old painting

Simple watercolor painting of a bunch of yellow roses in a glass bowl

Why I don’t paint flowers

Nowadays, I don’t paint flowers. I have nothing against them. In fact I like them. A real lot. And I got quite good at painting flowers. But you can read here why I prefer to paint landscapes.

Watercolor painting of Oita river on a beautiful evening

Watercolor paintings of a Japanese river

I live very near a river. It is called Oita river. And I love to paint this river. I have done many paintings of this river over the years but most of these paintings were not very good and I binned them. Here though is a small collection of early paintings of this river which I didn’t throw away because they are quite good. I think that I did these paintings around 2013.

Watercolor painting of figures walking along a countryside path with a beautiful mellow evening sky.

Watercolor painting of figures walking beneath a very beautiful mellow, yellow evening sky

Here is a series of watercolor paintings of a beautiful countryside scene. This scene may be from a place I visited in 2013. Sadly, I no longer know the name of this place. But I think this place is somewhere between Oita city and Fukuoka city. However, the mellow evening mood of these paintings with the partially dissolved figures was from my imagination. I had a vision of just such a scene. You could call it a creative vision. And that vision inspired this series.

Dramatic watercolor painting of a seascape

Powerful watercolor paintings of the sea

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.

Watercolor painting of a picturesque Japanese village

Picturesque Japanese village in Oita

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.

Watercolor painting of two fishermen by a Japanese river

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. And it has some nice scenes to paint such as this beautiful river.

Watercolor painting of a small Japanese village

Painting of a small Japanese village somewhere between Oita city and Kitakyushu city

This is one of my old paintings. I remember visiting and painting this place but I can’t give the year exactly. I think it was around 2013. And I remember that my wife was visiting or taking our eldest daughter to Kitakyushu where she was studying at the university. However, my wife stopped on route to drop me off and let me do some painting while she went the rest of the way.