12/30 Days of Illustration – Watching Koi Carp

Last year I took a trip to see the house of Thomas Glover, a British man who lived in Meiji Japan.

His house overlooks Nagasaki Straits, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site registered as one of the Sites of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution. These sites are places which were particularly significant to the development of Japan as an industrial nation.

The house was so pretty in summer, with flowers everywhere. The conservatory pictured here was one of the most unusually shaped buildings of the house. The view out across the Nagasaki Straits from the top floor of another building standing nearby gives you an idea of the amazing location of Thomas Glover’s house.

Situated on the top of a hill, the house has a great view, and it was a lovely place to be in the summer sunshine.

These are the fish in the pool from the second photo. They must get fed by lots of people as you can buy the feed from a little stand by the pool, but even so they still seemed very interested in the feed I was holding.

This is a painting of my memory of feeding the fish at Thomas Glover’s house. I like how the painting helped me to recall that day. It was also fun thinking how to best depict the water, and the eagerness of the fish swimming through it. I’m looking forward to painting more scenes from trips I do.