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Tag: August
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Epic painting trip to the island of Shikoku – chapter 1
Video
The story
In August of 2022, when it was super hot and super humid in Japan, I left the island of Kyushu and travelled to the island of Shikoku.
They are next to one another.
This was my summer holiday painting trip and I was very excited.
I was staying on the island of Shikoku for several days and I would be traveling around the prefecture of Ehime.
The big highlight of the trip though would be the lighthouse that is situated at the end of a long narrow peninsula.
It is the narrowest peninsula in Japan.
The beginning of my trip was as exciting as I could have hoped.
The ferry ride over was amazing.
It was windy and as I arrived in Shikoku I got a very dramatic view of the lighthouse itself.
Then the drive along the peninsula was an adventure all in itself.
Although the lighthouse was not quite as amazing as I hoped, I was able to get some great shots of it.
I also used my drone. And later at home, with a lot of creativity, I produced some paintings of the lighthouse that I am really happy with.
In this first chapter you see my trip to the lighthouse as well as my painting of the lighthouse.
At the end of the video, I show several paintings that I have done of this lighthouse.
The originals are available to buy. Just contact me on discord.
My username is: garethartist
All the best, Gareth.
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A painting from a walk in the mountains of Beppu
Last week, I spent a whole day at my exhibition. I don’t think it helped sales but I learnt about what paintings people liked.
On the final day of the exhibition, after I had finished and had packed away my work, I decided that I needed some fresh air. This was a cafe where people could smoke and I could feel that tobacco as a heaviness in my lungs and I didn’t like it.
So I drove up the mountain, found an interesting place and stopped.
This was all impromptu.
The weather was cloudy and it was raining very lightly. I thought that I would just take a few photos.
But then I found myself taking a short stroll. And then I found myself walking up the mountain. This involved walking through a huge, empty and square-shaped concrete tunnel with a very strong echo which provided me with some great amusement.
After this, I saw steam coming out of the drains. I definitely knew that I was not in England!
Although this area had the usual ugliness of modern suburban Japan there were a few beautiful sites, such as a dramatic 60 meter high waterfall, a very elegant traditional Japanese gate and the scene in the painting above which I really liked and which made the whole venture worthwhile.
In this scene, I especially like the steam rising up. It creates a wonderful atmosphere. And, of course, I like that beautiful stone wall.
After taking a few photos of this scene I went further on up the mountain via a lot of small winding paths which led through a small forest and even past one of the pipes where steam was gushing out. There is no fencing around the pipe and the noise was so high-pitched that I had to cover my ears.
On my return, I came upon a fork in the path with a sign that told tourists they could walk along one of the paths for about 17 kilometers and about 19 kilometers on the other.
I felt a strong temptation to walk along one of these paths but it was getting late and I had family responsibilities: namely, a two year old. But I am looking forward to coming back here one day and walking along these paths. I’m really curious about what’s around here, fingers crossed there might be some beautiful sights.
Somewhere upon this mountain, once a year, they have a huge fire and it makes the mountain look like a volcano with lava running down it. It is a spectacular sight.
That’s all for now, Gareth.
Postscript
I wrote this story in September of 2014. I edited it in 2022. This story needed almost no editing.
Sadly, I have not returned to Beppu to explore the paths that I mentioned here. In fact, I had forgotten all about them until I read this story. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll go and explore them.
This story made me think, though, about paths never taken in my life. But maybe I shouldn’t think too much about that as it’ll take me into all kinds of existential thoughts and angst.
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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.
Also, the fact that my paintings were falling off the wall at regular intervals didn’t help. This was because I didn’t have the money to buy proper frames and so instead I used some thick card frames and stuck everything together with the strongest tape I could find. But the tape was not strong enough and the paintings just slowly peeled off the wall. The bang they made when they hit the ground was shocking.
Since then I have never ‘hosted’ any of my exhibitions. Normally, I’m in and out of there so fast you’d think I was committing a felony, and I probably leave tyre marks on the road.
In my latest exhibition, which is at a cafe in a town called Beppu, I didn’t even have any image of myself and I later heard that a group of women were wondering what I looked like. I suppose you could say I was more the ghost rather than the host of my own exhibition.
But things change. I now have a friend, a fellow artist living near me, and we are parallels of one another in some interesting ways. He’s like a 15 year future version of myself.
And this year I have done a small collaborative exhibition with him and some of my paintings were shown at one of his exhibitions. When I talked to him about this present exhibition the first thing he said was ‘When will you be there?’ And I said, only when I put up the paintings and when I take them down. Oh, and I will also go to meet two newspaper reporters there which is a first for me and due to the efforts of the owner and my wife.
My friend was surprised by my comment and laughed. Unlike me, during his exhibitions, my friend spends any free time he has being at his exhibition, talking to people who look interested and giving out business cards. He even holds special little parties. I’ve been to one of these parties and the atmosphere was wonderful.
So, it was time I did the same – well, not the party – not yet. To be honest, I’m not a party person. But maybe one day. This time I made a date when I would be at the cafe all day and told the newspaper reporters.
And it was great to arrive there and find a painting missing because somebody had bought it. According to the cafe owner it was a flute player.
Anyway, I also had lunch there so it was hardly a chore. And I even did some painting there. I hoped that it would add to the entertainment but the truth is that I just love to paint.
And I can see now from this experience the benefits of ‘hosting’ rather than ghosting my own exhibition.
People were literally telling me what they liked about my work and I could see which pictures got noticed and looked at most. Interestingly a lot of it was the work I’d done that year and they were all linked because they all began with an interest in reflections.
It had rained a lot that year and being stuck in the house because of the rain inspired in me the idea of doing watery reflections. And this led to a small series of paintings of Nagahama festival which is the first festival in the city where I live and famous for beginning in the rainy season and yes it often rains during the event.
So, no more being a paintergeist, it’s time to start turning up and upsetting people with my bad jokes until they find a way to exorcise me.
You can read here about my final day at this exhibition when I went for a walk in the mountains.
Postscript
This story was originally written in August of 2014. I edited it in 2022.
The painting I added here is my favorite one at the exhibition.
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Watercolor painting of a rough sea scene
This week I went to the sea. It’s only a ten minute bicycle ride from my house.
I didn’t know how it would go though as it was one of those hit or miss days when the sky is very cloudy and dramatic which would be wonderful to paint and yet there is a big chance that at any moment it will rain and I’d have to quit painting and go home.
Luckily it didn’t rain.
But it was very windy and I almost lost a paint brush as my brushes started rolling off the sea wall.
But what an amazing experience to watch big waves crashing against the sea wall and feel the refreshing touch of sea spray on my face.
I did three paintings but the one I’m showing here is my favorite.
It’s almost a monotone painting with just a touch of light blue in the sky. And as I look at how powerful this small touch of color is in a monotone painting it makes me think that I should perhaps do more monotone paintings with a touch of one color in them. Never ignore your creative voice.
With the mountain I added some water to the top of it to soften that sharp edge and I think it gives it a more atmospheric and powerful feeling.
I also think some chance things went well in this painting and they might be hard for me to replicate such as the way I softened the mountain edge and the pattern of sparkles on the sea.
What I’m trying to say is that this painting is a one off.
Admittedly, it’s a bit of a rough painting but at the same time it captures so well the energy of the moment.
While I was painting this scene, I saw incredible light effects happening as the sun moved between the clouds. At times there was a thin horizontal strip of light across the sea which changed from a brilliant bright white to a murky orange green and then the sun would burst out even more and so powerfully that I had a vertical line of sparkling light coming towards me across the surface of the sea that made everything else dark. I didn’t try to capture such moments because they were so fleeting and so overwhelmingly powerful.
I should perhaps have added a ship as a focal point but I think the painting works well enough just as it is.
That’s all for now, Gareth.
Postscript
This story was originally written in August of 2014. I am editing it in 2022.
As I was looking at this painting and what I wrote, it made me think that I have to get out and paint more. Over the course of the last few years I’ve lost that get up and get out artistic drive I had.
Instead, I’ve retreated to the studio. And although I’ve done some great things in the studio, there is a special energy that you can sometimes capture in your artwork when you paint outdoors and I think this painting is one where I caught that special energy.
This painting also confirms something that I’ve been thinking about recently which is that the divine lies not in the perfect but in the imperfect. This is not, as I wrote, a perfect painting, it is in many ways very rough, but it caught something special and is probably a one off that I’ll never be able to replicate exactly. And I don’t say this to sell the work because it has already been sold.
It was one of those rare creations that sold pretty quickly. If only they were all like that.
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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.
And that’s not so bad. Some years I have felt like I’m dying during this season.
But let’s talk about these spectacular cloud formations. They are called nyuudougumo in Japanese. I know, it’s a bit of a mouthful.
I’ve wanted to paint a nyuudougumo for a while. They are so beautiful. And eventually about a week or so ago I saw this spectacularly colorful one by the river.
It was a real challenge to paint this though, especially the beautiful bright edge of the clouds. I tended to paint too many cloud shadows and thus not leave enough light areas. Trying to paint less rather than more is surprisingly difficult.
And this painting was preceded by many that did not make it!
But these attempts helped me, through trial and error, to finally achieve a good result. I say that just to let you know that these paintings don’t always magically appear from the first attempt.
And just in case you are interested these are the Chinese characters for nyuudougumo: 入道雲; the three characters respectively mean: enter/ join, road, cloud. So a ‘poetic’ description might be: “the road of joining clouds”.
That’s all for now except to say that if you are also hot then try, like me, to enjoy the wonderful cloud formations that the heat makes.
Oh, I forgot to ask, can you see the birdie? My oldest daughter always notices them.
And I will just add that I really enjoyed painting that river. It’s interesting to me how I have spent so many years struggling to paint sparkling seas and rivers and that now it comes fairly effortlessly.
That’s all,
Gareth.
Postscript
I originally wrote this story in August of 2014. I am editing it in 2022.
I should add that not long after I painted this picture, I sold it to a man in Germany.
Also, even after 8 years I am still very happy with this painting.
And finally, I don’t know why, but I haven’t painted any Nyuudogumo since. Hopefully I will do so again at some point in the near future.
