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Category: Paintings of unusual subjects
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Painting inspired by a drive in the rain
Today I went to help my friend Mark. He was clearing up his exhibition in a small tourist town called Yufuin.
It was a long one hour drive from Oita city, where I live, to Yufuin. And, ironically, when I got there my friend was leaving. He only had time to shake my hand, wish me well and then said goodbye.
But my trip had not been completely in vain because I also had two paintings in Mark’s exhibition. And I had partly come to collect these.
But then, at the exhibition, I met a gallery owner who offered to take my two paintings and put them in her gallery. Of course, I accepted her offer. This gallery owner already shows some of my work but I was delighted that she was going to show more of my work.
However, at the same time I realized that I hadn’t really needed to make that long one hour drive to Yufuin.
And now that I was there I felt reluctant to just go straight back home. So I hung around, feeling at a bit of a loss.
But this was how I got the chance to see another artist put up her work. And her work was amazing. It is called bingata in Japanese and it is essentially dyed fabrics.
But these fabrics can become all manner of things as I saw when looking at her work.
One of her works, for instance, was a painting of Yufuin. It was a vibrant, colorful picture of the place and it was beautiful. Another was a real kimono with a beautiful design.
And another was a koinobori. This one was very impressive. It must have been about 10 meters long and it looked stunning.
A Koinobori is a tube-like flag, a little like what you see at airports sometimes. They fly in Japan from the top of very high bamboo posts. And the design on this flag is of the carp fish. They always fly them around boy’s day. In Japan they have a day to celebrate boys and a day to celebrate girls.
I actually did a painting of some koinobori. I wasn’t pleased with it though so I threw it away. However, I think they are a great subject for a painting so one day I will try to paint them again.
Anyway, looking at these large, stunning and beautiful works of art, I felt some regret that I didn’t have my camera with me. I realized that I should carry my camera with me everywhere.
It was a long hour’s drive back home and it was raining. It was also a somewhat surreal experience. It was dark and wet and the mountains were mysterious apparitions only partially visible with almost black pine trees in front of them.
The road was a reflective mirror-like silvery gray and car lights and street lights reflecting brilliantly across its surface. In the rain, the light seemed to be almost scattered across the surface of the road.
My window kept misting up and I had to keep lowering it.
Despite it being late and very dark, I had to stop the car and do some sketches. The scene was so powerfully atmospheric and looking at it rejuvenated my spirit.
The next day, in my studio, otherwise known as the kitchen table, I did some paintings in which I tried to capture that amazing atmospheric scene.
They are really experiments. And although these experimental paintings are not quite right they are very interesting and I am hopeful.
As for the painting above, I’m not happy with it because the scenery was actually a lot darker, more dramatic and more misty so I still have to work upon this and try to capture those qualities.
Below is another one I did. I’m not happy with it either. But it’s fun to paint this kind of scene.
“Car lights in the rain” Postscript
This story was originally written in June of 2014, I am editing it in 2022.
Since 2014, I have done many, many paintings of this atmospheric scene I saw on the way back from Yufuin. But I think all my results have failed.
One day I know that I will do a good painting of this scene. But sometimes it takes many attempts before I can make a good painting. Such a painting will convey the magical atmosphere that I experienced.
My wife hates these particular paintings. She thinks they are too dark. I, on the other hand, find them very interesting.
In the process of editing this story, and other stories from the year 2014, I saw that I did a lot of rainy road scenes in that year as well as some rainy scenes of a festival in a place called Nagahama.
And so here’s one more painting – just for the road (I love bad jokes). I quite like the surface of the road here but it’s still not quite right! I sigh but then I laugh and forget about it. One day, I tell myself, I’ll make an amazing painting of this incredibly atmospheric scene.
“Atmospheric drive in the rain” -
An unexpected meeting and a moving story
Recently, I met my friend Mark and we went to a restaurant for lunch. Mark and I both intended to have an exhibition at this restaurant. And we were checking out the place.
After lunch we went and looked at the exhibition area. And here we met a woman who was doing an exhibition. And we were both surprised to find out that she was a friend of Mark’s.
And then we were further surprised and intrigued to learn that the exhibition was of her late husband’s artwork.
She told us how every year she holds this exhibition around the time he died, which happened to be father’s day.
She had quite a story to tell.
I don’t know how people recover from such tragic events and how they can even seem to still be happy people. The human spirit is amazing.
She also happened to be fluent at speaking English and a very engaging person.
One thing she said really stuck with me which was how these exhibitions often bring people to her who used to know her husband. I think that connection is very important to her.
In a way, she gets to know her husband again through another person’s encounter with him.
And this was the case with us because it turns out that Mark, although not aware of the artist at first, after 10 or so minutes of looking at his work suddenly realized that he had bought two paintings from this artist about ten or so years ago.
And this happened with us. Because Mark, after 10 minutes of looking at this artist’s artwork, suddenly realized that he had bought two paintings from this artist about ten or so years ago.
This artist had produced a lot of beautiful artwork.
One of the things I particularly liked was a handmade map of Beppu. We could see and hold the original. It was beautiful.
He had also painted a starry night time picture of Beppu bay. I think that was my favorite landscape painting by him. It had a magical feeling to it.
It was quite a profound lunch.
After this I dropped Mark off and then I parked in the neighborhood and started walking around looking for places to paint.
It is an interesting neighborhood and I should perhaps mention that Beppu is famous for its natural spas. I was by the river and I could see natural steaming hot water pouring into the river. It was quite a sight.
The painting above is one of the scenes I did near Mark’s house.
I know this isn’t your typical beautiful scene. But I’ve had to learn to adapt to my environment and develop a less conventional idea of what’s beautiful.
What I liked about this scene was the irregular assortment of building shapes. I also liked the rice field in this urban environment.
That’s all for now.
See you again, or as they say in Japanese, Mata ne.
Gareth.
Postscript
I originally wrote this story in June of 2014. I am editing it 2022. This cafe has since closed. I don’t know if the owner retired or became sick.
I’m a little sad about that because it was one of those rare places that had a special place just for exhibiting paintings. It was a room added on to the cafe with a curved wall. It was perfect for showing artwork.
And I think I saw the lady that I talked about here again four or five years later. There was a big festival in Oita city. I think it was a cultural festival. The Japanese love their festivals. And in one of the city parks there was music and people dancing.
She was one of the people dancing. She was dancing alone. But she looked very happy. It made me think that we should enjoy every day the company of our loved ones because at some point they won’t be there any more.
And finally, I can’t believe I threw away the painting above. When I edited this story, I looked at the image and thought it was quite nice. But in the past I decided the actual painting was not so great and binned it.
All I have left now is a small image. I had to blow this image up and then sharpen it in a photo editing app. But I think it turned out quite nice.
And here’s one more painting I wanted to include. This picture is of a place in Beppu but I didn’t have a story to go with it. I forget the name of the port but I love the shape of these boats.
“Boats in Dry Docks” -
Watercolor painting of pigeons and a puddle in a car park
I’m not certain when I painted this picture.
I think it was around 2011.
It’s certainly an old painting.
I know the place in this painting very well.
It’s a car park very close to my house.
And although I don’t think it is a good painting I’m glad I painted it.
Because this is a very unusual subject for me to paint.
It’s not what you think of as a beautiful scene.
Namely, a puddle in a car park with a few pigeons.
And yet I think it is visually interesting.
There are a few things in particular that I like very much about this painting.
Such as the reflection of the birds in the puddle, the interesting textures and the shadows on the wall.
I should throw away this painting.
I will keep this painting though because it shows me the importance of being a little more adventurous in the subjects that I paint.
That’s all,
Gareth.
