Opening Weekend – Ridgefield Art Walk 2016 (8/19 -9/11)

日本語 It was the opening weekend of the 2016 Art Walk, here in Ridgefield, Connecticut. On 8/19 (Fri), artists who were selected for this art event had opening receptions at all the restaurants, stores and the town hall in the downtown in the evening. The Ridgefield Guild of Artists, the organization my husband and I belong to and the organizer of this event, had…

Memorial Day Weekend in Jim Thorpe, PA

日本語 Memorial Day weekend is officially the start of summer vacation season in the United States. Last year, we spent the weekend in Camden, Maine. We still lived in Massachusetts back then, so it took only a couple of hours to get there. This year, however, we had to think of going to somewhere else because we live in Connecticut now. It would take…

“Daydream” – Landscape from My Imagination

日本語 This was my first attempt to paint a landscape from my imagination. I usually painted landscapes which I saw before using a reference photo or I simply painted landscapes on location. This time, however, the idea to paint tulips like a beautiful pattern came first and then I started brainstorming how I can paint tulips like that. I looked at some tulip photos…

Dandelions on the Sidewalk in Camden, Maine

  日本語 This was my first attempt to paint dandelions. I found these dandelions on the sidewalk of the shopping street in Camden, Maine in last May. I was spending a holiday weekend in Camden with my family and it was still a little bit chilly there. When I was walking along the street, these dandelions caught my attention right away. They were bigger…

Wisteria

  日本語 I just felt like painting another Japanese flowers. Wisteria can be typically seen in larger parks in Japan. When I was a child, I liked walking under a wisteria trellis to smell the sweet flower fragrance. It was a little more work than I thought to paint these flowers. I had to paint many layers of colors to depict the texture of…

Art as a Therapy – Beyond the Sorrow

  日本語 It is finally spring. For me, it is time to get ready for spring art shows. I usually enter something that fits the season of the art show. In Japan, cherry blossoms are the first thing that comes to people’s mind when they think of spring.  At this time of the year I always remember and long for the beauty of cherry…

Snow Landscape Paintings, Inspired by the Garden Views of Our Former House in Massachusetts

日本語 This is the very first blog in 2016. Belated Happy New Year! It has gotten very cold here in Connecticut. The temperature went down to 14 Fahrenheit (or minus 10 Celsius) a couple days ago. I could not resist and rushed to the North Face store to buy a nice down jacket. The store was full of people. North Face down jackets are…