Paintings from Paradise

Alooooooha! Two and a half weeks ago, I returned from my first visit to the Hawaiian Islands–Kaua’i and Hawai’i (the Big Island), plus a day on Oahu. The different environments, animals, and a number of the local art galleries, inspired some fun, artistic exploration once I got back to the mainland. That’s what I’m sharing today. 

  1. Some pen doodles inspired by some of the simple graphic designs on National Park pins. My traveling party saw green sea turtles (honu in Hawaiian) on two occasions: once at Punalu’u, a black sand beach, & again at Kaloko-Honokohau, a National Historic Park.

 

2. Ginger plant (acrylic, 8 x 10″). The ginger blooms in several different colors — red, white, yellow, & pink. The pinks & reds were quite striking against the green foliage of the rainforests.  

3. Painting of a honu resting (oil, 9″ x 6.5″). This was painted more like a watercolor would be (in terms of layers & values). First I painted the yellow across the whole hardboard (such that it started off looking like a background color), and then the blues on top of that, preserving the lights. Many of the greens were actually mixed right on the surface when the blue & yellow paint met. 

Mahalo nui loa for reading. 

February 2019

Happy New Year, happy Presidents Day, and everything in between.

My art adventures took a little holiday during the holidays, and I traveled a bit as well. Between everything, I’ve quietly and slowly been working away at a handful of things on the drawing board (or, rather, the drafting table): a painting of a shipwreck from my trip to Oregon & Washington in August, custom Pandagram paintings for a client, a large painting of a Viking ship, and just a little bit of illustration for the long-time-coming John Churchmouse. 

While I work on those, please enjoy this painting from my Oregon trip (meaning the subject matter is from the trip–I painted it after I returned). Click to enlarge.

À la Côte d’Azur

À la Côte d’Azur = At the Azure Coast, more commonly known as the French Riviera. No, I am not enjoying the beach in a foreign land, but I did paint one such beach I did enjoy. This spot is on the southern coast of Île Sainte-Marguerite, which is essentially the title: À la côte sud d’ Île Sainte-Marguerite. The island about half a mile and a short boat ride across from Cannes of film festival fame. I visited both places in the summer of 2009 when I traveled to France on a short abroad program in college.

An intriguing tidbit: Île Sainte-Marguerite houses a fort and museum, Fort Royal; the historically elusive man in the iron mask made famous by literature and film was transferred from the Bastille in Paris to one of the cells here.

I worked on this painting in 2 stages; I started it in January (but had to pause–end stage 1),

 

Resumed it mid-April (and tried a different configuration for my studio space),

kept working on it in May,

finished it a few days before June,

and am posting about it in July. Go figure.

C’est fini!