This painting has been turning around in my head for a long time-since before I was painting, actually. The moment that I remember most about Japan was looking down under a bridge in Nara and seeing about a hundred giant carp writhing in the water. We were on a day trip with some Japanese friends who immediately exclaimed, "Sagoy!!" (the Japanese equivalent to "wow!", in a lot of situations) and brought out a bag of popcorn. They began feeding the fish-and that image has stuck in my mind for years. It was beautiful but strange as well-see the natural world, but bring the popcorn too.

In this painting, I've focussed in on the carp themselves and also the (controversial) "rising sun" of the Japanese flag reflected in the water underneath the bridge where the viewer is standing.

PS-The lines in the this painting's border and body are actually straight, but the scanner won't represent this properly.