Atmospheric paintings of Japan

Tag: plein air

Bicycle trip to a beautiful Japanese shrine called Yusuhara

When I woke up today it was overcast and I decided today was going to be a laid back time in the studio dabbling around with the paintbrush.

When my wife left the house, however, she remarked that it appeared to be getting brighter. I went outside and saw that one half of the sky was cloudy and the other half a light blue. 50: 50 I thought and went back to the studio.

But as I dabbled away with my paintbrush at the kitchen table (aka my studio) it gradually became brighter and brighter until with sunlight pouring through the window I was forced to admit that it was actually going to be a nice day after all.

I was, though, still in the sway of deciding it was going to be a laid back day in the studio and this had created a peculiar gravitational pull that held me back from jumping up and going out. Not until 10.30 did I manage to get myself out of the house and onto my bicycle.

I decided to cycle to Yusuhara shrine. It has been quite a while since I did a long bicycle ride. Although not too far away, it is on the top of a very high hill or should I say low mountain. I’m not sure. I wonder at what height a hill becomes a mountain.

Anyway, I have cycled to this shrine several times and done it without stopping but this time because of age or being in a very laid back state I walked on occasion which was probably good for my heart.

And I actually did my first painting before I ascended the hill. I came across a captivating scene of an entrance to another shrine. The tricky part was the background. There were houses in the background that over complicated the scene so I decided to exclude them and to make it some simple greenery instead.

“Entrance to a shrine”

I almost didn’t show the painting above. I’m not very happy with it. But here it is.

Anyway, I continued on up the hill after painting this picture.

And I was pretty red in the face when I got to the top of the hill and the entrance of Yusuhara shrine which was about 50 steep steps. How welcoming!

This was the scene for my second painting. I really liked the dramatic shadows across the ground. And I think my attempt to paint these shadows in my picture is the most successful part of the picture.

“The climb to the shrine”

Overall I’m not happy with this painting. But since I am writing about this painting, I thought that I might as well show it.

After this, I ascended to the shrine. In other words, I climbed an endless number of steps. It was tiring but I quite enjoyed it.

The final painting was a small enclosure next to the shrine. I really like the space and in particular the corridor on the right which is a pillared walkway. This walkway gives a spectacular view of the forest.

Painting this beautiful scene though was a nightmare as I was surrounded by a cluster of tiny flies that desperately wanted to kamikaze into my eyes or explore my nostrils.

It doesn’t help that I have cavernous nostrils. I never really gave much thought to my nostrils but they amaze my wife. She often wants to put things up them, such as a 500 yen Japanese coin which is a very large coin.

But back to the story. I think that if I’d had a can of kerosene then I would have been tempted to douse and set light to myself.

Instead I resorted to squirting the flies with extreme viciousness. Sadly, it wasn’t very effective.

And I lost all decorum. I was swearing, blowing like an angry bull through my nostrils and erratically waving my arms in front of me.

I was without doubt quite a spectacle for the calm monk in the ticket booth.

These are the joys of outdoor painting that nobody tells you about.

I did though, in spite of Mother Nature, finish the painting and was even quite happy with it.

“Beautiful enclosure in a Japanese shrine”

Then it was time to go home. The return journey was very pleasant because half of the ride I didn’t even have to pedal. I just needed to keep breaking.

That night while I was sleeping I suddenly woke up with an urge to go to the toilet and as I was getting up my left calf muscle contracted into a solid ball of iron. It was excruciatingly painful and I had to rub frantically to relax it. It ached the rest of the next day.

If this was the result of the bike ride then I am glad that I walked on occasion and didn’t over strain myself.

That’s all,

Gareth.

Postscript

I originally wrote this in May of 2014. I am editing it in 2021.

I think I still have the final painting but the others I have thrown away. It was interesting for me to read this article again as I had forgotten nearly all of it except for the muscle spasm. That was excruciating.

I’m not happy with my paintings here but I included them as I think they are a necessary part of the story.

The painting at the very top was not painted on the day of this trip. Although it might have been painted in this year or sometime around this period.

I’m showing it though because it is one of my better paintings of the path to Yusuhara shrine.

February 19, 2022
Watercolor painting of a beautiful Japanese river and waterfall

Finally, I went to Ogata to paint tulips.

When I arrived, though, I discovered that most of the tulips had gone. That said, I quite liked the scattering of tulips I saw rather than the almost overpowering bright lines of tulips that look so unnatural.

And all was not lost as there were other interesting things to paint in this place. So I left the tulip fields and went to the river where there is a suspended footbridge.

“A View from Above”

The bridge is very elegant. In Japan, most bridges are not. They look like they are built for tanks to cross. They are probably made so sturdily because of earthquakes.

What was really exciting about this bridge in my painting was how the walkway, which looked like a white line across a dark background, acted as a directional line leading the viewer’s eye to the focal point which in this case was the people at the far end of the bridge.

And what a background. A dramatic gorge with beautiful spring foliage and rocks.

In this painting, the figures are a little too big and in a future attempt I will make them a little smaller or the bridge a little bigger depending on which works best.

Next, I went down the gorge to see the waterfall. I’ve done a few paintings from this spot in the past and I couldn’t resist doing another painting from this spot on this occasion. It is such a beautiful scene.

“Waterfall Mist”

I read that the waterfall is about 20 meters high and forms a perfect crescent shape.

Despite being a beautiful scene I spent quite a long time hopping over countless stones in order to find a good composition.

But I don’t mind because the composition is critical and the first thing to think about before doing a painting. I believe that even a beautiful scene will not necessarily become a beautiful painting if the composition is not good.

One of the magical things about this scene is the mist that wafts across the bottom of the waterfall. It was also nice when the mist wafted over me because it was a very hot day. Although at first I thought, in a sudden panic, that it was raining.

It was a very sunny day with a warm breeze. Ideal conditions for drying clothes and watercolor paintings. In fact, my paint was drying out so quickly that I had to keep spraying it with water.

I folded the cover of my watercolor pad above the paper so it acted as a little “parasol” over the paper blocking out the sunshine over half the paper.

Despite the “parasol” the paint still dried really quickly. Truth be told I am a little disappointed with the waterfall part of the painting but I will have another attempt at home.

I ate my lunch while my first wash was drying out completely. Then I did my second wash.

However, I started to feel bad. Especially my head. It felt like a baked potato. I had been out in the sunshine too long.

And it was a great relief to finish the painting and go to a restroom where it was shaded and cool.

Next to the restroom, there was a shop. And I wandered around this shop just to enjoy the cool shade.

But I had spent too long in the sunshine and even in the cool shade of the store I felt dizzy.

After recovering sufficiently, I painted the final picture. This scene is of the river just before the waterfall. When I painted this picture the waterfall was behind me.

“Japanese Torii in a Misty River”

Sadly there is a road across the very top of the waterfall. And there is also an artificial channel in the river. I find that the Japanese have a tendency to do an excessive amount of construction. I wish they could have left the waterfall and the river in its natural state.

Perhaps there is a good reason for such construction.

And despite such construction the river is still beautiful.

I think one of the reasons this river is so beautiful is because of the little grassy islands in it.

Another reason is the gate, or torii as they say in Japanese, which is in the middle of the river.

The whole scene was really inspiring especially as the river was set against a very dramatic sky that imparted a wonderful mood. I literally live for this.

A group of Japanese people even came by and showered me with smiles and compliments before they continued on with their sightseeing. I don’t know about you, but I very much enjoy compliments.

I’m not happy with the painting I did of the Japanese Torii on that day. So the painting that I’m showing here is another version I did. I’m not sure if I did it in the same year but it is inspired by the same scene.

After finishing the painting, I returned to the shop and bought some Japanese sweets called manju for my family. These are basically buns with a very heavy doughy texture and an adzuki bean paste filling. They are very tasty.

I bought these as a kind of peace offering to my wife as she had looked after our toddler all day while I had been out painting.

It was wonderful to return home and to hear my toddler’s excited feet coming to the door. Young children don’t walk, they skip.

She’s only one year and eight months old but she gave me a bow as I entered the house – adorable. Her sparkling eyes, wide smile and rich chuckle of a laugh touched my heart.

By the way, torii means bird abode, perhaps this is because birds perch on it, but that’s just my guess.

Postscript

I originally wrote this story in April of 2014. I’m editing it in April of 2021.

At some point, I threw away the painting of the bridge. I probably wasn’t very happy with it. What I am using here is an image of the painting that I had on my computer. Sadly it was a small image and I had to blow up the image a little and then sharpen it using a photo editing app. I think the final result is pretty okay but it is obviously not ideal.

Since this story was written, I’ve visited Ogata several times and I now have a small series of paintings of this place. However, I never did another painting of the bridge with smaller figures. Maybe one day.

February 9, 2022
Watercolor paintings of the Cherry blossom in Japan

“Refreshing walk by the Cherry blossom trees”

It is cherry blossom time and people are gathering under the cherry trees, called Sakura in Japanese, and having picnics.

And that’s what I did today with my family. It’s all very festive and sociable.

My father-in-law, who loves Japanese history, was trying to tell me about cherry trees being gifted to America by the Japanese in 1912. They were first planted along the Potomac river and have become a symbol of friendship between Japan and America.

Although beautiful, cherry blossoms are difficult to paint in watercolor because of their lightness of color and it is necessary to leave white paper in order to achieve this lightness.

A few years ago when I attempted to paint cherry blossoms I was so disgusted with my results that I just gave up.

Last year, however, I had another go and was a little more pleased with the results. And so this year I had another go.

To be honest, I still feel that I haven’t captured that delicacy and beauty. However, I am happy with these results and look forward to doing more cherry blossom paintings in the near future.

Sadly, the first painting I did on this day wasn’t very good. So I’m not going to show it.

However, while I was painting this picture, a tourist from Honolulu stopped to talk to me and tell me about his life and travels.

He’d wanted to visit the city next to Oita which is called Beppu. It is famous for its natural hot spas and hot sand baths. But by mistake he’d ended up in a hotel in Oita.

It was really enjoyable to speak to a native English speaker as sometimes I go for weeks without talking to such a person except for family on the phone.

I am somewhat of a recluse.

Well, I can’t waste valuable time socializing that could be used for painting. And also there aren’t so many foreigners around in Oita.

Below is my final painting of the day. To be honest, I’m not very happy with this one either.

“Picnic under the Cherry blossom”

While I was painting this final one I got numerous compliments from people, especially old Japanese women

And two Chinese girls came and talked to me and even took a picture of my painting and a picture of me next to one of them.

This used to happen a lot when I first came to Japan but is now quite rare. Perhaps it is because I’m getting wrinkly.

I left with the sun going down and large groups of people coming with crates of beer and barbecue grills. It looked fun.

The next day

“Cherry blossom by a Japanese castle”

The sun shone again today so between housework, job and daughter I found a gap for painting. I’m an artist with clipped wings!

So, I cycled down to the castle again to paint the Cherry blossom. And I found the beautiful scene above right next to a bus stop.

I received quite a few compliments from passersby. The most memorable was by an old Japanese man with a warm smile who said: “I also paint but you are much more excellent than me”.

If these compliments stroked my ego, my wife soon remedied that at dinner time. About fifteen minutes after she had told me it was April Fool’s day she said that the raisin bread I was happily chewing on was two days old.

To be honest, I would have still eaten it even if it was two days old, but her remark did make me pause in mid-chew with a look of concern; and this really delighted my wife, her smile was almost glowing.

The day after next

“Walking beneath the falling Cherry blossom”

I could have painted the cherry blossom by the castle again today, but I felt the urge to move out of this comfort zone and try another place.

So I went to a place by the river.

I instantly regretted this urge when I felt the very cool breeze by the river blowing against me.

But I had decided so now I was following through come hell or cold breezes. Okay, maybe a tsunami would make me turn around.

And I found a beautiful scene to paint after all.

It took me a while, though, to find a good composition. I would say this is the most important element of a painting. You really are doomed if you don’t get the composition right and for this reason I don’t mind spending quite a long time looking around and making rectangular frames with my fingers.

If you want to learn about composition I recommend the Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting by Edgar A Whitney. This book helped me a lot.

When I did finally find a good composition I discovered that I had no easel! Is this senility slowly creeping up on me? Is this a portrait of the artist in decay? I chose a very down to earth solution and sat on the grass.

As I painted, the frail cherry blossom began to fall like snowflakes all over me: on my paper, on my palette and in my water bucket – where it subsequently got stuck on my brush.

I had to shake myself down when I got up. This is part of what it means to be a plein air painter; an intimacy with your subject that is a true oneness.

Painting the cherry blossom, as I said before, is a challenge and the best approach is to throw away carefulness by throwing paint onto the paper. And I literally did this: it is a technique called splattering but it could also be called fun.

Splattering is a good technique for a medium that doesn’t respect timidity and reveals it’s best through boldness.

Amazingly all this splattering and dashes of blue sky worked wonderfully well. It was nerve-wrecking and exciting at the same time, which is normally a good sign, and it felt the same as I was painting the greenery and getting those subtle variations.

After this dried I added shadows, tree forms and figures.

I returned home with numb fingers from a cold spring breeze. Although when I rode back home on my bicycle that same breeze was behind me and it was blowing me so strongly that I almost didn’t have to pedal.

“Enchanting walk beneath the Cherry blossom”

I am so delighted with these two paintings.

Sometimes before I start painting, I have a vision of what I am trying to paint and this happened here.

And the final image was very close to my vision.

What I didn’t express was the falling cherry blossom. I’m not yet ready for that challenge, perhaps next year.

Obsessed with the Changing Cherry Blossom

“Stroll by the Cherry blossom on a beautiful spring day”

Yes, I just can’t stop. It’s really amazing that I’ve lived here for seven years and not realized how beautiful the changing foliage of the cherry blossom tree is. It’s like suddenly seeing a gift on my doorstep that has been there for seven years.

Perhaps I never really noticed the beauty of the changing Cherry blossom because until last year it was beyond my painting abilities.

And now that I can paint it I’ve started to really fall in love with the changing foliage as the white Cherry blossom falls away and green leaves begin to appear. It is so beautiful.

So, I went again to the castle.

This time I met a group of drunken Japanese women. They were very friendly. And I wished that this was twenty years ago! Because these women now look like my older daughters!

They were trying to get me to eat some food which was very kind of them. The problem was that I was full and I was trying to paint a picture. It is not easy to paint with a rice ball in one hand. I took a little food just to please them.

And, then, they tried to convince me how handsome I was and I was trying to convince them that I was an old man. It doesn’t help that they are kneeling at your feet with a paper plate of food and dishing out lots of compliments.

And here is the painting I did.

“Barbecue smoke and Cherry blossoms”

So in this painting there are three friends having a barbecue together.

In reality, this is where the group of drunken women were.

They were in the foreground and I thought that having people in the foreground in the painting would make a good composition.

Of course, if I kept looking in their direction it might get taken in the wrong way and so instead of staring at them and copying them I replaced them with some figures from my imagination.

I thought three men next to a barbecue would look good. I often paint a lot of my figures from my imagination.

I also draw people all the time in my sketchbook so drawing figures has become quite easy.

I really enjoyed adding that barbecue smoke. I think it works really well.

The second painting was more difficult to do because it was getting quite cold and I was losing sensitivity in my hands.

“Family reunion in the long evening shadows of the Cherry blossom trees”

In this painting, you have a little story of a mother and son seeing father coming back from work. It’s a friendly scene of a family reunion after a busy day.

What I think both paintings have is a wonderful sense of atmosphere. I can really feel this when I look at them.

Sometimes I forget about the atmosphere when I paint because I’m so fixated on making a good looking painting.

However, when I look at these paintings I can see that atmosphere is the most essential thing because the viewer can feel something.

In other words, the viewer experiences an interaction with the painting.

But it is not just the Cherry blossom that is catching my eye. Everywhere the foliage is looking beautiful because you can see the refreshing green color of Spring.

And the countryside, as you’d expect, is especially beautiful looking in this season.

In fact, it is driving me a little crazy not being able to get out there and paint it. I have that awful missing out feeling but there are family responsibilities and work.

I console myself with the thought that I have the cherry blossom trees near the castle and just this has inspired me and developed my abilities so I have to learn gratitude for that.

That’s all for now,

Gareth.

Postscriptum

This story was originally about 4 or 5 stories. But I joined them together into one. They were written around April of 2014. I edited them in January of 2022.

February 1, 2022
Watercolor painting of a beautiful and peaceful beach scene

This is Itogahama 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.

Although I don’t think it is a great painting I still quite like it.

This is because it has a pleasing soft and misty feeling.

Also as I look at this painting I feel a calmness.

I have since done many more paintings of this beach.

And it is interesting to compare those paintings with this one and to see the change in my work.

There are many things about this scene that make it a good painting subject, such as the distant mountains, the rocky outcrops and the dramatic steep cliffs.

Those cliffs with the trees on top are fun to paint.

There are many buzzards in those trees and often they come out and glide high up over the beach.

I remember clearly walking along this beach to that second outcrop of rocks.

I wanted to see what was past that outcrop.

I have a strong desire to look beyond a coastal outcrop, or another turn in the road, or a mountain to see what lies beyond.

I think that I’m partly driven by curiosity and partly by the hope of finding a beautiful scene to paint.

But it was quite dangerous in this case as that second outcrop is a very rocky terrain with almost no flat areas.

And the rocks were wet and very slippery.

Still I persevered through this uninviting terrain and at last I saw past this outcrop.

Ironically, despite all that effort I can’t remember very well what I saw.

I think I saw a wide inlet and in the middle of it a small fishing port.

I don’t think it was a remarkable scene otherwise I would probably have taken a photo of it and then done a painting from the photo.

But that never happened.

So my exploration efforts were in vain but that has often been the case.

However, this doesn’t stop me from continuing to explore.

That’s all,

Gareth.

November 6, 2021
Watercolor paintings of the sun setting over Beppu bay

Beppu Bay is in Oita prefecture, Japan.

This place is just a 10 minute bicycle ride from my house.

This is wonderful for painting but a bit of a worry if we ever get a tsunami.

From my side of the bay at evening time you have a perfect view of the sun setting behind the distant mountains.

Around 2011, when these paintings were done, I often cycled to this coastal place and painted the sunset.

It was a wonderful experience.

Although the enjoyment was lessened by my struggles with trying to paint a sunset scene in watercolor.

There is a big concrete sea wall here that I would sit upon and where I would paint.

It was a very wide and flat surface and ideal for painting.

The concrete was also warm because it had soaked in all the heat of the day.

And in the evening time as the temperature cooled the concrete would release the heat.

Between the wall and sea is a huge pile of concrete tetrapods.

The tetrapods appear to have been just thrown on top of one another.

It is so ugly.

And when I first saw them I felt so disappointed.

But I can’t change that.

Normally, though, I don’t include them in my paintings.

Fishermen stand on these concrete tetrapods.

They are very quiet.

And I am always surprised to see fishermen arriving when I am leaving and it is becoming cold and dark.

I very rarely have any interaction with them.

But I find them an interesting addition to my sea paintings.

And one time, I remember a fisherman catching a very big fish.

He was so happy and he wished to give me the fish.

But I had no bag to put the fish in so I politely refused his generosity.

The only drawback to this wonderful painting spot are the funamushi, or sea roaches.

They are harmless, but who wants a black bug with lots of legs crawling up the leg of your pants.

And I should add that they are crawling up the inside of your pants.

But nothing is perfect.

And they are harmless.

Anyway, I should talk about the paintings.

So in the first painting, you have the mountains partially covered in mist.

I was very happy with this painting and have since done several more paintings based on this one.

I obviously used too much yellow and yet in some ways I like that excessive touch of yellow.

I think it is good to be excessive in my artwork.

Because I am too timid.

Also, being excessive increases the excitement and gets the creative juice flowing.

“Enchanting evening sky over Beppu bay”

The second painting is a very dramatic evening scene of Beppu bay.

I’m happy with the variety of colors in the sky.

And I’m happy with the strong contrast of warm and cool colors in the sky.

I think that I managed to express an epic feeling to the sky.

And you can see the warm lights of Beppu city at the bottom of the distant mountain.

These soft and twinkling specks of light appear almost magical as the evening sunlight disappears.

“A peaceful evening moment”

The third painting is a much simpler and less dramatic image of Beppu Bay.

But I like the feeling of calmness in this painting.

The original painting had no boat in the foreground.

I added that boat later.

It was from a photo I had taken on another occasion.

I remember being surprised by how well this addition worked out.

And I further remember a person who liked this painting very much.

She was very interested in buying it.

But in the end she never did.

However, she did buy another painting so it worked out well in the end.

But it didn’t work out well for this painting because one day I threw this painting away.

This is because although I thought it was quite a good painting, my later work is so much better.

Also, I have too many paintings and it’s a big problem.

Luckily I still had an image of this painting so I could show another one of my very few early paintings of Beppu bay.

That’s all,

Gareth.

November 4, 2021
Painting a beautiful panoramic view from the top of a hill

I’m not sure when I painted this picture.

But I know this is an old painting.

I painted it on a spiral-bound pad.

And I painted over two sheets of paper so that I could do a huge panoramic painting that matched the view I experienced on that hill.

I have since pulled both sheets out of the pad.

So now the painting exists as two separate parts.

When I took a photograph of this painting I decided to photograph each part of the painting separately.

Then I put the two parts together in a photo-editing app.

This is why there is a line down the middle of the painting.

But I find that line quite interesting.

As you can see both sides don’t completely line up but it is good enough for me.

I can still remember going up this hill which is in a place called Akeno and my feeling of delight upon finding this wonderful view.

And I remember being very happy with the results.

I’m surprised it was a successful painting because I often struggled in those days with watercolor painting.

Also this was a large sized painting and it’s normally harder to paint on a large size.

Of course, sometimes you get a watercolor painting that is successful on the first attempt.

But that is very rare.

I think this painting could be classed as one of them.

But I also think part of the reason for my success with this painting was that I felt inspired by the scene.

In my opinion, being inspired increases the chances of making a good painting.

I haven’t visited this place since, even though it is quite near my house.

I would have to go up a steep hill, perhaps that has deterred me.

And perhaps it is because I didn’t think I could do a better painting than this one.

To be honest, though, I have no idea why I didn’t go again.

Like most things in life, it remains a mystery to me.

That’s all,

Gareth.

October 31, 2021
Painting of a utility pole in the Japanese countryside

This is an old painting.

I painted it on the spot around 2010.

This countryside path is in a region called Wasada.

It 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.

If I couldn’t find beautiful places to paint then I would look for interesting places or subjects.

And I vividly remember coming across the scene in the painting above and thinking that the utility looked very interesting.

I know utility poles are not very beautiful.

But when you start looking at things like utility poles as shapes then you see possibilities.

And in this painting the arrangement of shapes, including the utility pole, are very good.

The arrangement of shapes means the composition.

There are weaknesses in this painting.

The second utility pole in the distance is too thin and fragile looking.

Another weakness is the foliage.

The foliage looks too messy and overcomplicated.

It needs to be simplified.

Also the pattern of the shadowy areas in the foliage needs to be improved.

This painting was done on wood pulp paper.

It is very difficult to get soft gradations of dark areas on this type of paper.

That is why the shadowy areas of the foliage look stuck on.

Despite these weaknesses, I consider this painting a success.

I think the main reason is the strong composition.

And also, the big utility pole, which makes this an interesting painting.

Finally, I like this painting because it has sentimental value for me.

It reminds me of the excitement of my bicycle painting adventures.

That’s all,

Gareth.

October 29, 2021
My oldest watercolor paintings of Japanese cityscapes

There are 4 times in my life when I did art.

First time

Firstly as a child I did a lot of drawing.

I loved using crayons.

Every Christmas I remember how delighted I was to receive a pack of crayons.

But what I drew is not something you’d call it art.

For I just drew endless rectangular spaceships.

I would cover the whole paper with them.

And then there would be a big battle.

I also drew, or maybe I should say gouged, an image of a church on my bedroom wall.

It was my Sistine Chapel moment!

However, my dad, who had just painted the bedroom wall, which was a really long room, and who had very high standards of workmanship, was not impressed.

I later learnt that he said to my mum in disbelief: “I can’t believe it. He’s so destructive”.

I also painted the inside of the shed. This too was not well received.

Second time

The second time I did art began in my last year at school when I was about 15.

Now I was drawing plants, dungeons and dragons stuff and pictures of nude women.

Of course, I improved most from drawing the latter because I was very focused.

Although I passed, I spent another year at college doing art.

And according to my lecturer I had gotten worse at drawing over this year.

But I think that was because we were drawing things like folded strips of paper which is not inspiring.

If we’d been drawing naked women I think I would have massively improved or even fantasy subjects such as dragons and knights.

Anyways, I was not impressed by the art lessons at college.

And it was suggested that I should do Graphic Design which is far more cool and perhaps I could become a concept designer which sounded really cool.

So I went and did a year in graphic design and I did a few lessons in watercolor painting in my free time which I really enjoyed and which I wish I’d continued at.

Doing the graphic design course was a big mistake.

The director, or whatever he was titled, was a brilliant illustrator but he almost looked down upon art.

He would say that art was for monkeys and that it was ideas that were important.

His comments saddened me because the whole reason I had started the course was because I liked art, I liked drawing and painting, and I wanted to get better at it.

I also wasn’t very good at art or ideas.

After one year I quit the course.

And then for many years I did all kinds of other things but no art.

Third time

But my interest in art did come back.

I’m not sure though it was a good thing.

I sometimes wonder if art has been a blessing or a curse for me.

Perhaps both.

But anyway, I was studying physiotherapy in Bath.

I had the chance at a job for life and security.

Yet, I was unhappy.

And I had started drawing again.

After a month, I quit the course.

I decided that I wanted to do a course in Fine Art.

Sadly I couldn’t because I had to first do a Foundation course and I didn’t have the financial resources to do that.

So, I started an art related degree course that didn’t need a Foundation course.

But it was rubbish.

I soon realized that and quit that too.

A year later I started a course in architecture.

I thought it would allow me to do my art.

But after one year I quit architecture too.

I was getting very good at quitting things.

After that one year, during the summer holidays, I cycled around France for 3 weeks and did some drawings.

You can read about that story here.

That was so fun.

And I wish that I had done more travelling and drawing.

But after that holiday I not only quit the architecture course but also the art.

After that I did a foundation course in mechanical engineering for one year.

And then I went and studied English literature.

And I actually got a degree in English literature.

I had even started to toy with the idea of becoming an English lecturer.

But after 3 years of studying for my degree I wanted freedom from academia.

I wanted to see the world. So I went to Japan.

Fourth time

And in Japan, around 1999, my interest in art returned.

I started going to a watercolor class and an oil painting class.

At some point I got very serious and actually started walking around the city and painting what I saw.

This is easy to do in Japan as people are pretty easy going.

Especially if you are a foreigner.

I remember once in England I was on a street doing a drawing and a car stopped near me.

There was a burly man in a car with his family and he was staring at me as though I was a felon.

He was very aggressive looking.

And he actually got out of his car.

And in a very menacing voice he asked me, what I was doing.

England is not the country of gentlemen that the Japanese seem to believe.

There’s nothing gentle whatsoever about the place.

Well, there are a few kind people.

Anyway, back to the story.

These paintings are some of my earliest artworks.

I think I painted them around 2005.

They are of a place called Shinmachi which is very near Oita city centre.

I lived in a big apartment in Shinmachi from about 2000 to 2006.

I think these paintings are the first outdoor paintings that I did.

I’m so glad that I kept them.

And I thought that I’d share them with you.

I simply wandered around Shinmachi and painted what I thought was interesting, such as the petrol station, the concrete aqueduct and the car scrapyard.

The concrete aqueduct was actually painted across two separate sheets of paper which is why there is a white gap in the middle.

These paintings are now very old and things have changed in Shinmachi.

I believe the car scrapyard has gone.

And the bridge next to the petrol station has also gone.

All that is solid vanishes into air! It seems to be true.

Here are all the paintings.

“Japanese car scrapyard”

“Japanese petrol station”

Note that this painting has a date in the left hand corner. I am so happy about that. The 05 means 2005. So I know that I painted this picture in 2005. And I’m fairly sure I painted the other pictures around the same time.

“Japanese concrete waterway”

Note the car scrapyard in the distance which I painted in another picture. I think that place is visually very interesting.

Postscript

I’m writing this article in February of 2021.

It’s cold.

My right hand feels like a block of ice.

My mum sent me a pair of gloves to keep my fingers warm but they are so tight that I can’t move my fingers with them on.

It cost her about 14 dollars to send the gloves.

What a ridiculously high price.

But the sunlight is streaming in through my window and it is glorious.

I feel bathed in light.

And I just keep on writing.

Today, or was it in the middle of the night, I decided to write 250 blogs, make 250 videos and to have 1000 images on my website.

I also decided to have about 10 galleries on my website with paypal buttons, which is the kind of practical thing that I don’t do.

I wonder if I’ll do it.

October 24, 2021

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