In May of 2014, I went on a bicycle ride up a hill to visit a famous shrine. It was an arduous ride! But it was worth it. The shrine is called Yusuhara and it is a very beautiful place. I painted several on the spot paintings during this trip.
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.
In 2014, I suddenly became very interested in painting the Cherry blossom. And I went out on several occasions to paint them. My two favorite places were around Oita castle and Oita river bank. I also had a few interesting experiences which I recount here.
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.
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.
I’m not sure what year I painted this picture but I know that it’s old. I painted it on a spiral-bound pad and did the painting over two sheets of paper so that I could do a huge panoramic painting that matched the view I experienced on that hill.
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.
Here are some of my earliest cityscape paintings in Japan. These paintings are of a place called Shinmachi which is near Oita city center. I also talk about the four times I became interested in art throughout my life.