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Tag: Fisherman
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When you paint outdoors you never paint alone
So today I went to paint by the river.
When you paint outdoors you never paint alone. There’s always something that happens. Often some kind of annoyance or discomfort.
It could be a freezing cold wind or it could be an insect such as a mosquito or little flies that want to explore your nostrils. And of course there are always people.
Most people are okay but some are strange.
Today I had a boy cycling around me while I was painting. He was making a circuit with me at the center.
I admit that I felt a little irritated by this. Well, I’m quite an irritable person to be honest. But I also know that you can never be sure about people and it is essential to suspend judgement.
In fact, no judgement is probably the best judgement of all as you never really understand other people. And this was perhaps the case here.
After circling around me about ten or more times, I lost count, he sat down on the steps behind me and started sketching. The pest had become a fellow artist.
It was great to see this young boy sketching. And he spent a long time sketching. He must have a passion for sketching just like myself.
I didn’t speak to him but when he left I did a little bow (I can be very Japanese on occasion). However, he didn’t even acknowledge me. Anyway, it was great to see someone so young with a passion for art and to even be drawing outside.
And I myself had a great time and managed to do three paintings.
The rain was constantly threatening to come down and there were a few drops. But luckily it held off until my last painting when it started to rain a little. It was, though, just a brief shower and by the time I had reached home it had finished.
That’s all.
Postscript
This story was originally written in July of 2014. I’m editing it in 2022.
There was no painting with this story so I added a painting without a story of its own to go with it but which was of the same river and which I painted during the same year this story was written.
It also shows a sky, like in the story, where there is the threat of rain. I have to admit, too, that I like this painting very much and am glad to be able to show it.
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Watercolor paintings of a wet beach with soft reflections
For the last four or five days it has been raining but today the sun came out. It was like a blow torch on my back. And so I scuttled back into the house like a louse scuttling under a brick.
It’s getting humid in Japan. I call this the soggy season because it rains a lot. But you could also call it the sticky season because everything becomes sticky. It is quite unbearable.
However, I am having a great time being in the house because I have been messing around in my studio (also known as the kitchen table). I seem to be going through a creative period.
Perhaps it’s because I am painting over the top of failed paintings or scrap paper. And it has released all my inhibitions. I highly recommend it.
Presently, I am interested in a drawing I have of a beach called Itogahama. I have no idea what the name means.
Maybe it means “dumping ground” because this beach is covered with rubbish.
This is sad because this is a very beautiful beach. It has some lovely features such as a dramatically steep cliff face topped with trees and beautiful outcrops of rocks going into the sea.
Below are some of my experiments on scrap paper. If you look carefully you can see the pencil marks of previous drawings on most of them.
Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 1 Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 2 Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 3 Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 4 These experiments led to the painting below. The thing I like most about this painting is the surface of the beach.
“Fisherman strolling across a wet beach” There are a lot of layers in this painting. There is a distant mountain range. Then, there is a distant outcrop. And then in the final layer, there is a nearby outcrop of rocks with trees.
Painting this final layer was the most difficult. The reason is that after painting this final layer then I wet the whole beach area and waited for the best moment to paint the beach shadows.
Choosing the right moment to apply the paint is very tricky.
However, it is also fun.
And while this was still slightly wet, I created lines of light through those soft shadows on the surface of the beach with a damp brush. This gives a beautiful sheen effect.
After finishing the beach area, I did some dry brush marks for the sea using a very light grey-blue color mix. I was careful though to leave a white gap between these dry brush marks and the beach. This white patch is the sea foam.
I became so infatuated with this scene that I did another painting of it.
“Fisherman strolling across a silvery wet beach” And then I did another and another. This must be called striking a creative vein!
“Fishermen meeting on a beach” 
“Fisherman walking across a golden beach on a sunny day” Anecdote
I couldn’t help adding this extra and totally unrelated story.
I went to the library today with my toddler. She’s one year and nine months old and a handful.
Today, she was throwing books off the shelves, arranging them in a line on the floor and then walking over them. At least she didn’t rip a cover off today.
When I went to put the books back on the shelves, she would run off to another section and repeat the whole process.
She has this wicked little laugh, a rich chuckle, as she runs off to get up to more mischief. I love the way she sees it all as a game.
The librarians have a different attitude. And the security guard even came by at one point. However, he just smiled. Is that nice or what?
Postscript
I originally wrote this in June of 2014. I am editing it in 2021. I am very happy with these beach paintings.
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Watercolor painting of a dramatic sky by my local river
I wanted to paint the sky today because it was very dramatic.
It was a very cloudy sky but now and then the sunshine would burst out. It was inspiring stuff for me.
So, I went to the river as this is one of the best places for painting a sky picture.
The long horizontal lines and low verticals you get at the riverside give the viewer an unobstructed view of the sky.
Also the low vertical features by the riverside mean that the ground area in the painting doesn’t take up much vertical space and so this can be given to the sky area.
And when you want to paint a dramatic sky it is important to give as much physical space on the paper as possible to the sky.
I went to the river by bicycle because it’s quicker than walking.
My bicycle also acts as an outdoor mobile studio because my bicycle basket can hold all my art equipment.
I took the largest watercolor pad I had (45.5 x 53 cm) even though it is awkward to ride with and when it is windy it can even be dangerous to ride with.
A few months ago, when I was cycling in the city with my big pad I got smacked in the face by it. It was very painful as well as embarrassing.
But there are two good reasons for carrying a big pad.
Firstly, because I enjoy painting big.
And secondly, because it is good for competitions where big paintings are the norm and where a normal size painting looks like a postcard.
I also get the feeling that the small paintings don’t win prizes.
It was February and it was cold by the river.
A constant cold wind was blowing against the backs of my legs and as I began painting my fingers slowly started to go numb.
But I love to paint outdoors and to paint directly what I see, such as a dramatic sky.
There is a feeling of aliveness because the scene is changing moment by moment and as I paint I feel that I am alive in that changing scene.
I finished the painting with chattering teeth but a feeling of satisfaction.
I felt satisfied with my painting because it captured a little of the dramatic mood of the sky.
And finally, when I came home, it was a nice surprise to be greeted by a delicious meal made by my wife.
It was much better than the breakfast that I threw together in my haste to get outdoors and paint.
That’s all for now,
Gareth.
Postscript
This story was originally written in February of 2014.
I have edited it substantially as it was too wordy.
Also I changed the painting!
Sadly, I no longer had the original painting.
I must have thrown it away.
I did have an image of the original painting.
But it was a small image.
I tried enlarging it in an image editing app and then sharpening it but it still looked blurry.
I didn’t want to show a blurry picture.
So I replaced it with a painting from the same year.
Fortunately, this painting showed a dramatic sky with the sunlight bursting out of the clouds by the river which I described in the story.
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A painting of two fishermen by a beautiful Japanese river
I think that I painted this river scene around 2013.
It could have been even earlier.
This place is called Kitsuki.
It’s a small Japanese town by the sea with an interesting history and a few interesting old buildings.
One of these old buildings is a castle that is built on a hilltop by the river.
It’s very dramatic.
And it has some nice scenes to paint such as this beautiful river.
Although I’m not sure if I should call it a river or an estuary as a little further on it flows into the sea.
I think this painting was from my first painting trip to Kitsuki.
And this painting trip was quite an adventure for me as it is fairly far away from where I live.
I am very happy with this painting.
I especially like the soft background with those vibrant green trees and the lovely blue behind them.
I think the fishermen were from my imagination.
But I have seen and painted fishermen many times in Japan so I have a good idea about how to paint them.
I’m also very happy with the shore and the rendering of the rocks and the textural effects.
I think this is one of my best old paintings.
And I’m surprised that nobody ever bought it.
Although thinking about this made me realize that my river paintings don’t sell well.
I can only think of one river painting that I have sold.
This was a painting of a Nyuudogumo above my local river.
I think Americans call it a thunderhead cloud.
That painting sold very quickly.
Even if my river paintings don’t sell well, I will continue to paint them because I enjoy painting them.
That’s all,
Gareth.
