During 2013, I would often get on my bicycle and cycle to the sea. It was just a 10 minute cycle ride. And at the sea, I had a spectacular view of Beppy bay. I would usually go at evening time and paint the sun setting over this bay. It was a wonderful experience. And when I was looking through my artwork I found 9 paintings of Beppu bay from that year.
Around 2021, I began to organize all my artwork. This is a momentous task as I have over 1000 paintings. In the process, I found the painting above. It is an old painting which was done around 2013.
For a long time, I didn’t used to like painting countryside scenes. And given the choice, I would prefer to paint an urban scene. Urban scenes are easier to paint and usually more interesting. One of the biggest challenges with a countryside scene is painting trees, bushes and grass.
This place is in or near Wasada. Wasada is a region on the outskirts of Oita city. In this region, the urban landscape starts to disappear and farmhouses and fields begin to appear. I found this place by chance during a cycling adventure.
During my wilderness years of learning watercolor painting by getting on my bicycle with my art gear and cycling off into the blue yonder of the Japanese countryside I found a picturesque village called Shonai. And I think it was around 2011 that I painted these pictures of Shonai.
Roughly around 2011, I painted these pictures. They are paintings of an area called Wasada. It is a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Oita city. I could easily reach this place via the path by Oita river. And in the past, I often went on bicycle adventures to this area in search of beautiful scenes to paint.
I can’t say I like this painting very much. It’s not particularly well painted. But it was painted around 2011 when I was still learning watercolor painting and struggling very much with this mercurial medium. But I like this painting as a reminder of how I would cycle around looking for beautiful or interesting scenes to paint.
Here are a few of my earliest seascape paintings. My interest in seascapes began in 2011. At that time, I started cycling to the bay. This bay is just a ten minute bicycle ride from my house. It is called Beppu bay. I did many on the spot paintings of this bay. I felt inspired by the beauty of the bay view at evening time. However, most of my paintings were very bad. And nearly all those paintings I threw away. But these few paintings survived.
I know the place in this painting very well. But I don’t know when I painted this picture. It is a very old painting. I could have painted this picture as far back as 2010. At that time I was getting on my bicycle and cycling deep into the Japanese countryside.
This is an old painting. I painted it on the spot around 2010. And this place is in a region called Wasada. This region is on the outskirts of Oita city. I found this place by chance during one of my bicycle painting adventures. At that time, I would cycle all over the local countryside looking for beautiful places to paint.