Ocean

I love to watch the ocean. Waves come and go, and the more I stare into them, the faster time flies away.

I heard that when a wave comes, at that time a baby is born and when wave goes, at that time a person dies. I don’t know if it’s true or not. But it makes sense to me visually. And when baby is born, at fist baby breathes out and when a person dies, probably he/she breathes in.

Some people goes to ocean to pray for the year at Sunrise on New Year’s day in the East side of Japan. Watching the sun comes out from the ocean, it’s very special and splendid feeling.

Before I painted these paintings, I watched waves for hours as sketching, because when I sketch, I remember a scene better. Also as sketching, I design my painting, and I want to paint everything as deeply as I can, including all atmosphere which I felt there.

161. Ocean - watercolor, 11" x 30"

I painted “161. Ocean” in watercolor in 2003. It’s more difficult than in oil, because I can’t just add more paint to cover up mistakes. So, I planned carefully and painted, wet into wet, and sprayed water on the painting to create fascinating texture.

306. Ocean 2 - 36" x 12"oil on wrapped canvas

Oil is different. It’s very forgiving. So when I painted “306. Ocean II”, I painted more freely, and painted till done. After I painted, I felt so good. The result was the oil painting had a more spontaneous and realistic appearance than watercolor one.  Their quality and nature are different.  I love both of them. Watercolor is much finer pigment than oil paint. So, it’s too bad that it looks faded on the screen and fine details don’t show up as clearly. Whenever I run into the man who bought “161. Ocean” in watercolor, he mentions that he enjoys the painting every day.