Gareth Naylor

Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Tag: June

  • Painting inspired by a drive in the rain

    Painting inspired by a drive in the rain

    Today I went to help my friend Mark. He was clearing up his exhibition in a small tourist town called Yufuin.

    It was a long one hour drive from Oita city, where I live, to Yufuin. And, ironically, when I got there my friend was leaving. He only had time to shake my hand, wish me well and then said goodbye.

    But my trip had not been completely in vain because I also had two paintings in Mark’s exhibition. And I had partly come to collect these. 

    But then, at the exhibition, I met a gallery owner who offered to take my two paintings and put them in her gallery. Of course, I accepted her offer. This gallery owner already shows some of my work but I was delighted that she was going to show more of my work.

    However, at the same time I realized that I hadn’t really needed to make that long one hour drive to Yufuin.

    And now that I was there I felt reluctant to just go straight back home. So I hung around, feeling at a bit of a loss.

    But this was how I got the chance to see another artist put up her work. And her work was amazing. It is called bingata in Japanese and it is essentially dyed fabrics.

    But these fabrics can become all manner of things as I saw when looking at her work.

    One of her works, for instance, was a painting of Yufuin. It was a vibrant, colorful picture of the place and it was beautiful. Another was a real kimono with a beautiful design. 

    And another was a koinobori. This one was very impressive. It must have been about 10 meters long and it looked stunning. 

    A Koinobori is a tube-like flag, a little like what you see at airports sometimes. They fly in Japan from the top of very high bamboo posts. And the design on this flag is of the carp fish. They always fly them around boy’s day. In Japan they have a day to celebrate boys and a day to celebrate girls.

    I actually did a painting of some koinobori. I wasn’t pleased with it though so I threw it away. However, I think they are a great subject for a painting so one day I will try to paint them again. 

    Anyway, looking at these large, stunning and beautiful works of art, I felt some regret that I didn’t have my camera with me. I realized that I should carry my camera with me everywhere.

    It was a long hour’s drive back home and it was raining. It was also a somewhat surreal experience. It was dark and wet and the mountains were mysterious apparitions only partially visible with almost black pine trees in front of them. 

    The road was a reflective mirror-like silvery gray and car lights and street lights reflecting brilliantly across its surface. In the rain, the light seemed to be almost scattered across the surface of the road.

    My window kept misting up and I had to keep lowering it.

    Despite it being late and very dark, I had to stop the car and do some sketches. The scene was so powerfully atmospheric and looking at it rejuvenated my spirit.

    The next day, in my studio, otherwise known as the kitchen table, I did some paintings in which I tried to capture that amazing atmospheric scene.

    They are really experiments. And although these experimental paintings are not quite right they are very interesting and I am hopeful.

    As for the painting above, I’m not happy with it because the scenery was actually a lot darker, more dramatic and more misty so I still have to work upon this and try to capture those qualities.

    Below is another one I did. I’m not happy with it either. But it’s fun to paint this kind of scene.

    Watercolor painting inspired by a drive in the rain
    “Car lights in the rain”

    Postscript

    This story was originally written in June of 2014, I am editing it in 2022. 

    Since 2014, I have done many, many paintings of this atmospheric scene I saw on the way back from Yufuin. But I think all my results have failed. 

    One day I know that I will do a good painting of this scene. But sometimes it takes many attempts before I can make a good painting. Such a painting will convey the magical atmosphere that I experienced. 

    My wife hates these particular paintings. She thinks they are too dark. I, on the other hand, find them very interesting.

    In the process of editing this story, and other stories from the year 2014, I saw that I did a lot of rainy road scenes in that year as well as some rainy scenes of a festival in a place called Nagahama.

    And so here’s one more painting – just for the road (I love bad jokes). I quite like the surface of the road here but it’s still not quite right! I sigh but then I laugh and forget about it. One day, I tell myself, I’ll make an amazing painting of this incredibly atmospheric scene.

    Watercolor painting inspired by a drive in the rain
    “Atmospheric drive in the rain”
  • An unexpected meeting and a moving story

    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.

    Watercolor painting of two fishing boats in dry dock
    “Boats in Dry Docks”
  • 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 painting of a soft, understated sunset over the sea

    Watercolor painting of a soft, understated sunset over the sea

    A few days ago I cycled to the sea and painted the sunset.

    It was very cloudy and I didn’t know whether it would be a spectacularly colorful sunset or a dull one. It ended up being a combination of both. 

    There was some warm orange sunlight but it was soft and understated and accompanied by a lot of dull gray clouds. It was, though, very beautiful.

    I added the boat to give a focal point and to give a feeling of epic size. Yet in actuality, I saw no boats or ships on that particular day.

    After finishing this painting and on my return journey home, via my bicycle, it was a relief to discover that there are still strange river folk around.

    On this occasion, it was an old man with his wife. He was wearing a bright shiny white tracksuit with a fluorescent lime-green band positioned diagonally across his back.

    He was facing the river in a very dramatic manner and holding out in front of him a device that was playing enka music (traditional Japanese music) and singing along to it with complete abandon.

    He had a beautiful voice. But as I was passing he stopped then hawked very loudly and spat. This spoiled the romance of the moment for me.

    And, yet, the whole thing was simultaneously comical and entertaining.

    There is a great deal of public hawking and spitting in Japan. The hawking is so loud that you can hear them in their houses in the morning doing it.

    It’s not something you’d expect from a culture that is supposed to be quite reserved. I only saw some young people behave like that in England. They thought it was impressive, but it wasn’t the thing most people did in England. So now I’m curious about what it’s like in other countries.

    That’s all,

    Gareth.

    Postscript

    This story was originally written in June of 2014. I am editing it in 2022.

  • 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.