I think it was around 2013 that I discovered this beautiful national park in Fukuoka prefecture. We were visiting my oldest daughter who was studying at Kitakyushu university. On the way home, we took a different route from normal and went through this national park. I was delighted because this is a very strange place with small mountains that are littered with numerous rocks.
Some of my old paintings are a mystery to me. Often I have no idea what year I painted them. Sometimes I can’t work out the place. And sometimes I know the place but I can’t remember the actual occasion when I was there and which led to the painting.
In 2012, an old Japanese man asked me if I wanted to go hiking. I eagerly said yes. First he took me to the top of Mt Ryozen. It was my first time climbing that mountain. I really enjoyed it.
In 2012 my daughter Annie was born. And every day I would see these wonderful scenes of mother and baby together. So I did a lot of sketches and sometimes even a few paintings. Here are two of the paintings and a sketch.
For a long time I haven’t drawn or painted my family. But in the past I would often draw them. And occasionally I would paint them.
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.
Sadly, I have no idea when I painted this picture. I’m guessing that it was 2012. But it’s just a guess. And I have no idea where this place is. Neither do I know who the figure is in the painting.
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.