{"id":4153,"date":"2017-04-10T08:07:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T14:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2017-04-10T15:47:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T21:47:56","slug":"painting-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/painting-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Korakuen<\/a>
Korakuen Morning, 8×10, acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

 
\nMost of you know my son lives and works in Maniwa-shi, Japan<\/a>, a town in the mountains of Southwest Japan about an hour from Okayama. I recently visited him again, for the third time. He had moved to a new location since my last visit, so I was anxious to explore around his apartment in rural Japan for painting practice! It also happened to be cherry blossom time, so was anxious to see that!<\/p>\n

On international trips, I usually take a small acrylic paint set. Acrylics are water soluble, and dry in minutes, so they are easier to travel with than oils. Since you cannot take turpentine on a plane, if you want to paint oils, you have to find a place to buy it after you arrive at your destination. Here’s my setup on the road—<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My acrylic traveling kit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

 
\nI won’t turn this post into a travelogue and go into all the details of the trip, some of which I posted here on Facebook<\/a>, but concentrate on the painting in this blog entry. In retrospect, I wasn’t satisfied with most the paintings on the trip except the last day, but here goes anyway…<\/p>\n

My son’s new place is a little further out of the central town area, mainly surrounded by rice fields. There is a Shinto Shrine close by, so I did two paintings there on different days.<\/p>\n

\"Shinto<\/a>
Shinto Shrine 1,8×10,acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shinto<\/a>
Shinto Shrine 2,8×10,acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These are not the main shrine, but other structures in the courtyard. Although it was a relatively small shrine, I could have done quite a few paintings in the little nooks and crannies of this small area.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\n

 
\nWe decided to visit Osaka, the second largest city in Japan<\/a>, and about a 4 hour bus ride away. Our hotel happened to be right by Dotonburi<\/a>, the most famous district and party spot in Osaka. We kept quite busy around Osaka and a side trip to Kyoto<\/a>, so I didn’t have time to paint except for one day. On that day while the others shopped, it was pouring rain, so found a place under a bridge on the river to paint. I also don’t usually do urban scenes, and it was a bit smelly as you know what people do under bridges in party areas…even in clean Japan!<\/p>\n

The piece was going nowhere, but as it got darker, the lights started coming on, and I put them in as my focal point which helped brighten things up.<\/p>\n

\"Dontonburi,<\/a>
Dontonburi, 8×10, acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dotonburi\"<\/a>
Dotonburi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

 
\nUpon returning to Maniwa, the blossoms were still not out, and due to the rain and cold, they kept pushing back the projected blossom open date. I did find one close to my sons place, so painted that…<\/p>\n

\"Maniwa,<\/a>
Maniwa, 8×10, acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I <\/a>
I set my paints up in the conduit on the side of the road <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\n

 
\nSo far I was not really satisfied with any paintings done the the trip and we only had a few days left. We spent the last part of our trip in Okayama. One trip was to Kurashiki Bikan, an old historic district near Okayama<\/a>. It was a scenic spot, and I started a painting while the others shopped and looked around. There were just a few blossoms, so did a painting of a bridge in the district. We got there late, and I didn’t have much time, so the painting only got about half done. <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\n

 
\nOne of the Three Great Gardens of Japan<\/a> is called Korakuen (Koraku-en)<\/a>. Located in Okayama, Japan, it was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa. We saved visiting Korakuen Garden until the last day so-as to catch the blossoms. Although they were not in full bloom, there was enough to paint, so did a painting in the morning, and one in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The morning painting is shown at the top of this blog entry. Here are a few pictures of the area–<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\n

 
\nThe blossoms were not fully open yet so I painted the trees a little fuller with blossoms imagining what they will look like.<\/p>\n

The afternoon painting was a little more interesting scene and turned out pretty well, but could use some touchup later.<\/p>\n

\"Korakuen<\/a>
Korakuen Afternoon, 8×10, acrylic on canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Painting <\/a>
Painting in the garden <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Painting <\/a>
Painting in the garden <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I attracted quite a crowd in the afternoon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I attracted quite a crowd in the afternoon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Too soon we had to depart for home. I left all the paintings with my son in Japan so he could show them to friends and students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Most of you know my son lives and works in Maniwa-shi, Japan, a town in the mountains of Southwest Japan about an hour from Okayama. I recently visited him again, for the third time. He had moved to a new location since my last visit, so I was anxious to explore around his apartment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,2,16,5],"tags":[260,190,259,210,65,64,258,191,212,223,257,45,189],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-landscape","category-plein-air","category-tools","category-travel","tag-acrylic","tag-art","tag-cherry-blossom","tag-japan","tag-japanese-friendship-garden","tag-korakuen","tag-kyoto","tag-landscape","tag-maniwa","tag-okayama","tag-osaka","tag-painting","tag-plein-air"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gXkU-14Z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.donaldneff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}