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I have been painting just not posting lately. The VOG, volcanic gas released from the active volcano in the south end of island of Hawaii, has been affecting me lately and makes me lethargic at times. It comes and goes depending on the wind and weather so I try to work harder when I'm feeling good and hunker down not. Still, I've been out the the local Plein Air painters group most Fridays and here are some of the results.
The top one is a 10x20, about the largest size I try to do outdoors. It's a view from the Old Energy Lab beach looking north toward Kona town. I tried to emphasize the morning clouds but they sure moved fast. Next is the City of Refuge beach, an 8x10, my usual outdoor size. Last is a study of a single tree by the Old Airport Park beach. I keep working on loosening up my style and sometimes it works, and sometimes not. The joy of painting.
I did a larger, 8"x24" version of an earlier sketch painting (4"x12") of Kahaluu Beach in Kona. Went on site to do most of it and added touches in the studio. I'm trying to paint nice and loose but when I go larger, I get a lot of detail in.
Catching up on posting some recent work. Top two are 11x14 size on stretched canvas. Top one is a scene of Kona Town at night under a full moon and interesting clouds along the hill tops. This is from a pier across the bay from town and I worked from a photo I took.
Next is Honokohau Harbor Park which is a heritage site with old rock barriers and fish ponds and the canoe hut I organized the painting around. This was mainly done on site as I added a device to my paint box to allow me to use larger canvas, up to 12 inches tall, versus the normal 8x10 that fit inside the box. Downside is I need to haul larger stuff back and forth from the car to the painting locations so I won't do this everywhere.
Last is an 8x10 I did as a demo painting outside the Kahuli Theatre In Waimea where we had a plain air art show this month. The mountain in the distance is Mauna Kea where there are many observatories so I included two tiny dabs on top to represent those. This was the view from in front of the theater where I had to huddle to avoid the wind. The sun kept moving, the wind kept increasing, and the clouds in the distance kept changing so was a challenge. Might need to do a better one from one of the reference photos I took that day.
I liked my prior 8x10 at this location so did a 4"x12" study that I may turn into a larger work. At the left is St. Peter's Catholic Church, with room for about 20 people. It's right on the water and I'll have to look up the history as know it is quite old and definitely tiny.
Here's an update on my paintings done recently. Top one is a local beach where I turned toward the hills to catch the edge of clouds coming off them. Just doing beaches and palm trees gets old so I look for new angles from the beaches
Below that is an 11x14 sunset from Kona town. Again, a change of pace.
Bottom two are two of the beautiful beach views I love to paint. Both are 8x10, my standard outdoor size.
Here are two 8x10's, and an 11x14 finished this past week.First two are from Manini Beach, one a view across the bay and another one of a beautiful tree, a subject I don't usually choose but was helping another artist and she chose that to try to paint. It was a challenge as the decision what to put around the tree is the difficult one. I added the bay which was out of the picture field but was needed.
The larger work is an old building in Hualaloa village near me. I'm trying to do more architecture at times so liked this building. I feel I didn't get enough light and dark contrast as it was mid-day and the sun did not create any good shadows.Will need to return in the evening or morning to see if it's better but the sun will be coming from in front and or behind, versus the nice side angle which would create the best shadows.
A few more works from my trips with the local plein air painting group. It's been raining evenings and afternoons at times, but mornings when we go out to paint always brings great weather. A couple of times I've taken advantage of our locations at a beach to take a nice swim while waiting for the paint to set up to continue on the work. Best of both worlds.
These are 8x10 except for the bottom one where I found some 4x12 stretched canvas on sale so will do a few panoramic views. You can note that most beaches have a lot of volcanic rocks as Hawaii (the Big Island) is a young island. Might be another half-million years or so before it all weathers down to sandy beaches.
