Oil on canvas
2024

Continuing the series of works from my weekly oil painting class, Oshino Hakkai Waterwheel is a painting showing a traditional village in the vicinity of Mt Fuji in Japan. Central to the piece is a river running toward the bottom left corner and overlooked by an old and dark-wooded tree. On the bank of the small river is a small building connected to a waterwheel. The waterwheel itself is partially hidden between two large red bushes in the bottom right. Towards the centre-left a figure can be seen heading away from the viewer, walking on a river-side path. In the far distance, blue mountains can be seen rising out of the edges of the village.

Throughout the painting, the warm cadmium yellow under-painting can be seen breaking through. It injects the piece with an underlying warmth that counteracts the cold blues of the sky and mountains. Harmonising with the yellows, shades of red and orange have been blended into the foliage on the banks of the river, and down toward the bottom right.