, “I went through a process where many of my thoughts ripened under that tree. The tree has become a great teacher.” Choi first saw a photo of the ginkgo on social media in November 2019. The location was only a 20-30 minute drive from his home in Buro-myeon, Wonju, where he had relocated a few years earlier. Although trees were already a familiar subject in his work, seeing this one in person felt different. “I immediately thought, ‘I have to paint this tree for a long time,’” he said. He planned to paint it over the course of a single ye
Nov 27, 2025By Hankookilbo
