New paintings for the Volcano Village Art Sale

`ohelo (Vaccinium reticulata), oil on canvas, 6"x8" (SOLD)

Palila on mamane (Sophora chrysophylla), oil on canvas, 8"x10" (SOLD)

Come and visit us at Emily Herb's studio on Keonelehua Rd;  Volcano Village (Hawaii); November 29-Dec. 1, 2019;  10 am - 4 pm for the annual Volcano Village Artists Hui Studio Tour and Sale. I'll be there as a guest artist, with Charlotte Forbes Perry too. I'll have new oil paintings, giclee prints, and notecards and Charlotte will have stained glass and beautiful ceramics that are uniquely Hawaiian. Emily's home and studio is in the heart of Volcano Village and she'll have her gorgeous ceramics featuring native birds and animals. If you're a die-hard fan of Emily's, you know she will have her seconds on the table on the back porch so come early to get the best bits. We'll even have demonstrations throughout the day so you can see how we create our art. Homemade chocolates will also be on sale to keep your artistic and gastronomic appetite satiated! You can pick up a map to the studios from any of the stores in Volcano; get a stamp from each studio to enter to win great prizes! The sale is a great place to get one-of-a-kind gifts from local artists!

`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!

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. 

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. :)

Oh, hello!

2.5" x 3.5", colored pencil

`Ohelo kau la`au (Vaccinium calycinum), a native Hawaiian relative of blueberries, grows in the wet forests and bogs on all the main Hawaiian islands except Ni`ihau and Kaho`olawe.

PS: How boring! When I posted this at 1:30 am, my brain was jello and believe me, saying something witty or interesting was the farthest from my mind. I was thinking "pillow." LOL Thanks for stopping by and leaving me comments! They always mean a lot to me! :D Have a great day peeps!

Mouth watering

Ohelo berries are related to blueberries! I drew this quick sketch of my favorite plant at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and colored it when I got home. The wonderful thing about these berries, besides being delicious for us humans, is they are food for endangered nene (neh-neh) geese that live in the area.