`A`ali`i (Dodonaea viscosa)

`A`ali`i, oil on canvas, 7"x5" (SOLD)

"Daud-vis" ... or Dodvis, is the field code for Dodonaea viscosa (`a`ali`i), the first three letters of the genus and first three letters for the species. Botanists tend to speak in code because who has time to pronounce each syllable of a scientific name anyway?! For example, "Met-paul" for Metpol or Metrosideros polymorpha (`ōhi`a) ... "Sib-glah" for Cibgla or Cibotium glaucum (hapu`u), etc. So, if we ever meet and I happen to speak plant gibberish to you, remind yourself that you're talking to a botanist who spends too much time with plants. :)

This `a`ali`i is a small shrub that grows in the area I live. The fruit, painted here, are winged papery fruit with tiny black seeds inside.  They are pretty iconic and you can see them readily when you visit Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

This closeup of a branch was fun to paint because sunlight could be seen back-lighting the fruit so I was able to use a variety of saturated colors .... alizarin red, cadmium red deep, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow pale to capture the light. The shadows was achieved mixing the colors with its complement, for example, I mixed the reds with sap green or ultramarine blue to achieve a more rich shadow. The highlights were achieved using titanium white with a variety colors. While it looks like I might have used pure white, it was never the case in this painting.

Wake uuuuup!

Rooster, oil on canvas, 12"x12" (SOLD)

This is an ode to the roosters that have moved in down the street. I don't mind their crowing so much but it's probably because they aren't next door. Huge wattles, yes? And that comb sits on his head like a crown! This is the kind of rooster that is the king of his neighborhood!

I chose complementary colors for this one. It's a fairly large painting (the largest size that I've done so far) but I was able to do most of it in one sitting. Most people may not notice that I tend to use the alla prima or wet-on-wet method, which presents challenges when I pile the paint on. If I fuss with it too much, the colors get muddied and I just create a puddled mess. In this case, I embraced it and used bold strokes and laid down the colors fairly quickly, then finished it with details by pushing the paint about. I've noticed that most people that use the alla prima method paint fairly painterly. In my case, I try to infuse as much detail by moving the paint about with my brush, leaving the brightest highlights for last in which I place on top of the wet paint with a very small "0" brush. Most of my small paintings take between 4 and 8 hours. I came back to it a couple days later to lighten up the feathers of the rooster and decided to leave the black feathers unsaturated (i.e. grayish), which I think gives is a more realistic look, as if they were "feathered in" with the white ones.

`Ōhelo in the rain

`Ōhelo, oil on canvas, 10"x8" (SOLD)

`Ōhelo or Vaccinium reticulatum is probably my favorite Hawaiian plant. The fruit are usually tart, sometimes sweet and comes in a variety of colors from yellow, orange, red, to purple. This species is a cousin of blueberries and like blueberries are collected for pies and jam. But, in Hawai`i, we first ask for permission to pick and in reverence, offer the fruit to Pele, the Goddess of Fire, before picking some for ourselves. And, we always leave lots of fruit on the bushes for nene (Hawaiian geese) and other native birds.

I've been choosing to paint on larger canvases and this one is 10"x8", which means changing my painting style to larger brushes, larger brushstrokes, and getting used to a larger drying time. It has also meant making more conscious decisions on areas to keep sharp and distinct and areas to push back into the distance. It is easier to fudge that with smaller pieces. Painting larger also has meant needing to step back from the painting from time to time to to take in the whole painting where I just held it at arm's length when painting much smaller pieces. It's a learning process, isn't it? Maybe my next step will be to purchase an easel so I can paint even larger!

My favorite part of this piece, besides painting the luscious fruit, was adding the red and green leaves. I used a myriad of colors for this piece, sometimes leaning toward the cool cerulean blue and sometimes toward the warmer cadmium red. I love painting with complementary colors!

ʻŌhelo (Vaccinium reticulatum)

ʻŌhelo, 5"x7", oil on canvas (SOLD)

Back to my oil painting! Iʻm getting ready for the Volcano Village Artistʻs Hui Sale coming up Thanksgiving weekend. If youʻre around, please stop by Emily Herbʻs Studio. Iʻll be there as a guest artist and will have original paintings like this one and some prints ... and a few surprises!

ʻŌhelo is one of my favorite plants to paint, not only because of the colorful berries (theyʻre related to blueberries, btw), but their leaves are colorful, with hints of red, orange, and yellow. The berries are usually tart and rarely sweet like blueberries but they make great jam or great just eaten off the bush. This painting was actually a bit of a struggle because my reference photos were pretty monochromatic so I had to draw out the colors and exaggerate some. I used a bit of retouch varnish last night, with the plan of fixing some of the details. I quite like that dangling branch with the rain drops. :)