plein air

Watercolor painting of a Japanese Torii in a river with a dramatic evening sky

Watercolor painting of a beautiful Japanese river and waterfall

In 2014, I visited a place called Ogata. My purpose was to paint a beautiful display of tulips. However, I was too late and most of the tulips had gone. So I wandered around this place looking for other painting subjects. Luckily, there were some beautiful painting subjects. And I painted a suspension bridge, a waterfall and a Japanese Torii which was in the river. It ended up being a great painting trip despite my initial disappointment.

Watercolor painting of a beautiful and peaceful beach scene

Watercolor painting of a beautiful and peaceful beach scene

This is a painting of Itogahama beach. It is a very beautiful 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. What I like about this painting is the feeling of peacefulness it exudes.

Watercolor painting of Beppu bay at evening time

Watercolor paintings of the sun setting over Beppu bay

Here are a few of my earliest seascape paintings. My interest in seascapes began in 2011. At that time, I started cycling to the bay. This bay is just a ten minute bicycle ride from my house. It is called Beppu bay. I did many on the spot paintings of this bay. I felt inspired by the beauty of the bay view at evening time. However, most of my paintings were very bad. And nearly all those paintings I threw away. But these few paintings survived.

Unusual watercolor painting of a Japanese utility pole in the countryside

Painting of a utility pole in the Japanese countryside

This is an old painting. I painted it on the spot around 2010. And this place is in a region called Wasada. This region is on the outskirts of Oita city. I found this place by chance during one of my bicycle painting adventures. At that time, I would cycle all over the local countryside looking for beautiful places to paint.