My goal with this project was to create a regular studio practice. My only rule was that each piece needs to relate to Okinawa. Ideally watercolor landscapes but I wanted to allow myself space to grow if something peaks my fancy. We have lived here for almost 3 years and I have a photo gallery full of inspiration photos! I would also love to paint en plein air at least once a week. This project will also overlap with Inktober 2018. Without further ado, I present: 100 days of Okinawa

Day 1 // Yaedake Cherry Blossoms 🌸

Inspiration // A photo taken when we had been on island less than 30 days. In mainland Japan hanami (cheery blossom viewing) is in April, but because Okinawa is so far south hanami is celebrated at the end of January.

On Mt. Yaedake you drive up a winding road surrounded by cheery blossom trees. On this day it was so cold it actually started hailing. People were turning their umbrellas upside down to collect the “snow”.

10 x 7 // watercolor on paper

Day 2 // August Sunset at Tropical Beach

Inspiration // Okinawa has arguably some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. They are especially beautiful when a typhoon rolls through. Lets not talk about how many hours it took me to find the perfect inspiration photo for today

10 x 7 // watercolor on paper

Day 3// Aizome at Aikaze

Inspiration // Counting this as part of my 100 day project as it was such a unique Okinawan experience. My friend Beth invited me to join her in an Indigo dying experience. Of course I said yes. The past few days have been the very important holiday of Obon, one of the few Japanese holidays where stores close. We called and emailed to make a reservation but had not heard back so we decided to chance it and drive the hour and a half up to the studio and hope we could dye with indigo.

After driving up a turning steep jungle road we found ourselves at the studio. Lucky for us we got there right as they opened and they were happy to have us. We browsed the store and hung out in the cafe until the indigo was ready. When the sensei was ready for us we went down to the studio to learn how to dye with indigo. They showed us different techniques to get different patterns and then showed us the dyeing process. The indigo dye was kept in giant in ground vats. To dye the fabric it has to be submerged and rubbed in the dye for 3 minutes, let sit for 2 minutes to oxidize, then repeat 2-4 more times.

After we finished dyeing the sensei invited us to the cafe. He joined us and told us more about his art. Beth did an incredible job translating. Of course we also stumbled upon a poetry club meeting and after the meeting they taught us about the “short songs” or tanka that they wrote inspired by the indigo farm.

It was an incredible day.

Day 4 // Indigo Underpainting

Inspiration // I am still jiving from the awesomeness that was learning traditional indigo dyeing. This is an underpainting of the indigo plant. I am using a darker indigo color for the underpainting, similar to how the green plant hides its beautiful indigo color. I will develop more of the shadows in dark blue and then add yellows and greens over the blue. This is not a technique I use often so I am excited to see where this process takes me.

8 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 5 // Indigo Underpainting (continued...)

Inspiration // Working more in the dark blue. This was about adding more depth with darker colors and details. I am going to let it dry for 24 hours and start glazing with yellow and green. Which is slightly terrifying as I am kind of loving this stage right now. One thing I have learned though is that when I push myself to continue the process I usually love where I end up.

8 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 6 // Indigo

Inspiration // Calling this done. 3 straight from the tube colors- blue, yellow, & green. No color mixing. I like the depth the grisaille (underpainting) gave the final painting. I could probably add more detail but I don’t want to overwork it. Part of being an artist is knowing when to stop.

8 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 7 // Paper Crane

Inspiration // Origami is synonymous with Japanese culture. Okinawa has deep roots in WW2. When you visit WW2 historical sites you will often find brightly colored chains of “peace cranes”. Each crane represents a wish for peace.

Last year a historic site had its peace cranes destroyed by vandals. People from all over the world came together to fold cranes to replace the lost chains. 20,000 peace cranes were donated. I folded and donated 50+ cranes. The Facebook page “ Peace Cranes for Okinawa” has much more information.

My son asked me to make him a paper plane. I found a YouTube video about how to fold an origami plane and as I was following the video it reminded me of folding peace cranes and that inspiring project that I was proud to contribute to.

8 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 8 // Dragon Fruit

Inspiration // Farmers markets here are different then in the states. Instead of one day a week where farmers set up stands, the markets here are storefronts that are open everyday of the week. A better name would be “fruit and vegetable store”. Farmers do bring their produce to sell and a lot of it is seasonal, but the store packages, labels, and sells the produce for the farmers.

One of the awesome things about living in Okinawa is all of the readily available tropical fruit that I have never tried before. Since living here I have tried passion fruit, star fruit, guava, dragon fruit and more.

6 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 9 // East China Sea

Inspiration // Okinawa is a tropical paradise. It has some of the best snorkeling and diving in the world and the water is the most beautiful crystal clear blue green color. This is my attempt at capturing that color. Currently I am not loving it so I am going to walk away, sleep on it, and hope to salvage it tomorrow.

10 x 7 // watercolor on paper

Day 10 // Chasing the Tokashiki Sunset

Inspiration // Last year we camped on Zamami Island. This year we are staying at the Tokashiki Marine Village on Tokashiki Island. This painting was done en plein air as the sun was setting from the balcony of our hotel room. I used my biggest brush and tried to capture the colors as quickly as I could. I was chasing the light. The Kerama Islands are a paradise within paradise.

10 x 7 // watercolor on paper

Day 12 // Tokashiku Beach Morning Glory

Inspiration // Tokashiku Beach was framed with vines of these beautiful purple flowers. They are called Beach Morning Glories or Goat’s Foot. They grow in the sand and their seeds are not harmed by salt water. Quite a resilient little plant. This piece is not quite done yet.

8 x 8 // watercolor on paper

Day 13 // Yuri Bingata

Inspiration // Bingata is a traditional Okinawan fabric dyeing technique. It is very process intensive. This is step 5 of 7. Adding the light colors. Each color needs at least 2 layers. Today was my 16th bingata class. This particular piece was inspired by a lily festival we visited on Iejima this past May. Yuri means lily in Japanese.

The red one in the middle is for my son. Today he had his first day of kindergarten and we were both emotional messes. He was on my mind a lot today and red is his favorite color.

Material // dye on cloth

Day 14 // Tokashiku Beach Morning Glory

Inspiration // Working more on this piece. It doesn’t feel quite done yet. I am really enjoying these multiple day pieces. Usually when I work on personal watercolor pieces I try to get the whole painting done in one day. Quick, capturing that moment. It has been a nice change to think and plan how I am going to attack the next stage. I like where this one is going.

watercolor // 8 x 8

Day 15 // Tokashiku Beach Morning Glory

Inspiration // I can’t decide if this is the ugly stage and I just need to work on it more or if by darkening the background ruined the whole thing.... I am thinking about going in with colored pencils and/or pens and making this a mixed media piece. I am not getting the look I want right now with just watercolors. Decisions. Decisions. I don’t think I am ready to throw in the towel on this one just yet.

watercolor // 8 x 8

Day 16 // Bingata Thursday

Inspiration // More bingata progress! This class is 100% in Japanese and sometimes I am the only fluent English speaker. I know a little bit of Japanese so I can pick up every 4th word or so and I can get the gist of what the conversation is but sadly I don’t have the skills to join the conversation. But 2 hours of soaking in native speakers can’t be a bad thing 🙂

I added 2nd & 3rd layers of the lighter colors to my lilies and I started adding the darker shades to my kamons and the lily leaves.

Day 17 // Tokashiku Beach Morning Glory (continued)

Inspiration // Back to this piece. There has been an unusual amount of stress in my life recently. After my last post about this piece my mom sent me a message reminding me that my art has always been a reflection of my emotions.

Kindergarten was not what we expected for our son. The daily struggles were bringing many tears and a lot if unnecessary strife to our family. My husband and I made the choice to remove that stress from our life and go back to homeschooling, which was working well.

The progress on this painting reflects that I am at peace. I look forward to working on it more over the next few days and getting to a point where I can call it done.

Materials // mixed media on paper // 8 x 8

Day 18 // Bingata Thursday!

Inspiration // Getting into the darks. The color palette for this one was inspired by all of the beautiful lilies at the lily festival on Iejima. It happens every year around Mother’s Day. There are 1 million white lilies and many many colorful lilies in every color imaginable set against the ocean in the background. It really is quite beautiful.

Sensei said I need to add more dark to the center of the flower and then this one should be done.

I was hit with a wave of inspiration today with all of the fun things I can do with bingata! Now I just need to get those ideas down on paper so I can make katagami (stencils) and paint paint paint!

Materials // bingata dyes on cotton

Day 19 // Tokashiku Beach Morning Glory

Inspiration // Done! Ready to call this piece done and move on to something new. I am thinking so loose hibiscus flowers are coming up next. Or maybe back to landscapes?

Materials // mixed media on paper

Day 20 // Bingata Thursday!

Inspiration // Done! At least the painting part. I darkened the center and added the spots. On my first version of this piece I forgot to add the spots, washed off the nori, and Sensei said it was too late to work back into it. I am glad I remembered the spots this time. I like the added detail. I also worked on the water of the red lily today.

Materials // dye on cotton fabric

Day 21 // Okinawa Shisha

Inktober Day 1

Inspiration // The Okinawan Shisha is Ryukyu mythological animal that is a cross between a lion and a dog. Modeled after Chinese guardian lions. The left closed mouth shisha keeps good spirits in and the right open mouthed shisha wards off evil spirits. Shishas are often found on rooptops, and at the entrances to homes & businesses. This little guy was found in the garden of the Indigo workshop we visited.

Happy October! October means it is Inktober! Last year I had lots of fun with the subject of flowers and this year I will be combining my 100 Days of Okinawa with Inktober 2018. Cheers to Inktober Day 1!

Materials // watercolor & pen on paper // 10 x 7

Day 22// Uruma Farm Hibiscus

Inktober Day 2

Inspiration // Being a tropical island Okinawa is covered in hibiscus flowers. This piece was inspired by a photo I took at Uruma Farm. Hibiscus flowers have been popping up over and over. When certain symbols or inspiration continue to enter my life I take that as a sign from the universe. I researched the meaning of hibiscus and these flowers represent femininity.

Old habits die hard. I just love painting and drawing flowers. It brings me so much joy. I wanted to paint this piece on my square paper but we had a typhoon hit this past weekend and our house experienced some water damage. The worst part of the storm hit my art studio so my art supplies are currently scattered around the house. No clue where my 8 x 8 paper is... we have another typhoon on it’s way so maybe I will use the time trapped indoors to do some quality organizing.

Materials // watercolor & pen on paper // 10 x 7

Day 23// Okinawa Pineapple

Inktober Day 3

Inspiration // The islands of Okinawa are the largest producers of pineapple in Japan. There is actually a theme park dedicated to pineapple on the main island of Okinawa. I have not yet been, but I hear they have delicious pineapple wine. One of my cravings this pregnancy has been pineapple and I cannot eat enough of it!

This sketch is the first step in creating a new bingata piece. I hope I got the “bingata style” correct but if I didn’t I am confident Sensei will help me correct it. This is the first in a series of smaller bingata designs I hope to create.

Materials // pen on paper

Day 24// Sea Turtle

Inktober Day 4

Inspiration // Okinawa is home to some of the most beautiful snorkeling and diving in the world. Beautiful coral reefs teaming with fish surround the islands. One of the most beautiful places we have ever been is to the Keramas. The Keramas are an hour ferry ride from the main island of Okinawa. We have visited Zamami, Aka, Geruma, & Tokashiki. We have had the pleasure of seeing and snorkeling with sea turtles on all if the Kerama Islands we have visited. Sea turtles are some of the coolest animals to snorkel with.

This is another bingata drawing for my series of small designs.

Materials // pen on paper

Day 25// Okinawa Sunflower
Inktober Day 5

Inspiration // Okinawa LOVES Flower Festivals! There is Cherry Blossom (Sakura), Lily (Yuri), Iris, Sunflower (Himawari), and probably a few more I am forgetting. There is actually a word in Japanese, hanami, to describe enjoying the beauty of flowers (usually talking about cherry blossoms). How beautiful is that? My flower loving heart loves all of the flower festivals.

This is little sunflower part of a commission I am working on.

Materials // watercolor and pen on paper

Day 26// Kawaii Shisha

Inktober Day 6

Inspiration // More small bingata designs. This is a cute little shisha. Some shishas are scary looking but I find I am more drawn to the cute ones.

Materials // pen on paper

Day 27// Kawaii Shisha 2

Inktober Day 7

Inspiration // Another small bingata design. This is the other half to the one I shared for Day 6. The open mouthed shisha, said to scare away evil spirits. Sensei had a few changes on this one to make it more “bingata style”, mostly on the mouth.

My next step for these little pieces is to cut them out of a special mulberry paper. Then, using a coat of “cashew” and solvent, a thin screen will be attached to the cut out to create the stencil or katagami.

Materials // pen on paper

Day 28// Peace Crane

Inktober Day 8

Inspiration // Last one in this series of small bingata designs. A quick little sketch of an origami peace crane. I like how it looks like it is taking flight.

I am excited to get all of these little works cut, and rice pasted so I can start playing with painting and color.

Materials // pen on paper