Cosmos fields

Here is a field of Cosmos flowers near Furano in Hokkaido. Done with acrylics, watercolor, pencils and airbrush. Format is B4, original available

Momiji

Just finished another painting before the weekend. This time I painted a Japanese Maple-tree. Done with watercolor, acrylics, fineliner-pen and airbrush on paper. Format is B4, original available.

Koi pond

Finally finished this painting !!! I always wanted to paint those adorable Koi in a pond. The thing which was most difficult though were not the koi, but the textures of the lotos-leaves. Yet, it was a lot of fun to paint.
Done with watercolor, acrylics and airbrush on paper. Format is B3 original available.

arty foods and fun

Yesterday we went to one of our fave Izakaya here in Hakodate, Banya. They have one of the best sashimi and also other delicious things.

This is flounder-carpaccio and it was one of the the best I ever had.

Afterwards the kids were still "genki" and so we went to Karaoke, where they could let off all their energy with singing, while we were already tired from the last week.

Fishing at Todohokke

Today we had the very first snowfall this Winter... since it was a public holiday, we went fishing.

Our fave spot in this season is Todohokke, a small fishing village near Esan and after one hour, my husband caught a big Hokke and a big Ainame.

Here is our catch from today... both were over 35 cm.

Here is what I cooked from it today... Butter rice, Asparagus/Paprika and Oregano, Italian Salad with Balsamico and fish with Bacon and garlic.

Mushroom cooking

Today, the road to the mountains at Akagawa opened again finally, so we eagerly went picking Mukitake. The Latin name is Panella serotinus. Serotinus means "late" and indeed it's the last mushroom we can pick there before the snow.

Finally we found some. Those mushrooms grow always near the river, at old trees... but you need to be careful not to pick the poisenous Tsukiyotake. So please, if you are not sure, DON'T pick them at all...

After a long drive through the forest and rivers, we picked enough for a nice meal. I'm always amazed when I check German books and they tell, that Mukitake is not a delicious mushroom. This is absolutelly not true. You can cook it even European style and it is very delicious !!!

So here is what I cooked from it today. Omlette rolled with "Hokke" (a markarel famous in this area), cheese, shrimp and Mukitake... and Penne with pork, papirka, Mukitake and sour-cream sauce and some salad with our own smoked bacon together with white wine from Tirol *yummy* :p

Autumnleaves

more Autumnleaves...

Inspired by the wonderful colors of this season, I wanted to paint another picture of those gorgeous leaves. Done with watercolor, acrylics and airbrush on paper (DIN A 4).

Original available

Colors of Autumn

Just want to share some Hokkaido Autumn-scenery with you.

While we enjoyed the scenery, we were able to pick some more murazaki shimeji (Lepista Nuda).

Poppies...

Just finished this painting... I always wanted to paint poppies, because of their vibrant color.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper.

Size is B4, original is available.

no school today

The swineflu has just reached our area and because 100 kids in my children's school are sick, the school is closed til next week.　Fortunaltely my kids and we are well and they enjoy some extra time off. Won't have much time for painting, but I enjoy playing with them.

Here is a painting I did some weeks ago... done with acrylics and airbrush on canvas (format B2)... original available.

More Mushrooms...

Today, we went mushroompicking again.
We found the first Murazaki Shimeji (Lepista nuda) this year!!!
They are my fave mushrooms for chicken-soup.







And this is Noboryudake (Helvella Crispa). It may
look weird, but it tastes wonderful with clamps and Vongole Binaco.





We also found Akahatsu (Lactarius Akahatsu)
and some more Numerisugitakemodoki (Pholiota Aurivella).


Here is what I cooked with it for dinner...

more Atumn art...

Another painting I did back in 2008.

I love those old temples, shrines and gardens in Japan.

Done with Acrylics, watercolor, airbrush and pens on paper...

Format is B4, original is available.

Autumn at Onuma

Did not do much painting this week, because last week I was in Tokyo to get a new passport. I had a great time with all my friends there and I also went shopping and bought some new colors and books. When I came back I did a lot of cleaning and sorting out stuff and I can't wait to paint again.
Here are 2 old paintings. Both are in a private collections...

Mushroom-hunt

Here are some pictures of our mushroom-hunt.
We drove near Onuma and encountered masses of Amanita muscarina at frist. Those are poisenous, but beautiful.

Close to that spot we luckily found some Birch Boletus (Leccinum Scabrum) *yummy*

and going more deep into the forest, we got Suillus grevillei. Highly competitive in Hokkaido. It tastes wonderful with Miso-soup.

Last but not least, we got some Pholiota aurivella. Here people also eat it with soup, but in Germany nobody picks it. I ate it for the very first time today and it was delicious.

At the end, we went to a waterfall near Mori and it was a very beautiful scenery. I want to go there next Summer again and enjoy the cool air.

Autumn is coming...

Just want to share some fotos from out hike last Wednesday.

The Gentian-blossom at the mountains is

almost over...

We hiked up to Eboshidake and had a wonderful view of

Komagatake and even Yote-san.

Sunrise

Yesterday I was fascinated by the colors of the evening sky. Actually I wanted to paint a sunset, but I had another idea. I will do 2 paintings one called "Sunrise" and one "Moonrise", so here is the first one... "Sunrise".

Done with acrylics, ink, watercolor and airbrush on paper. Format is B4

Original will be available, when the 2 paintings are done.

Mushroom art part 2

This is for Nakamura-san. I hope you have a great mushroom-hunt today in Hakodate. There are maybe some Akahatsu, even Hanaiguchi out now. Good luck !!!

Here are some more mushroom paintings from the exhibition... my fave one is Tamagotake, which I posted in my Blog before.

I also

like Birch Boletus (Birkenpilz in German),

which tastes delicious with Salmon-creampasta...

and

Noboryudake

(Herbstlorchel). It may look weird, but it tastes great with Vongole Bianco.

All paintings are done with acrylics, watercolor, pens and airbrush on paper... Format B4 originals available.

Mushroom art

We did not have much rain in the last days, so there is still not the right time for mushrooms. But I decided to upload some of the mushroom paintings I did for the science-festival in August.
Done with acrylics, watercolor, airbrush and pens on paper.
Format is B4, originals are available.

Hiking at Esan 恵山

Today, the weather was very clear and so we decided to hike to the top of Esan, which is a still active Volcano near Hakodate. It was a 6km hike (all in all), but totally worth it. The sight was amazing. When we reached the top, we could see Aomori on one side and Yote-san and Muroran on the other side. I'm especailly proud of my kids, that they climbed the whole path without complaining and enjoyed the sight and nature the same way, we did.

Silver week

"Silver week" has started over here and we decided to drive to our fave beach and do some fishing. Unfortunately, we had no luck at all... some small Fugu stole all of our bait, but the kids enjoyed to play in the sand.







Only Yuki had luck and caught one "Mebaru".

So we decided to drive in the mountains for some mushrooms and maybe Elderberries, but no luck as well... we only spotted a beautiful, but also the most deadly plant, there is, "Torikabuto"

Well, since we did not catch anything I decided to take matters into my own hands and we went to

the farmers and bought some

delicious and fresh vegetables.

Just could not resist to cook some tasty dishes for my loved ones... tomorrow we will take revenge and go for the fish again :D

Tsukimi

I love Japanese Autumn... and so I painted this to capture the mood of it... done with watercolor, airbrush, marker/pens and white ink on paper... Format is B4 Original available.

Will go fishing and maybe mushroom- and berry- picking with my family this weekend and during the holidays. Can't wait !!! ^__^

Grapes

Today I finished a series I was working on for 9 months now. Autumn will arrive soon and I was in the mood for painting grapes and wine.

All 3 paintings are done with acrylics, airbrush, pens and watercolor on paper... Format is DIN-A 3. All 3 originals are available.

Exhibition in Germany

Today the Japanese/Korean exhibition in Germany (Wiesbaden and Hofheim) will start. Unfortunatelly I can not go there personally, but I will take part with one painting. For further information, please click on this picture

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Here is the painting I sent there.

I called it "Rebirth". After my Mom died, I felt very sad, but she always encouraged me to paint and so I feel her spirit lives on in my art. Also painting after the loss helped me a lot to overcome my sadness and pain.

Hiking at the mountains

Today we went hiking in the mountains near Hakodate. The view was beautiful and there is still some Gentian up there.

On our way back we picked a lot of Cranberries (Kokemomo). Later I will make jam and cook a traditional German dinner with it.

Bamboo 4

I repainted the Bamboo-picture this week, because I felt, I can add more details by using watercolor and pens together with acrylics. I also added some more light effects with airbrush.

It was quite hard, but now I'm finally pleased with the result.

Format is B4, 0riginal available

Himawari

I wanted to paint some Himawari (Sunflowers) I saw during our vacation back in August. I used a foto as a reference, but I played with the colors and painted a much more "autumnlike" and "soft" sky.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper... format is B4, original available.

Still catching up

Actually I wanted to paint a lot this week, but I'm still catching up with other things... Soon I will take part in an exhibition in Germany, not personally though, but I will submit a painting there. Since it is close to my hometown, I'm busy telling all my friends and relatives who live close about it. I will also write about it in my blog later.

In the meantime I will upload some old art from 2008 here.

Pictures 1 (dragonfly) and 2 (momiji3) are available, picture 3 ("Autumnleaves2") is sold.

Busy with painting again

The exhibition is over and I want to thank everybody again for their help, support and feedback. I'm still overwhelmed by all what happened.

Here are the photos of the science-cafe event.

Since yesterday I'm back painting and I have lots of ideas now (old and new), which I want to paint in the following weeks.

Autmn is coming and I can't wait to see the beautiful Momiji over here

.

I just finished another painting of Bamboo.

I had this in my mind since my travel to Nagoya, Ise and Kyoto and now I finally had the time to finish it. Done with Acrylics and Airbrush on paper... Format is A3, original available...

I did it

Yesterday (japanese time) was my speech at the science-cafe in Hakodate. I was very nervous, because I never held a "lecture" infront of people, but it all went well and the guests, who came to hear it were great and encouraging. It was fun and I enjoyed it very much !!!

Also my husband did such a wonderful job, translating everything so perfectly into Japanese. I would have been lost without him.

Satomi-san and all of the staff backed me up so wonderfully. Thank you !!!

Thank you, everybody, who came to see me at the cafe!!!

Today I will just enjoy a calm day... do my housework, laundry, cleaning, cooking and catching up with writing letters and painting.

Speaking at the cafe scientifique

Today I'm very busy preparing my appearance at the cafe scientifique at the Machizukuri-center in Hakodate on Tuesday (6-7p.m). I have never held such a "lecture" before, so I'm a little bit nervous, but also excited. My fantastic husband will help me and translate all I want to tell the people. My Japanese is still not so good, especially when it comes to such special subjects.

As I go through all the different topics I want to talk about, I realize how much I can tell there and I will also bring some books and other things to show the people a little bit about mushroom-lore, enviourment and differences in Japanese/European eating-culture.

I also visited the exhibition again yesterday and I was overwhelmed and how many people came and signed my guest-book. Thank you all sooooo much for your support and feedback !!! And the Brochure which was at my table there is wonderful !!! Whoever designed it, thank you soooo much !!! It was such a lovely surprise and I can't wait to show my Dad the exhibition, when he arrives on Friday.

Did not have much time to paint in the last days, but I want to share a photo, I took last week at Yokotsudake... the gentian ist out there now, too and we had a beautiful hike up there.

Hope to see you all at the cafe-scientifique on Tuesday 25.Aug :)

Fotos from the exhibition and the opening-party

Here are the photos from my exhibition and the opening party of the science-festival. It was such a wonderful event and thank you, everybody for all your kind help, support and feedback. I painted those paintings for 5 months and now it is a wonderful feeling that the day of the exhibition finally came.

I would like to thank Noyuri Mima-sensei, who made this possible for me and wanted me to paint all those mushrooms.
She held a wonderful speech for the opening and I wish her and all the wonderful people, who organize and participate in this fantastic festival all the best !!!

I also want to thank my beloved husband, Tsuyoshi, for all his help, support and encouragement !!! Satomi-san for preparing everything at the site and my kids for their patience with me, while I painted those pics ^^

What a great day !!!

What an exciting day !!!
Today I had the opening of my exhibition, which is part of the science-festival in Hakodate and it was absolutelly fantastic !!!

I'm still overwhelmed by all the support, feedback and great atmosphere there and I'm looking forward to the following days of the festival. I'll upload some pictures and all the news in the next days.

The other great thing which happened was that my painting, which is currently at the exhibition in the USA in LaGrange, Georgia got featured in the newspaper there !!! This is a big honor for me, because 19 other artists are taking part and they are also very, very good.

Don't know if I can sleep tonight. All this news is so fantastic and I want to thank everybody for their help, support and encouragement !!!

Exhibition in Hakodate

Today the kids started school again and I will make the final preparations for the exhibition at the Machizukuri-center in Hakodate. The exhibition will be from 22nd til 28th of August.

I will exhibit 15 paintings of mushrooms of Hokkaido there.

I'm already very excited about it.

Painting all those mushrooms was a big challenge for me, because I did not only have to paint the

mushrooms themselves, but also the correct surrounding and right season for each species.

For further information please check this page (Japanese only):

http://www.sciencefestival.jp/festival/event_a01_07.html

Taisetsusan

The last days of our vacation, we drove up in the mountains again and hiked on the Taisetsusan. The weather was perfect... not too hot, not too cold

and after a long climb at Midoridake, we reached a mountain-plateau.

Again, so many

beautiful flowers...

Now we are back in Hakodate and I can't wait to start painting.

Obihiro

After Asahidake we went to Obihiro and had our very favorite Pizza and beer at "Tokachi Beer".

Obihiro is a great place for delicious food like all kinds of meat and fresh vegetables. We also went to a retro-Izakaya there and had fantastic grilled and fried food.

Beautiful mountains...

During the last 2 days we went to Asahikawa and Asahidake and enjoyed the beautiful nature there. I just upload a few photos to give you an impression about the beautiful scenery there:

This is Hagoromonotaki, one of the most beuatiful waterfalls, I have ever seen:

And this is Asahidake, which is a still active volcano.

The sight is overwhelming and there are sooo many flowers in bloom up there.

As you can see. There is Japanese Gentian (gentiana japonica) there. Some of the meadows looked like if they were covered with little blue stars.

Now we will stay 2 days in Obihiro and then go to Taisetsusan.

Tokachi, here we come...

Today we will go to vacation for one week. I'm so excited !!!

As always we will drive to Tokachi, Obihiro and Taisetsu-san. I love that area of Hokkaido. So much nature, little farms, moutains and DELICIOUS food... cheese, saussages and beef. "Tokachi Beer" has the most wonderful Pizza (Pizza carne) and also the beer there is delicious. And I can't wait to hike in the mountians !!! I will also take my sketchpad along :)

Here is a painting of Taisetsu-san, I did last year. Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper... format B4, original available.

X-mas Fantasy

I know, right now it's not the right time to be in a X-mas mood, but after I painted the church, I was thrilled if I could do a painting of Hakodate X-mas Fantasy as well. Here is the result.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper. Format is B4, original available...

Challenge...

The last days I was very restless and I felt I would like to "challenge" myself artistically more. There is one thing I was always afraid of: Painting buildings ^^"

So I tried to go straight at it and painted one of the churches of Hakodate.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper.

Size is B4...

Original available

gourmet weekend

on weekends I mostly not paint, because we are fishing or mushroom-picking, so my creativity is cooking something with what we find or fish ;-)

Yesterday we went to our favorite italian/french restaurant "Brasserie Carillon" and somehow I had the idea, if I cook king-crab (Tarabagani) pasta, it would fit with Tamagotake (amanita caesarea) best.

So we went to the forest and yes, there really were some Tamagotake left... YATTA !!!!!
We took them, bought Kani and I cooked VERY delicious pasta :-p

I also found out, that raw Tamagotake can be made like Carpaccio...

It was so much fun and we all ate too much, but we will try to pick some more tomorrow again.

Exhibition in the USA

I'm so excited !!! From the 1st of August til 5th of September I will take part in a group-exhibition in the "809 Gallery of art" in LaGrange, Georgia, USA. The title of the exhibition is "20 nations, 20 artists, 20 works" and my art/painting will represent Japan there !!!

I can't go there personally, but I will recieve some photos and feedback about it.

In the meantime I'm preparing to ship my other painting for the exhibition in Germany to Tokyo.

100 Years Onuma Park

This weekened we had the "100 years Onuma festival" here.

Onuma national park is ver y beautiful. It's a big lake beside the Volcano "Komagatake". That lake was generated due to an explosion of the volcano some 100 years ago. In that lake there are many different small isles, connected through bridges and people can take walks from isle to isle.

I painted the view several times... also last week, because someday I plan to make an exhibition about paintings featuring the landscape of south Hokkaido and Hakodate.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush (format B4)

Original available

watercolor experiment

I was experimenting with watercolor on thin calligraphy-paper today.

It's quite a challenge and I still need to figure out some things or two, working with that material, but it was great fun.

Here you can see the result of my first try.

Original available (Format B4)

Umi no hi

We had a great "Umi no hi" (day of the sea) over here. We were not at the sea though, but on another mushroom-hunt, picking a lot of Tamagotake and Koganeakayamadori (Golden Boletus) at Tetsu-san. The weather was great and the kids enjoyed it.

I don't think I will paint much this week, because I'm so busy cleaning (before Summerholidays will start) and I also will ship my painting for the exhibition in Germany to Tokyo soon.

Since there is "Umi no hi" I decided to upload a painting of the sea here today, I did early this year. Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper (format is B4). Original available

Mushroom hunt

Today it was rainy, so we could not go fishing. We spontaneously decided to go to the mountains instead and found golden Boletus and Amanita Caesarea (Tamagotake). This year Amanita caesarea comes very early, so we almost missed the season. I hope we can pick some more in the following weeks.

I forgot my camera, so I will upload a painting of "Amanita Caesarea" here, I did for my upcoming mushroom-exhibition at the science-festival of Hakodate.

http://www.sciencefestival.jp/festival/event_a01_07.html

Painted with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper...

Thinking about my mom...

After a great day at the sea, fishing Mebaru with my famliy, I decided to upload one of the paintings I did in January this year. It was exhibitied in the Tokyo metropolitan museum of art in April 2009. And I also dedicated it to my Mom, who died on 4.4.2009

She was the one, who encouraged me to go on with my art, who bought me my very first set of Oil colors and who supported me in all those years, when I struggled with my studies and my artwork... Done with acrylics and airbrush on board (Format is DIN-A 1)

Original available

Busy week

After cleaning the house, I work now on another big painting for the exhibition of "Salon du Blanc" in Germany. I'm painting another bamboo-grove for this. Here is a painting of Bamboo, I did this April/Mai.

Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper. Format is B4 as usual...

Hakodate nightview

Today I finished my first painting of "Hakodate nightview", which is famous all over Japan. I love to go to Hakodate mountain and watch the lights of the city.

I painted this with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper (format B4)

Original available

my weekend

Just went fishing this weekend with my family at Osatsube, a small fishing-village near Esan.

At the beginning we had no luck at all, but later on we caught several Mebaru and Aburako. It was great fun and also the kids enjoyed it very much.

So tonight we will grill our catch with salt and have some Sake.

Today, after I cleaned the house, I'm working on my art again.

Just finished a painting with a Rose from our garden on Sunday and right now I'm working on a Hakodate "nightview" painting. It will be tough, but I will try ^^

Here is the Rose painting. Done with acrylics, watercolor and airbrush on paper. Format B4

Original available