Floral Scene

It was a cloudy day in Kona Friday so I turned away from the water and toward the greenery. Had just seen the movie "Painting the Garden - Monet to Matisse" and reminded me of the tulip fields and gardens I had painted in the Northwest so was time for another type of scene here. 

Two new Kona Paintings

We painted at the Honokohau Harbor last week and I did a larger 11x14 work, then came home and did an 8x9 from my photos, over an older painting. Here are the two results below. I'm pretty happy with both of these especially the smaller one where I get extra texture by painting over an old painting. I kept a good part of the sky, and some colorful foliage across the center but added the palm trees,ceremonial canoe hut, and foreground, at this national park site. Not sure about the colors in that foreground but will reflect on this for a while before I make any changes.      

Friday painting

Here's an 8x10 painted at a local beach this Friday. I call this the bad road beach as it takes 15 minutes to go 1.5 miles on the rutted lava field road to Kekahai Kai State Park. Finished the painting a little early so went for a nice dip in the bay. Ah, living in Hawaii is nice.

Weekly Plein Air paintings

We were out painting at Beach 69, or Waialea Bay beach, on Friday. The air was clear and we could see Maui in the distance so I decided to definitely add that for the first time.There were nice waves in the foreground, and clouds in front of Maui and I think this one is basically done although I always find a few things to touch up. LOL.

Next one is a tree stump along the shore. I haven't tackled this one before as have seen others try and it's not easy. I tried to emphasize some of the major branches and hint at the rest and am reasonably happy with the result although it needs a few touch ups too.This seems to be the usual process, paint on Friday, and then finish up with touch ups over the weekend.

These are both 8x10 on canvas panels.

   

New work from Kona

I've finished a few more new works recently. The plein air process for me, even though I paint pretty quickly to capture the light and shadows, always seems to involve studio touchups where I have to push the lights and darks some more as the bright sun makes the work seem to have more contrast than is really there. A couple of these also were done only in the studio as I'm trying out new techniques. Have to keep learning to grow as an artist. 

The top work is the lifeguard tower at Magic Sands Beach, an 8x10 done mainly on site. I'm debating whether to add a few figures to the scene. 

This next one is a studio painting, 8x8 in size, where I captured a sunset of Waimea.  

This next one is also a studio painting, 11x14, where I experimented with figures, sailboats, and some birds flying in the scene. 

   

New website

I've just updated my art website to www.bigislandart.com. It's a WIX site that is more user friendly and I'll update it more often. This blog is also linked on the home page there for better coordination. There are galleries of recent Hawaii work, plus some abstract work that survived my move to Hawaii. 

Below is an 11x14 beach scene that I did plein air, the largest I've attempted outdoors. Needed a few touchups in the studio but I feel it is pretty successful.   

Here are a couple of recent photos from the Big Island. First is me painting outdoors in my usual outfit of shorts and fishing vest.The vest has pockets to hold my sketchpad, pencils, small camera, even my lunch. We try to choose locations where there will be shade so I don't often need my special umbrella. Other photo is me with my wife, Daniela, in front of our home in Kailua Kona. Normal outfits every day are shorts and tank tops. Gotta love the Hawaii weather - the reason we moved here.    

     

New plein air from Kona

Here at the latest 8x10's from outdoor painting. Top is a 150 year old church in Pauko that has walls three feet thick. It seems they kept adding mortar over the years as the walls crumbled. This is the view from the back, just to be different, and I wanted the steeple to just peek over the roof. 

Two below are a very local beach where I did a tree study, and then did a whimsical study of the rockwall, a lone palm tree, and a red surfboard while I was facing away from the beach. I titled this one "Waiting for surf.