Miss the green in the cold

These are some paintings I made in the summer. Ohh.. How I miss the heat. Hahaha… You must have thought that I’m crazy.

I was born in Malaysia and had spent 2/3 of my life there. As much as I love this country that I am now living in, I can’t get myself to like the coldness of winter. I like how soft the snowflakes were, not the temperature that had brought them to me.

I still remember that when I was in my first and second year in Japan, I would have more than 4 to 5 layers of clothes everyday during winter to endure the coldness. They were heavy and bulky, but warm. I would look rounder than I was in summer, during winter. Half of the reason was my clothings, another half was the unlimited appetite during the cold days. I guess I was trying to get the warmth from the hot food, by trying to persuade myself that I needed more fat to keep myself warm enough 😀

I get much better now. As long as I don’t have to stay outdoor for a long time, I can reduce my clothes to around 2 to 3 layers depending on the thickness. But I still don’t really like winter. The daytime is shorter. Everyday, I woke up in the darkness, and when I leave the office (even if I leave on time) in the darkness. It was during my first winter in this country that I realize how I love sunlight.

I hope that warmer days are nearer, though the coldest days have yet to come (sigh). Take care everyone, don’t catch cold!

The lively greens

It has been almost a year since I had changed my job, into the IT sector. As a web designer, most of my time was spent in front of the computer. I started to find my eyesight deteriorating in a constant pace (according to the regular health check results). As the season changes, humidity drops, I also found my eyes get dried really frequently.

Miss the soothing green, the smell of moist soil, and slightly humid air. Maybe I should spend more time walking in the parks, to have my eyes refreshed from time to time. Hmm, maybe I should go have a pair of glasses for pc works, for the sake of my eyes in the long term.

I really love those places, where civilization blends in the nature, like the benches near the reserved woods, or the tunnel of the train tracks through the hills. The damages we had caused to the environment were inexcusable, but these sceneries of the combination and harmony of man’s invention and the nature, had always brought me a mixture of admiration to the strength of the nature to cope with changes, and the sadness from the man made scenes.

These two paintings were made with watercolor and colored inks. One was based on the scenery of a park in the neighborhood, the other was a train I had taken with my parents during our trip when they visited me here in Japan few years ago. I had not been painting pure scenery for quite some time (there are some other themes that I’m working on), but always remembered the satisfaction that comes with completing one. If I find somewhere inspiring, might paint them out some time 🙂

Visiting Friend in The Woods

Similar to mushrooms in the last post, trees, forests, woods, are always inspirational to me too. Though I am usually not an outdoor person, once in a while I would feel the urge to at least go to the park, to breathe in air with the smell of soil, plants and moisture, at least during each of the season change.

It reminded me the brief leisure breaks during the weekends that my father used to bring us to, near a river basin in a forest not so far from our home. The icy cold water of the stream, giant rocks that had become our tables for picnic, small little stalls selling snacks…… Those memories, clear in some parts, cloudy in others, were just so nostalgic.

It’s like visiting an old friend. Looking up to the tip of the tree branches, with the cooled air under the shading leaves, it’s like revisiting that river bank, that I hadn’t been to for years after leaving home. It’s like visiting an old friend.

Soon, it would be the season of leaves falling, it’s time to schedule in another walk in the park 🙂

My little oasis

Being away from home, can be very lonesome. Of course, there might be more freedom; but, still, living in a city where no one close is around, days can be as dull and tough as you can ever imagined. 

To compensate for whatever stress i came across the day, these are the little warmth that would answer honestly to the time spent and the effort paid.