Gareth Naylor

Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Tag: Itogahama

  • Creating a beautiful hazy effect in your watercolor paintings by using a tissue

    Creating a beautiful hazy effect in your watercolor paintings by using a tissue

    I am quite willing to try new things if it will improve my work and my latest thing is using tissue paper.

    I have used tissue paper before. However, I soon stopped because I didn’t like the smudgy results I got. 

    But recently I used a tissue again when I painted the picture above. It was just an experiment. I used a tissue on the cliff face and it created this beautiful hazy effect. And just in case you are wondering, this place is called Itogahama beach.

    Please ignore that green tree in the bottom right hand corner of the painting. This experiment was done on top of a previous painting which had failed and which I was reusing.

    Watercolor painting of a misty sea cliff
    “Misty sea cliff”

    And this is another attempt at using a tissue. As you can see it’s not as good as the previous painting.

    However, I will keep trying and hopefully find the knack because I love the effect I got in the first painting.

    That’s all,

    Gareth

    Postscript

    I originally wrote this story in June of 2014. I am editing it in 2022. 

    I still use a tissue in my artwork for various effects such as rim lighting on clouds. 

    However, I am still unable to get the amazing misty effect that I achieved in the first painting here. I’ll have to try again at some point and hopefully figure out the knack of getting a hazy effect.

  • Watercolor paintings of a wet beach with soft reflections

    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 1
    Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 2
    Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 2
    Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 3
    Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 3
    Watercolor sketch of Itogahama beach 4
    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.

    Watercolor painting of a fisherman strolling across a wet 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.

    Watercolor painting of a fisherman strolling across a silvery wet beach
    “Fisherman strolling across a silvery wet beach”

    And then I did another and another. This must be called striking a creative vein!

    Watercolor painting of two fishermen meeting on a beach
    “Fishermen meeting on a beach”
    Watercolor painting of a fisherman strolling across a golden 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.

  • Watercolor painting of a beautiful and peaceful beach scene

    Watercolor painting of a beautiful and peaceful beach scene

    This is Itogahama beach. 

    It is in Hiji town, Oita prefecture.

    This painting of the beach was done in about 2011. 

    And I think I painted this picture on location.

    Although I don’t think it is a great painting I still quite like it. 

    This is because it has a pleasing soft and misty feeling.

    Also as I look at this painting I feel a calmness. 

    I have since done many more paintings of this beach.

    And it is interesting to compare those paintings with this one and to see the change in my work.

    There are many things about this scene that make it a good painting subject, such as the distant mountains, the rocky outcrops and the dramatic steep cliffs.

    Those cliffs with the trees on top are fun to paint.

    There are many buzzards in those trees and often they come out and glide high up over the beach.

    I remember clearly walking along this beach to that second outcrop of rocks. 

    I wanted to see what was past that outcrop. 

    I have a strong desire to look beyond a coastal outcrop, or another turn in the road, or a mountain to see what lies beyond.

    I think that I’m partly driven by curiosity and partly by the hope of finding a beautiful scene to paint.

    But it was quite dangerous in this case as that second outcrop is a very rocky terrain with almost no flat areas.

    And the rocks were wet and very slippery. 

    Still I persevered through this uninviting terrain and at last I saw past this outcrop. 

    Ironically, despite all that effort I can’t remember very well what I saw. 

    I think I saw a wide inlet and in the middle of it a small fishing port.

    I don’t think it was a remarkable scene otherwise I would probably have taken a photo of it and then done a painting from the photo. 

    But that never happened.

    So my exploration efforts were in vain but that has often been the case.

    However, this doesn’t stop me from continuing to explore.

    That’s all,

    Gareth.