Here are some of my earliest cityscape paintings in Japan. These paintings are of a place called Shinmachi which is near Oita city center. I also talk about the four times I became interested in art throughout my life.
This area is called Aso. It is in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. The view in the painting is from the top of a mountain.
This painting is very old and very valuable to me. I lived in this apartment with my wife and her two children. I first came to Japan in 1999 and about one year later I was living in this apartment. I lived here for about 6 or 7 years.
Nowadays, I do very little drawing and probably should do more but in my early days of living in Japan, between 2000 and 2010, I was drawing all the time. I had a strong desire to improve. Most of these drawings I have since thrown away and now only a few remain.
I painted this picture a long time ago. I think around 2005 but that is just a rough guess. I had climbed up a mountain called Kuju in Oita prefecture and it had inspired me to do a painting of a mountain scene.
This is one of my old paintings. I’m not sure of the exact year that I painted it but I think that it must have been between 2005 and 2010. I have thrown away nearly all of my old work from that period but this is one that I kept.