A while back I discovered that if you have a Google email account, you can keep track of other people’s block with the Google Reader. Since then I have found a number of blogs, discarded some as boring, and others, I savor just like I used to do reading my favorite newspaper columnist, looking forward to their every post. And some bloggers have become friends of mine and I look forward to their blogs just like I always look forward to hearing from friends.
I found a blog recently called “The Virtual Paintout” Bill Guffey, the host, challenges people to use Google maps to find a scene to paint. He then displays our paintings along with his own. We each can do 3 paintings a month.

This month the subject was Japan, so I thought I’d paint this painting of a street scene in Tokyo. I decided I really like painting Japanese scenes because of all the characters! I have no idea if my Japanese Characters (Katakana, Hiragana or Chinese Kanji) are any good, but it was really fun trying to reproduce them.
This painting is for sale for $300, I will donate the proceeds of it to the Japanese Red Cross.

What I noticed about Japanese streets is they are very well maintained, they have a plethora of electric wires above them, and that bicycles are everywhere. I also noticed they use different color paint on their signs and walls than you would see in Italy. Kind of curious.

So if you are up for the challenge, I suggest you start cruising Japan or your favorite place with Google maps and see if you can find a street scene that you like.