Gareth Naylor

Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Tag: 2013

  • Painting of a small Japanese village somewhere between Oita city and Kitakyushu city

    Painting of a small Japanese village somewhere between Oita city and Kitakyushu city

    This is one of my old paintings. 

    I remember visiting and painting this place but I can’t give the year exactly. 

    I think it was around 2013. 

    And I remember that my wife was visiting or taking our eldest daughter to Kitakyushu where she was studying at the university.

    However, my wife stopped on route to drop me off and let me do some painting while she went the rest of the way. 

    And then the plan was that she would pick me up on the way back.

    I remember that I had no initial idea where I was going to ask my wife to drop me off but that it ended up being the place in the painting above. 

    It was a small Japanese village that I thought looked quite idyllic – at least from the roadside.

    At first I walked around the village looking for a good scene to paint and finally chose the scene above. 

    I’m guessing that I chose this scene because I liked the way the path curves around and leads towards the cluster of houses, such an arrangement would make for a nice composition.

    And as I look at this picture, I find myself thinking that it isn’t so bad. 

    I can see that the colors work very well together and there is a nice touch of subtle colors, especially in the big trees, as well as a nice combination of warms and cools.

    I also think that this scene would look very nice in the rainy season when they fill the rice fields with water and hopefully, one day I’ll paint this scene with watery rice fields.

    And in looking at and talking about this painting and realizing it is quite good and that it even has some sentimental value for me now, I feel a little regret for folding it in half with the intention of binning it. 

    If you look carefully at the painting you can see a faint crease line down the middle. 

    But perhaps I decided to bin it because I have too many paintings and at times it can feel like I’m drowning in my own creations. 

    So from time to time, I cull my creations. 

    Luckily, after folding it, I unfolded it and decided to take this photo as a record. 

    However, I can’t remember now if after taking the photo I binned the actual painting or kept it.

    One day, I may check.

    That’s all,

    Gareth.

  • Painting of a strange but beautiful Japanese national park called Hiraodai

    Painting of a strange but beautiful Japanese national park called Hiraodai

    I think it was around 2013 that I discovered this beautiful national park in Fukuoka prefecture.

    We were visiting my oldest daughter who was studying at Kitakyushu university.

    On the way home, we took a different route from normal and went through this national park.

    I was delighted because this is a very strange place with small mountains that are littered with numerous rocks.

    I later did two paintings of this place and I am very happy with them.

    I like the way I have painted the rocks in these paintings, the soft colors and those textural lines.

    And in the painting above, the postures of the figures are very good, especially the two on the left with the slight slants within their postures that give a feeling of motion.

    And finally the grass and shrubbery is well done.

    It is subtle but at the same time full of colorful variety, and as I look I can see yellow greens, minty greens and a darker more musty green.

    Watercolor painting of trekkers on a mountain path
    “A beautiful day for trekking up a mountain”

    In the second painting, I’m particularly happy with my rendering of the distant hills in this painting with those soft tree shapes and the thin dry brush lines and blobs suggesting trees on the top of the hills.

    And as I look at this painting, it all looks so pleasant that I feel the urge to get on my climbing boots (if I had any) and go rambling up those hills.

    I hope one day that I’ll go back to this park and do a few more paintings. 

    The next time I would take my drone. 

    I can already imagine the interesting aerial angles I could get of those trees and rocks in the midground with some figures on the path walking past them.

    I have to go again!

    That’s all,

    Gareth.

  • Watercolor painting of a traditional Japanese building in Kitakyushu

    Watercolor painting of a traditional Japanese building in Kitakyushu

    Some of my old paintings are a mystery to me. 

    Often I have no idea what year I painted them. 

    Sometimes I can’t work out the place. 

    And sometimes I know the place but I can’t remember the actual occasion when I was there and which led to the painting.

    This painting is a different kind of mystery. 

    I know it was painted in 2013, give or take a year. 

    And I know this place is Kitakyushu city center.

    I remember going there with my family and the experience of being there. 

    I remember all this because my oldest daughter was studying at the university there. 

    But I have no idea what exactly that beautiful, traditional building is. 

    I did a google search for traditional buildings in Kitakyushu city.

    And I found that Kokura castle is in Kitakyushu city.

    However, when I looked at the google images of the castle I saw nothing that looked like the building in my painting.

    I will have to go again some day and check!

    Anyway, I am very happy with this painting. 

    I think it has a very pleasant mellow mood that you sometimes experience on a nice evening.

    And the subtle variety of colors in the distant buildings is very pleasing.

    I especially like the purple color. 

    What I like most though is that thin railing and the shadows it casts.

    That’s all for now,

    Gareth.

  • Mountain trekking with an old Japanese man

    Mountain trekking with an old Japanese man

    In 2012, an old Japanese man asked me if I wanted to go hiking.

    I eagerly said yes.

    First he took me to the top of Mt Ryozen.

    It was my first time climbing that mountain.

    I really enjoyed it.

    The painting below was done from a photograph taken on this climb.

    Watercolor painting of two hikers walking along a forest path that goes up to the top of Ryozen mountain
    “Beautiful climb up Ryozen mountain”

    Another time he took me to a nature park.

    This park had a long walk by a stream.

    I never did any paintings from that trip

    But it was a very beautiful place.

    The old man told me that he used to bring his children here when they were young.

    He told me that it had been a very popular place then.

    When we visited there was almost nobody there.

    And there were signs, such as the neglected rotten wooden posts of the fence by the stream, that not many people come to this place anymore.

    What a shame.

    Watercolor painting of mountain trekkers walking along a mountain path
    “Beautiful Jagged mountain rocks”

    The next time he took me to Kuju mountain.

    I’ve climbed this mountain before with my family. 

    But this time he took me on a different route.

    We went up the ridge of a mountain next to Kuju mountain. 

    There were big jagged rocks rising up out of the ridge of the mountain.

    It was spectacular.

    I did the painting above of this scene.

    I don’t know when I painted this picture but I climbed this mountain in 2012.

    So I think that I must have done it around that period.

    I’m surprised that I even tried to paint such a scene.

    Because at that time I was still learning watercolor painting.

    And this is a very difficult scene to paint.

    At first I wasn’t happy with this painting.

    Luckily I didn’t throw it away.

    And a few years later, by chance, I came across it again.

    I was organizing my paintings.

    I have many paintings and I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount.

    And I was throwing away the paintings I disliked.

    That is when I found this painting.

    I looked at it and was surprised to discover that I now liked it.

    I was also happy with it because I find countryside scenes very difficult to paint. 

    City scenes are much easier.

    And my countryside paintings are normally failures.

    But to return to the story. 

    Despite his age this old man was fitter than me.

    And he climbed up the mountain very quickly.

    I would lag behind him a little.

    After the climb we came back down to the car park.

    Here, my friend saw a foreigner and said to me: Don’t you want to talk to him?

    Japanese people always think that foreigners desperately want to talk with other foreigners.

    However most foreigners are rather cold towards one another in Japan.

    I’ve sometimes said “Hi” to a foreigner and received a cold and formal “Hello” or just been ignored.

    And so I said no.

    He was surprised. And I got the impression that he thought I wasn’t a friendly person.

    Anyway he kept insisting and so I said “hi” to this foreigner and we had a brief chat.

    He was actually a very pleasant person.

    Next to the car park was a gift shop, a restaurant and a spa.

    We were aching a lot and really felt like getting into a hot tub.

    So we paid and went up to the spa on the second floor.

    I was so happy to be getting into a hot bath.

    However, when I put my foot in the water I instantly pulled it out again.

    It was boiling hot.

    My foot was bright red.

    The old man, like most old Japanese men, was a tough person.

    And despite my reaction he tried to get in.

    But even he was shocked. 

    And he quickly got out.

    That’s when I knew the water really was too hot.

    We went downstairs and told a member of staff who apologized.

    She told us that somebody had made a mistake.

    Somebody had forgotten to turn on the cold tap.

    She told us that if we waited then they could cool it down.

    But it would take more than 30 minutes.

    So we gave up on the spa.

    After that we got in his car and he took me to a large field very nearby.

    This field was full of trees.

    It was a very beautiful place.

    And then he surprised me by telling me that he owned the field.

    I was very impressed.

    After that we went home.

    That was the last climbing trip we had together.

    I don’t know why.

    I would have liked to have gone on more climbing trips.

    But at least I got the chance to go on a few. 

    And for that I am very grateful.

    Postscript

    So I wrote this story in 2021 from memory.

    I was able to date the story from a blurry photo of Ryozen mountain.

    The photo was dated 2012. 

    I’m pretty sure that all these trips happened in the same year.

    The blurry photo came from a memory card for a digital camera.

    I had downloaded the image from the memory card to my computer.

    This was lucky because all the images on that card later disappeared. 

    Never trust memory cards.

    This old man had some very interesting stories to tell about growing up in Taiwan as a young boy. 

    This was probably when Japan still had an Empire and controlled that land. 

    Old people have some very interesting stories to tell. 

    I remember when I first came to Japan an old man on the bus started telling me that he was a pilot in World War 2. 

    He told me that an American pilot had shot down his plane.

    And how he had to jump out of his plane and parachute down to the ground.

    I’ll never forget how he said all this with a look of cheerfulness. 

    It was almost as though he was recounting a fond memory.

    Video

    In 2021 I had another go at painting the first picture.

    Here is a video of me doing the painting.

    That’s all,

    Gareth.