Gareth Naylor

Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Journal

2021

I went on quite a few painting trips during that year.

I also bought a drone and this has led to a whole new way of seeing landscapes. I’m very happy with the painting I did from a drone photo of my local river, Oita river. I even sold this painting.

I also went on two big painting trips during the summer. It was intensely hot during this season but what I saw was wonderful. The first place I went to is called Toi Misaki. At this place there are wild horses. I did some very good paintings of these horses. But my best pieces were one from the view from the hotel window of the coast and the other of the beach near the hotel.

I’m also very happy with the paintings I did of the islands of Sasebo. This is a place that I only went to once quite a few years ago but it has inspired me so much and every so often I will do another painting of this magical place.


2020

I went on quite a few painting trips during that year. The most enjoyable one was a trip to Akitsuki in Fukuoka prefecture. And the one that led to the most interesting paintings was the one to Kusu in Oita prefecture.

You will mostly see paintings of the Japanese landscape but there are a few paintings of Spain. My favorite one is of a ruined factory on the top of a hill. I saw this scene from a train.


2019

In 2019 I did a lot of imaginative paintings such as skies and psychedelic trees. I also did a lot of wet road scenes. And I did a somewhat surreal painting of a paddy field with everything glowing gold. For some reason, I had a big interest in golden light during this year. And some of my favorite paintings from this year are of sea scenes with golden lighting. I even sold one of these paintings. My favorite paintings though are of a national park called Kuju. I will never forget how those paintings originated because that was a very bad day for me. I was driving around the national park after a terrible art exhibition in which I sold nothing. It was raining and miserable. But suddenly the sun came out and everything became golden light and white mist. It was a heavenly moment.


2018

In this year I had the ambitious plan to do over 100 watercolor paintings of city scenes. I failed. However, I did some really good paintings of city scenes which you will see in this video.

Watercolor journal 2017

In the video above you will see in chronological order what I painted in 2017. The paintings are accompanied with beautiful, instrumental music and commentary.