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Tag: Wasada
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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.
Whereas countryside scenes are very difficult to paint well.
One of the biggest challenges with a countryside scene is painting trees, bushes and grass.
Trees in particular are the most difficult to paint as my watercolor students soon discover.
And I have to tell my students that it takes years to be able to paint a good tree.
And I add that: if you can paint a good tree in watercolor it means you are a good artist.
Another reason I don’t like to paint countryside scenes is that despite appearing beautiful they are often look monotonous as a painting.
This is especially true of paintings of the Japanese countryside where you often see an endless number of tree covered mountains.
It is very beautiful.
But normally everything is the same kind of green color and in a picture it will look monotonous.
Even in autumn, when those tree covered mountains have a variety of beautiful colors, it is still monotonous as a picture.
I have seen Japanese paintings of such scenes and I can’t say I like them.
They are not visually interesting.
After saying this about painting countryside scenes in Japan, you will understand the happiness I experienced when I started to paint good pictures of countryside scenes.
And the pictures here are my earliest paintings of countryside scenes that I think are good.
Both paintings are of a countryside area called Wasada.
It is on the outskirts of Oita city.
And I found this beautiful countryside area during one of my bicycle adventures.
Of the two, I think the painting above is my favorite.
In this painting the foliage looks very beautiful.
And the rice field has lovely colors and texture.
Even the rough grass by the side of the rice field is well done.
The houses are beautifully painted.
And the figure with the dog is fairly good too.
As for my signature, I’m just glad it isn’t so noticeable.
“Coming home” You can see that the second painting is similar to the previous one.
I’m fairly sure that these two paintings are of the same village, or two small villages next to one another in Wasada.
And I’m fairly sure that they were painted around the same time.
Once again I am very happy with the foliage and the rice fields in this painting.
And the figures are fairly good.
The houses are okay but not as good as in the previous painting.
And once again, I’m glad that you can’t see my signature clearly because it’s too big and not very well done.
That’s all,
Gareth.
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Painting of a steep flight of steps going up to a Japanese shrine
“Visiting the shrine with grandfather” I think 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 one of my cycling adventures.
This steep flight of steps was a good subject for a painting as it is not too high and it has that interesting bend in the middle.
This is not always the case.
On several occasions in the Japanese countryside I have seen similar steep flights of steps going up a hill side.
But the ones I can remember were often completely straight and furthermore they were very long as they went up very high hills.
Although they were interesting to look at I don’t think they would have made for a good painting because of the sheer scale.
And I couldn’t help thinking that it would have been exhausting to climb up them.
I read that in Kumamoto, the prefecture next to Oita, which is where I live, there is one shrine that has a flight of 3333 stone steps and the distance is just over 2 kilometers.
It is the longest flight of steps to a shrine in Japan.
It takes about 90 minutes to climb to the top.
Anyway, at the beginning of the flights of steps there is a distinctive stone gate, called Torii in Japanese, that tells you this is the entrance to a Shinto shrine.
This gate also marks the passage from the mundane world to the sacred.
I added the figures from my imagination.
I thought it would be a nice image to show a boy and his grandfather visiting the shrine together.
I’m quite happy with how I painted these figures.
I am not so happy though with the trees in the background at the top of the hill.
They are a bit faint and need to be a bit stronger.
And perhaps the foliage could be simplified a little more because it looks a little scrappy.
But overall I think this is an interesting and good painting.
That’s all,
Gareth.
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Paintings of rural Japan from cycling adventures
“A quiet scene of rural Japan” Roughly around 2011, I painted these pictures.
This area is called Wasada and it is on the outskirts of Oita city.
They built a shopping mall here and although it is nice it has led to urban sprawl.
There has also been an increase in billboards.
At first there were just a few but now there are many.
And I dislike them because they are ugly and they obscure the surrounding beautiful scenery of fields and farmer’s houses.
This painting shows one of the nicer areas around Wasada.
It’s next to Nanase park.
With this painting, I’m particularly happy with the distant hill.
I like the way I have painted it.
It’s different from my normal style.
Everything else in the painting could be improved.
But I’m glad I painted quite a complicated subject.
And below is a painting of Nanase river which runs through Wasada.
“Japanese fisherman with a net wading through the river” I’m very pleased with the viewpoint of this painting.
I think this was the view from the top of a bridge.
I’m also happy with the composition.
The figure of the fisherman made for an interesting focal point in the painting.
And below is a small village that I found further on and possibly this is no longer Wasada but another area.
“A pretty Japanese countryside road” I thought the composition was quite interesting.
And I’m happy with the bright, cheerful colors in this painting.
It was near here that I encountered a snake in the reeds by the river.
Luckily, it was as frightened of me as I was of it.
That’s all,
Gareth.
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Painting of the beautiful autumn foliage in a Japanese park
I painted this picture roughly around 2010.
At this time I was struggling a lot at watercolor painting.
And I noticed that I didn’t paint the trees and bushes well in nearly all my paintings during this period.
But in this particular painting I painted the trees and bushes very well.
I especially like the touches of yellow in the painting.
They really stand out.
And they have lovely shapes and nice edges.
This place is Nanase park.
It’s a very large and beautiful park.
It is on the edge of the city and there are spectacular views of fields and distant mountains.
And I have been to this park many times, sometimes as a family trip and sometimes as a painting trip.
Normally, I do paintings of the river at this park.
So this painting is a different subject matter from what I normally paint.
That’s all,
Gareth.
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Watercolor painting of children playing in a river on a summer’s day
I know this painting is old.
I’m guessing it was painted in 2010.
But that’s a very rough guess.
It could be even earlier.
But I know this place.
It’s a very big park that I often took my children to.
The park and the river are called Nanase.
It is in a region called Wasada which is on the outskirts of Oita city.
It’s a beautiful rural area with a wonderful view of distant mountains.
I’m very happy with this painting.
It has a feeling of summer and joy.
And I enjoy looking at the light and cheerful colors.
My later paintings became much darker.
And the colors of the figures are very good.
I can’t, though, remember this particular trip to the river.
But looking at this painting does stir up memories of happy times at this river.
And this painting makes me wonder how many enjoyable times have sunk below the surface of consciousness and into depths of the unconscious or forgetfulness.
Luckily, I sometimes remember such enjoyable times through old paintings like this one.
Gareth.
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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.
