Cool Kīlauea morning

oil on canvas, 8"x10" (SOLD)

This one is hot of the easel! It's still drying and I hope to have it available at this weekend's Volcano Village Artist Hui Studio Tour and Art Sale, starting Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, from 10 am - 4 pm and running until Sunday. Stop by Emily Herb's studio on Kenoelehua and visit with Emily, Charlotte Forbes Perry, and me! Emily will have her beautiful native plant and animal-inspired ceramics and guest artist Charlotte will have her ceramic native species trivets, ceramic ornaments, stained glass, and surprise ceramic pieces. I'll have original artwork (as seen on this blog), giclee prints, and notecards! We are all inspired by the plants and animals that surround us in the Village and hope to share with you our love of them through our artwork. 

This is one of my favorite views of the Thurston Lava Tube area, where one can look down into a caved in portion of a lava tube, now filled with myriad native trees and ferns and noisy with the calls of native birds flying about. 

Please excuse the glare ... the paint is still drying on this one!

`Apapane is home.

oil on canvas, 12"x6" (SOLD)

I had been walking through the kipuka along the east-facing slopes of Mauna Loa a couple weeks ago and was struck by the lushness of the flora. We were literally enveloped by hāpu`u (tree ferns, Cibotium glaucum) and other endemic ferns. `Apapane, `i`iwi, `amakihi, and `oma`o were calling all around us. I needed that time to be immersed in nature and I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear because it is exactly where I needed to be. It is where my heart will always be and I feel the most at home in it. It was hard to leave that day but I wanted to paint something to remind me of that very special place.

The challenge in painting this scene was deciding where the focal point would be and by using hue, value, chroma, and sharpness, the journey your eyes would take through the painting. I don't know if I'm very successful in this painting but I did try. If you squint, you can see what I mean. It's hard not to notice the `apapane, which has the highest chroma (saturation) and then the highlights on the fern fronds are meant to draw you from the left to the right of the painting, down to the bottom right, where you end in a deep shadow, where it's a bit suspenseful because there's only a hint of what's under those fronds. Or maybe it doesn't matter. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Hawaiian forest-living

Hāpuʻu-ʻŌhi`a forest, 6"x12", oil on canvas (SOLD)

Some paintings take a year ... Yup, I started this one in November of last year and set it aside after the initial blocking in. It's a view of my backyard, from the view of my "studio" so I knew I would be able to get back to it because I see this view every day. The ʻapapane (red native honeycreeper birds) outside were calling from the same trees so I took at as a calling back to the painting. 

I havenʻt decided whether to paint in the birds or leave it as is. What do you think? Does this need a spot of red?

Please excuse the highlights. The painting is still wet.