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Repetitio Est Mater Studiorum

8/19/2018 4:50:18 PM

Repetitio est mater studiorum" (Repetition is the mother of learning). I work hard when I'm serious about learning something new but I don't know if learning by repetition is the best way for me. I'm a kind of person who doesn't like reading manuals so I just start playing with a newly purchased product and figure out how to make it work (well, sometimes, never). I like to just dive in and learn by doing instead of reading or taking notes or even seeing how things are done beforehand. It may be natural for a person like me to get bored with the [...]

Dive into the Unknown

6/16/2016 11:17:53 AM

I have been a traveler most of my life, much longer than I have been a painter. A recent talk with a friend got me wonder how travel has been impacting my creativity now that I can call both painting and traveling my passions. Whether you are a fearless, adventurous type or prefer a more organized group tour, travel is all about getting out of routine to explore and discover the unknown. It usually rewards you with amazing experiences that enrich your life and makes you appreciate what you have in your life. When I travel, I am not keen on [...]

How to Get Out of A Rut

4/10/2016 12:11:26 AM

The artist's growth is not always upwards. Sometimes it feels like you can keep going up but sometimes you feel stuck or think you're moving in a wrong direction. As with any journey, the artist's journey has ups and downs and that's normal. I have accepted this fact now but in my earlier days as a painter, I did not understand this cycle of ups and downs or know how to cope especially with not-so-good times, which sometimes lasted so long. Some artists call down times an artist block when they experience a creative drought. They stop creating or cannot create. I [...]

Beauty is Right Here All Around Us

3/13/2016 11:50:09 PM

"Where's your favorite place to paint (en plein air)?" This is one of the questions I get quite often from people I meet. Behind their curiosity, there are facts that I like painting outdoors and also that I travel frequently for my art and work. When I say "San Diego" (that is where I live), that seems to take some people by surprise. Perhaps they were waiting for me to say something like "Tahiti" or "Corsica"? Not that I don't like these exotic islands or other places I choose to go sometimes, it's obvious they didn't expect me to pick my [...]

A Little Sketch Goes A Long Way

3/2/2016 1:06:16 AM

Winter is over and it's time to get out in the field for plein-air painting. Sounds great? I know it's Yes for some people but for the others it may be one of those things that are easier said than done. Especially if you made your studio too comfortable during harsh winter months, or if you have never painted outside, it may seem a bit daunting to venture out of the studio. Well, you can relax and take a less intimidating approach: make a small sketch outside instead of a full-scale painting. These small sketches, called fieldwork, are something I enjoy immensely. [...]

Don't Paint Everything

1/24/2016 2:19:29 AM

If you have been in my workshop, you probably heard me say this: Don't paint everything that you see but paint what you want to see. These are simple words but so important to me, and I try to demonstrate what I mean to my workshop participants. When painting a landscape, whether en plein air or in the studio with a reference photo, I do not want to paint the scene too faithfully. If I do, I know my work will end up looking too literal, and that’s not what I’m after in the finished result. My goal is to capture the [...]

Watercolor Artist October 2014

8/28/2014 7:52:43 PM

To a painter, a brush is just like a good knife to a chef. One of my essential tools is a mop brush. And I am happy to say that an article of me talking about it appears in the October issue of Watercolor Artist magazine. I used "Central Park II," one of my recent paintings of New York City, to demonstrate how I used a mop brush in this painting. In this issue, I am also honored to be among some of today's finest artists working in watermedia, such as Direk Kingnok (cover artist), George James, Carol Evans, Chizuru Morii Kaplan, [...]

Announcing A New Workshop in California

7/10/2014 3:20:25 AM

"California has been my home for nearly half of my life, and I have spent the majority of the time in San Diego. California's southernmost city holds a special place in my heart, for it was here that I made a life-giving career change and became a full-time painter. The abundant beauty of my 'adopted' home has been the inspiration for many watercolor scenes since I started painting in 2005. Thanks to San Diego's mild climate, I have become an avid plein-air painter and quite often I can be found traipsing its nooks and crannies on a quest for [...]

NEW BOOK: Painting San Diego, 100 Plein-Air Watercolors of San Diego Landscapes

6/2/2014 12:53:21 AM

I am very pleased to announce that my new art book is now available online. PAINTING SAN DIEGO: 100 Plein-Air Watercolors of San Diego Landscapes is a result of my recent 6-month-long outdoor painting journey through San Diego County, California, my adopted home of 20 years. The book contains 100 images of never-before-seen watercolors of mine, all painted en plein air between November 2013 and May 2014, photos and descriptions of most locations, plenty of practical tips and several step-by-step demonstrations. 120 pages. Foreword was written by Michael Campos of Campos Photography, a fine art photographer and a dear friend whom I have [...]

Plein-Air Painting in Long Island, New York (4) - American Landscape Painting

5/14/2014 3:26:43 AM

The weather was gorgeous. I really liked the area around East Hampton so I decided to stick around a little to make more paintings that portray beautiful architecture in the area. Painting Miss Amelia's Cottage, Amagansett Amagansett I (14"x20") Amagansett II (12"x16") The Palm, East Hampton, Long Island, New York I Click for an enlarged view. Media: Original watercolor on paper Image Size: 13 x 19 inches (33 x 48 cm) Frame/Mat: No Purchase: Please send me an email for details. - Join me on Facebook and follow my blog on NetworkedBlogs. - Follow me on Google+.- Follow me on Twitter.- FASO Artist Websites - Easy, Professional Art Websites for Artists who [...]

Plein-Air Painting in Long Island, New York (3) - American Landscape Painting

5/12/2014 3:28:53 AM

After completing two waterscapes, I decided to move a bit inland to avoid the chilly wind from the south shore. I drove past several quaint small towns and some really luxurious houses but other than that, the landscape was mostly rural. This simple country scene that I painted was nothing extraordinary but there was something quite appealing about it. When I decided to set up to paint there, I had a choice of doing it on this side of the road or on the other. You can see what I chose and why in the finished painting. I have had people who told [...]

Plein-Air Painting in Long Island, New York (2) - American Landscape Painting

5/7/2014 6:44:34 AM

If a plein-air landscape painter doesn't do a maritime theme on Long Island, it's like going to the Rockies and not painting mountains. So I decided to look for more scenes with water along the south shore after completing a waterscape in Center Moriches. I found this small harbor in Hampton Bay. I loved the overall atmosphere of a quiet day here but, to create a better design in my painting, I had to rearrange some of the things I saw. Although it might have been better to actually do a few quick thumb-nail sketches to work out compositions, I sort of did [...]

Plein-Air Painting in Long Island, New York (1) - American Landscape Painting

5/5/2014 2:23:15 AM

On my recent trip to Long Island, NY to teach a workshop, I had an opportunity to paint around the island. This is the first one I attempted near the town of Center Moriches. Looking at these photos reminds me that I was painting and crying here on the edge of a river mouth, constantly buffeted by the strong wind. The snow was falling just a week before but on the morning I painted, luckily, the sun was shining with no clouds in sight. I didn't realize, however, how relentlessly the wind would blow, especially by the ocean. While painting, I grew [...]

Central Park, New York City II, American Landscape Painting

5/1/2014 2:14:47 AM

One of the things I repeatedly tell my students is, before painting, have a plan for your creative process and picture your final picture. Easier said than done, but isn't it true that this is so easy to forget? Maybe we are too eager to paint. Maybe we don't think it's that important. Or we think a painting has to be done intuitively - we are artists after all, right? Please read this: Seasoned athletes use vivid, highly detailed internal images and run-throughs of the entire performance, engaging all their senses in their mental rehearsal, and they [...]

Painting in New York City, American Landscape Paintings

4/27/2014 4:32:58 AM

If you had a day in New York City to do anything you want, what would you choose? A tough call, I'm sure - the city has too many temptations! Recently I found myself to be in that situation between two of my workshops. It was a glorious weekend day, and I couldn't believe my luck. Here I am posting photos of what I decided to do. Painting in Central Park, NYC City Hall, NYC I (20"x14") Battery Park, NYC I (14"x20") Central Park, NYC I Media: Original watercolor on paper Image Size: 13 x 19 inches (33 x 48 cm) - Join me on Facebook and [...]

Springtime in North Carolina, American Landscape Painting

4/4/2014 9:56:39 PM

Warm weather and springtime flowers welcomed me in Western North Carolina last week. Hills and streets around the Asheville/Hendersonville area are dotted with fruit trees like cherry, pear, peach with fast-blooming flowers. And lovely tulips, daffodills and many other flowers add delightful colors to the landscape. Blessed with the gorgeous weather each day, my plein-air workshop students and I were happy campers and we enjoyed a wonderful week painting at Kanuga, a beautiful lake-side conference center near Hendersonville. Here's one of my demos of a very tall weeping cherry tree that was just in front of my workshop room. Pinkish white flowers hanging [...]

Chasing the Light in Palm Desert, California Landscape Painting

1/28/2014 12:17:43 PM

I often find myself heading out to paint during the golden hour to capture soft, warm sunlight. The quality of light is what I'm after and it is just fantastic especially for a lovely atmospheric painting. But, if you have ever attempted doing this, you know how rapidly the golden-hour light changes it can make the whole landscape look totally diferent within a matter of minutes. If only we could keep the beautiful light as long as we need to finish our painting! To deal with that elusiveness, I try to remember the first impression and work with it throughout the end. [...]

Plein-Air Demo at the Bernardo Winery, California Landscape Painting

1/25/2014 11:16:47 PM

For plein-air painters, especially those who work in watercolor, the weather is the most crucial factor for a pleasant experience. Too often, it is too hot, too cold, too windy, too dry, too wet, etc... well, we had none of those complaints on the day of the Saturday paint-out because the weather was perfect in every sense. I was happy to be invited as a demonstrator for a plein-air painters' group from the San Diego Watercolor Society. The location chosen for their January get-together was Bernardo Winery. I really liked the rustic feel of the [...]

On the Road (2) - the South, American Landscape Paintings

11/25/2013 6:18:24 PM

To me, traveling for a workshop often means arriving there just in time, getting the job done, and packing up to go home. Especially in the U.S., I rarely have extra time to do anything else. However, my workshop organizers and participants alike sometimes go out of their way to show me around their neighborhoods. In the region called the American South, I have done several workshops in the past few years. And in each place I was a happy recipient of the Southern Hospitality from people I worked with. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the gallery staff took me straight to the Philbrook [...]

On the Road (1) - U.S., Interior Paintings

11/21/2013 10:35:58 PM

I spend a considerable amount of time on the road as I travel to different locations to teach a workshop. This means I always have a new group of people to work with and, most of the time, I meet them for the first time in class. For me, it amounts to at least a couple of hundreds of them a year. It is expected to speak out in America. Perhaps because of that reason, sometimes I hear from a student beforehand, telling me he's nervous. Sometimes, on my arrival, a student comes up to me and says she's worried if she's [...]

Working Out a Composition

11/14/2013 10:23:04 PM

One of the key factors to make a painting that has an impact is a good composition. Whether I work outdoors in the nature or in my studio using a photo reference, it is very rare to see a perfect arrangement of all shapes in a scene that I'm painting. So a composition needs to be worked out to be a strong one. Of course it is essential to work out a composition before you start painting. I have found it helpful to do several small studies on a big sheet of paper divided with a masking tape to see which composition [...]

Painting En Plein Air in Michigan

11/11/2013 11:55:29 AM

Last week I spent a gorgeous autumn day painting en plein air in Michigan. The weather was just perfect and the day was one of the most productive I ever had. I did 3 paintings and several studies while traveling across the southern part of the state. I've been told by my workshop students and my painter friends that I paint quite fast. Looking back, I think this is how it has been with me almost from the beginning of my painting career. Some have asked me how and why I do it. I can say that the kind of style I work [...]

Barns of Michigan, American Landscape Paintings

11/9/2013 4:03:07 PM

I teach both indoors and outdoors when I do a workshop. Obviously, both have certain advantages and challenges, and I may focus on slightly different aspects of painting, depending on where we work. During my recent workshop in Michigan, we were all painting inside, warm and cozy, in downtown Ann Arbor. The chilly November wind and occasional rain was a bit too much even for the courageous plein-air painter. So one day, I gave everyone one of my photos of a typical Michigan farm with a barn. What the photo showed was a no-brainer to paint, in fact, but we took it [...]

My Workshop in Michigan

11/8/2013 2:08:30 PM

Even though they told me that it was past peak for fall foliage, colors were stilll amazing to me this past week in southern Michigan. I felt so lucky that my workshop was scheduled to be in time for me to see it. Needless to say, I didn't waste time to make as many paintings as possible while I was there. It was wonderful. I had an equally wonderful group of artists in my workshop, who traveled from different parts of Michigan and neighboring states, to paint with me. A big thank-you to Debra Zamperla for organizing a sold-out workshop for me [...]

Mission San Juan Capistrano I, California Landscape Painting

9/8/2013 2:34:15 PM

You don't have to be a fourth grader in California, but just walk around inside one of these missions: you can feel and learn, first-hand, a legacy from the past (the mission study is part of the 4th grade curriculum). Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1775 as the seventh of 21 missions in California. It served as a religious outpost for Spanish padres to spread Christianity among native Americans in what is now southern Orange County. Out of many structures in the town of San Juan Capistano that have the Spanish/Mexican flavor, the mission stands out and looks strikingly beautiful [...]

The Well-Traveled Road - Del Mar, California

9/2/2013 9:59:46 PM

This is a road I take to get to my favorite beach near my home. No, I don't get in the water there as it is too cold for me but to see the beautiful sunset from the cliff or just to walk or think, I like going there. I have taken this road so many times I even feel I could drive with my eyes closed. As you go downhill, you see the Pacific Ocean glisten just before the sunset. It's so beautiful I was tempted to paint it numerous times before but I never actually did. So for the [...]

Demo and Workshop in Fallbrook, California

8/30/2013 4:03:03 AM

We love sunsets. I'm not just saying. It's true, for vacation brochures, postcards sold at gift shops, wall calendars, commercial logos (and, yes, paintings, too), etc. that the ones with a sunset scene seem to be very popular. Listen to what Mr. George Lucas says: "If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office." So we love seeing a sunset, but not just for its beautiful light and colors but for the feelings evoked by it as well. I have painted quite a number of watercolors at [...]

Workshop at the Northstar Watermedia Society

10/21/2012 6:33:58 AM

How to capture light and atmosphere in watercolor paintings -- 27 of us spent five days last week learning and studying hard about this difficult subject and tried different approaches and subject matters to make that happen in our paintings. I had the pleasure of working with these hard-working and fun-loving participants in Minnesota who attended my week-long workshop there for the Northstar Watermedia Society. What an intense and inspiring week full of enthusiasm and positive energy! I'm exhausted but this is a kind of exhaustion that feels good. Thank you, Northstar Watermedia Society, for inviting me to do this workshop and [...]

Have You Googled Your Name Lately?

3/31/2012 5:43:40 AM

A recent conversation with my student revolved around names artists use. He said he was thinking about adopting a more English-sounding name. This talented young man recently came from Europe and he thinks his name is rather long and not easy for Americans to remember and pronounce. I said having a unique name was to his advantage. I'm not sure if he was completely convinced but I said it wouldn't be an issue and even going by initials might be just enough for him if he became well established. He then asked whether I ever thought about changing my name in America. [...]

Japan - One Year Later

3/10/2012 5:27:00 AM

I still remember a sense of numbness I felt when I got a phone call one year ago from my mother back in Japan. Rapidly she told me about a massive earthquake, fires, tsunami warnings, no phone connection with other family members. Right after that on March 11, 2011, I watched in disbelief a series of even more horrific events on TV that hit the coastal region of my homeland. In the past year, we heard numerous reports of the dead and disturbing discoveries at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. So I was relieved every time I heard an encouraging story of [...]

Auction - New York City Painting

9/10/2011 2:35:00 AM

Memories tend to fade, but we all remember exactly where we were and what we were doing ten years ago tomorrow. To some, it's been already ten years since; to others, it's only been ten years. But I think the time that has passed has taught us something important about life as we went through all kinds of emotions and feelings after 9/11. I would like to dedicate today's painting to a Texas artist Carol Marine and her family who recently lost their home in a wildfire. I have been fortunate to be associated with Carol and her husband David through Daily [...]