River scene

Watercolor painting of a morning fisherman walking home

Being a ghost at my exhibition

Once, quite a few years ago, at one of my very first exhibitions it was a requirement that I was there the whole duration of the show acting as the ‘host’. It was not a pleasant experience because at that time I found meeting other people quite a stressful experience.

Watercolor painting of a giant column of clouds

Watercolor painting of a giant column of clouds

These spectacular cloud formations are one of the positive side-effects of the heat and humidity in a Japanese summer. During this season I wake up in the morning feeling 90 rather than 43. I have a dry throat and I feel weak, tired and too hot. I start feeling better about six or seven in the evening.

Watercolor painting of a fishing boat in Kitsuki estuary

Meeting a water rat while painting Kitsuki estuary

Today was “Marine Day”. It’s called “umi-no-hi” in Japanese and it’s a national holiday. And we, the family, even went to the beach and it was wonderful. But before we came to the beach we stopped the car on route and the family had a sleeping break. While they slept I got out of the car and did a painting.

Watercolor painting of rain clouds over a river

When you paint outdoors you never paint alone

So today I went to paint by the river. When you paint outdoors you never paint alone. There’s always something that happens. Often some kind of annoyance or discomfort. It could be a freezing cold wind or it could be an insect such as a mosquito or little flies that want to explore your nostrils. And of course there are always people.

Watercolor painting of a Japanese Torii in a river with a dramatic evening sky

Watercolor painting of a beautiful Japanese river and waterfall

In 2014, I visited a place called Ogata. My purpose was to paint a beautiful display of tulips. However, I was too late and most of the tulips had gone. So I wandered around this place looking for other painting subjects. Luckily, there were some beautiful painting subjects. And I painted a suspension bridge, a waterfall and a Japanese Torii which was in the river. It ended up being a great painting trip despite my initial disappointment.

Watercolor painting of Oita river on a beautiful evening

Watercolor paintings of a Japanese river

I live very near a river. It is called Oita river. And I love to paint this river. I have done many paintings of this river over the years but most of these paintings were not very good and I binned them. Here though is a small collection of early paintings of this river which I didn’t throw away because they are quite good. I think that I did these paintings around 2013.

Watercolor painting of two fishermen by a Japanese river

A painting of two fishermen by a beautiful Japanese river

I think that I painted this river scene around 2013. It could have been even earlier. This place is called Kitsuki. It’s a small Japanese town by the sea with an interesting history and a few interesting old buildings. And it has some nice scenes to paint such as this beautiful river.