mansudae art studio gallery

The artists studio is a large 'compound' in city centre. We think they said 600 artists are here, living in. There is a tourist shop near entrance (on 2 levels, ceramics, trinkets, silk screen printed posters, watercolour paintings, tapestries etc....). No doubt the art works were good & artists are very talented, but they are very good at 'copying'...more like finished artworks.The official guide was pushing us to hurry up (4 out of the 6 in the tour - were actually from art backgrounds, so we enjoyed the visit and asked questions). We went to 4 rooms - water colour & oil painting, ceramics and tapestry. The artists were very tolerable and kind. The artists have a restaurant, child care and schooling on the grounds for family. Was a good 1 hour spent not viewing monuments and statues!Hint: With limited electricity on during the day, and dim lighting elsewhere - the floors on some levels were very slippery (heavily polished concrete on stairs???) and you couldn't see subtle inclines/declines etc.