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Tag: Beppu
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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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An unexpected meeting and a moving story
Recently, I met my friend Mark and we went to a restaurant for lunch. Mark and I both intended to have an exhibition at this restaurant. And we were checking out the place.
After lunch we went and looked at the exhibition area. And here we met a woman who was doing an exhibition. And we were both surprised to find out that she was a friend of Mark’s.
And then we were further surprised and intrigued to learn that the exhibition was of her late husband’s artwork.
She told us how every year she holds this exhibition around the time he died, which happened to be father’s day.
She had quite a story to tell.
I don’t know how people recover from such tragic events and how they can even seem to still be happy people. The human spirit is amazing.
She also happened to be fluent at speaking English and a very engaging person.
One thing she said really stuck with me which was how these exhibitions often bring people to her who used to know her husband. I think that connection is very important to her.
In a way, she gets to know her husband again through another person’s encounter with him.
And this was the case with us because it turns out that Mark, although not aware of the artist at first, after 10 or so minutes of looking at his work suddenly realized that he had bought two paintings from this artist about ten or so years ago.
And this happened with us. Because Mark, after 10 minutes of looking at this artist’s artwork, suddenly realized that he had bought two paintings from this artist about ten or so years ago.
This artist had produced a lot of beautiful artwork.
One of the things I particularly liked was a handmade map of Beppu. We could see and hold the original. It was beautiful.
He had also painted a starry night time picture of Beppu bay. I think that was my favorite landscape painting by him. It had a magical feeling to it.
It was quite a profound lunch.
After this I dropped Mark off and then I parked in the neighborhood and started walking around looking for places to paint.
It is an interesting neighborhood and I should perhaps mention that Beppu is famous for its natural spas. I was by the river and I could see natural steaming hot water pouring into the river. It was quite a sight.
The painting above is one of the scenes I did near Mark’s house.
I know this isn’t your typical beautiful scene. But I’ve had to learn to adapt to my environment and develop a less conventional idea of what’s beautiful.
What I liked about this scene was the irregular assortment of building shapes. I also liked the rice field in this urban environment.
That’s all for now.
See you again, or as they say in Japanese, Mata ne.
Gareth.
Postscript
I originally wrote this story in June of 2014. I am editing it 2022. This cafe has since closed. I don’t know if the owner retired or became sick.
I’m a little sad about that because it was one of those rare places that had a special place just for exhibiting paintings. It was a room added on to the cafe with a curved wall. It was perfect for showing artwork.
And I think I saw the lady that I talked about here again four or five years later. There was a big festival in Oita city. I think it was a cultural festival. The Japanese love their festivals. And in one of the city parks there was music and people dancing.
She was one of the people dancing. She was dancing alone. But she looked very happy. It made me think that we should enjoy every day the company of our loved ones because at some point they won’t be there any more.
And finally, I can’t believe I threw away the painting above. When I edited this story, I looked at the image and thought it was quite nice. But in the past I decided the actual painting was not so great and binned it.
All I have left now is a small image. I had to blow this image up and then sharpen it in a photo editing app. But I think it turned out quite nice.
And here’s one more painting I wanted to include. This picture is of a place in Beppu but I didn’t have a story to go with it. I forget the name of the port but I love the shape of these boats.
“Boats in Dry Docks”
