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. :)