- Clear stream - 80x40cm 2004 (Kami Furano)

  A rare carp appears on a cloudy day. There are a few hot spring inns here in a valley with headwaters. This mountain stream will not freeze even in the middle of winter. The stones in the stream are covered with green water moss. Some of the moss is above the water. Around the stream the ground is covered with white snow. There are only a few colours around the stream; a dead trunk, an almost black conifer. The green water moss and the clear stream are showing vital energies here.

  From early December till the season of pussy willow coming into bud, I had been painting the water and 3 stones in the stream.

  My daily routine for this period was that I put on the special wellingtons with which I could walk in water, and washed off the snow from the stones so that I was able to see the original colour. The water must have been a few degrees warmer, because the snow melted straight away. Once this had been done, I started to paint on the shore. After a half hour or so, my feet were too cold to concentrate. I went back to the car and changed the rain boots to winter boots and tried again.

  While I was drawing the picture and looking at the stream, from the corner of my eye on the far left, I thought I could see a red copper coloured carp over 30 cm long. It was an optical illusion. When I looked in that direction, I could only see water movements on fallen leaves, but once I started painting again, I could see the illusion again. While I was painting on a good pace, the carp was happy and he swam around and then swam up the waterfall out of my sight.