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…

Acrobat – The First Time to See a Circus

日本語 I went to see a circus with my 4 year old daughter and my husband a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time for my daughter and me to see a circus live! I have never thought that it would be so exciting. It was also visually very appealing. The movements of acrobat artists looked even more dynamic with colored spot…

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…

Watercolor Pencil Sketches from 90’s

  日本語 I happened to find my old sketchbook and a set of 12 watercolor pencils I bought in England when I was still a college student. Oh my, it is over 20 years ago! I was an English major student in Japan and participated in an overseas seminar in England. I was not much of a painter back then. Instead of buying a…

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…

Christmas in West Chester, Pennsylvania

日本語 Time seems to fly faster in December. While I was participating in some December art shows in Connecticut, I was also busy with Christmas shopping and planning what to do during the holidays. In addition to the art shows in CT, a couple of my paintings were also on display until 12/22 in this show in West Chester, PA, “$300 and Under” ,…

My First Appearance in Connecticut-Art Show at Mark Twain Library

日本語 It is December! Yes, it is the holiday season and time for Christmas shopping. Therefore, there are many art shows for sales in December. After I moved to Connecticut from Massachusetts, I started searching for local art shows so that I can “debut” here in Connecticut. The first one I found was this annual art show (12/5 – 12/13) at Mark Twain Library…

Good Bye, Massachusetts and Hello, Connecticut!

日本語 I just moved to Danbury, Connecticut from Franklin, Massachusetts in mid-October. It has been a bit crazy before and after the move. I had no time to paint for a while. Now that my little one started going to a new preschool, I finally got time to breathe. This allowed me to look back at the 2.5 years I spent in MA. The…

2014 Fall Member Exhibition (11/15-11/16) – Franklin Art Association

日本語 My husband, my 3 year-old daughter and I all went to the art show and met many other member artists and their families. What a great weekend! We moved to this town, Franklin, Massachusetts in April, 2013. My husband (he does photography) and I became members of this local art association a little while after the move. Since this was the third time that we joined their…

“Home Sweet Tokyo” – An Evening Walk in Asakusa

日本語 This painting, “Home Sweet Tokyo”, was juried into “Cityscape” show at Post Road Art Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts and will be on display from Oct. 2 to Oct. 29. I think I was the only one who painted a Tokyo cityscape in the show. Tokyo is a showcase of super modern sky scrapers. You will find the most cutting-edge technologies, top-notch restaurants and the latest fashion;…

Memories of My Art Teacher, Mary Beaumont

日本語 Mary, my art teacher, who taught me landscape painting when I lived in Pennsylvania, passed away last week. Notified via a Facebook post I was very much shocked by this sudden news about her death and had to read this post many times until I knew that it was true. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend her landscape painting class…

Kyoto Autumn Leaves

日本語 It has gotten a lot cooler here in Massachusetts. I feel that autumn is approaching slowly. There will be a juried show, “The Artist Travels”,  at Rhode Island Watercolor Society in September, so I wanted to paint a beautiful autumn landscape from one of my past trips outside the United States. My Austrian husband is a big fan of Japan, so he suggested…

Remembering my 2010 Kyushu Trip

日本語 Kyushu was hit by record rainfall this summer! I watched the recent news on the heavy rain in mid July, which brought　back memories of my trip there in 2010. Kyushu is not part of “Honshu ( the mainland of Japan)”, but the largest Japanese southern island. The nature there looks very unique, compared to other parts of Japan. There are a number of…

“Summer Garden” Plein Air or Studio Painting?

日本語 How are you enjoying summer? It is a prime time for Plein Air painters. I started painting landscapes with an art teacher who was a Plein Air painter, so this style used to be my primary style.  Even though I still believe that Plein Air painting is the best way to express direct response to the scene you see right in front of you,…

“Cats Shelf” – Happy Meowthday!

日本語 Today is the 5th birthday of my dearest twin cats, Murli & Schnurli. Here is a big meow from me, “MEOOOOW”. I already discovered a dead field mouse in my bed room today. OK. This is how they cerebrate their birthday. Well, if that is the case, I should cerebrate their birthday by painting something for them because I am an artist. I…

Mother’s Day in Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA

日本語 Did you already plan anything for Mother’s Day? This is how we spent our Mother’s Day last year. My husband, my daughter (one year old back then) and I went to my most favorite town in Cape Cod, Provincetown, which is the America’s oldest continuous art colony. It was not quite a gallery season yet. There were not many galleries which were open….