Catching up on landscape posts

Been painting but needed to catch up on the posting online. Also, set a new year's resolution to work with thicker brush strokes and looser so a couple of those are here too. top two are Manini Beach, an 8x10 onsite, then a 14x20 in the studio, shown in that order.

Next are two scenes of boats in Honokohau Harbor. One is 5x7, next one is 8x10. These are where I tried to really force the brush strokes to be thicker and show more. 

Last is another small 5x7 where I show Mauna Kea in with clouds. This doesn't have the thick strokes because this scene needed the depth so only bold strokes in the front and then I needed to fade the background. Each scene chooses it's own style to make it work. 

  

More Hawaii foliage

Ended up turning away from the ocean again at Kaloko Pond, a site with a fishpond and large wall being restored after storm damage. This view is the beginning of a path just inland along the water. 

  

Latest work - lots of foliage

I've been turning away from facing the ocean and volcanic rock and getting more variety in my views. Here is a view south from Energy Lab Beach, facing the small concrete building there. I wanted to emphasize the winding  path leading through the bushes. I put  some of the lavender color from the sky into the path and building roof to coordinate the scheme. 

  

Latest two plain air works

Did two same proportion works the last two weeks. One was 5x10 to fit a frame I had, the other is 12x24, one of my largest outdoor works. Managed to only need a few touchups to completion so a hard working morning on that one, 

Top is a view from Honl's beach, right in town, looking south. The larger one on the bottom is a view of Kahaluu Beach, a great snorkeling spot, also in town. I've done this scene before but since then they replaced a nice orange lifeguard tower with a plain white one. The orange was much better as a complementary color against all the green and blue. 

  

Old Airport Scenes

Here are two 8x10's done at the Old Kona Airport. There is a long rocky beach with a little cove at the end where folks snorkle and sunbath. 

Two Panoramic Paintings

I picked up a couple of 6x18 canvases at Target so took these out to paint on the last two weeks. May need a few more touchups but almost there. First is Kona Inn view north, downtown Kona. Other one is Kaloko Ponds north of Kona where there is a long rock wall being repaired to block off the pond.

  

Hualaloa Church Scene

When we paint away from the beaches, I like to try out scenes with buildings.There are many old store buildings and churches to choose from. For this one I set up across the street from an old church and painted from the shoulder of the road as cars whizzed by on the highway, a two land road. At times someone driving from behind me could see the painting coming along and would make a favorable comment. Nothing like drive-by critiques. LOL. I like to put in the roads to give a feel of the modern road against the old buildings.

   

New work around Kona

Have been painting locally on Fridays so lots of rocks and water. Here a few of the latest works. All are 8x10 and painted on site.

-The top work is another City of Refuge scene looking across the bay. 
-Next is the rock wall in the distance at Kaloko Ponds, a fish pond damaged by the Tsunami a few years ago, which is under repair now.
-Third down is a rock formation at Magic Sands Beach, a historic remnant.
-Last is a footpath and trees across from the Keauhou Store. I had painted three versions of the store for a fundraiser for restoration of their flagpole, and sold two of the 
works.  

City of Refuge View

We painted at the City of Refuge Friday, also known as Puuhonau O Honauau National Historical Park. There are numerous ancient rock walls and old settlement remains on a trail in the park. Here is a view across the bay at the park. Surf always seems to pick up as we paint so I added the waves against the  rocks.

Ho'okena Beach painting

We painted south of Kona Friday, at Ho'okena Beach, where I'd never been before. There were dramatic cliffs in the distance so I figured I'd go full acid color. LOL. Limited my palette a little, to 8 colors, and yet produced one of my most colorful scenes. Tried 3 colors last week but blue, orange, and white don't produce any greens so didn't work well to paint trees here in Hawaii. Here I used 2 blues (phthalo and ultramarine), yellow, red, purple, orange, burnt umber for a dark, and white.

    

New work in various media

Have been doing my regular oil painting but wanted to shake things up a little. Did a limited palette study using only orange, blue, and white outdoors Friday, but no way to make any green colors so the trees came out like fall colors which don't fit here in Hawaii. Decided to go over the work with wax or encaustic with a stylus which I had done in the past. The result is below: 

   

I also wanted to try some acrylics which I had but didn't use for a while either. In my many years of painting I've used almost every media before settling on oils but do like the fast drying of acrylics, especially here in Hawaii where they paint dries in minutes. I used an image I had of the Holei Sea Arch here on the Big Island. I like the contrast as the acrylics dries darker but you have to be careful not to make the whole image too dark.

Two very different works

Painted outdoors at the Old Airport Park and faced inland (mauka or uphill). This park has a nature trail with many plants maintained by volunteers and also a refuge for homeless cats, mongoose, and chickens. Here is a view where a rooster posed just for me. LOL.

I also had a request to do a larger abstract, emphasizing pink, yellow, and blue. I started out with more organic shapes but as I worked I moved more toward somewhat geometric shapes. I'm liking the movement in this work and if the requester doesn't like it, I'll do another one and keep this in my inventory. This is 24x36 inches.

     

Small work this week

Been tied up sightseeing with visitors so decided to do a small plein air this week with my group as wanted a work to finish in one session. This is 4x12 inches and came out well I think. This is the last of my small canvasses this size but I might stretch some more smaller ones as they are a fun format.This is a view of Kahaluu Beach, the south side. I've usually sat at the side and painted in the north facing direction so this was a reverse direction. The rest of our group was painting from in front of the pink house on the right.  




  

All sizes and shapes

Here are a few works done recently. These are square, long rectangle, and normal rectangle. I had a 12x12 frame so cut a board to fit but then had a 4x12 leftover piece so did a small oil sketch on that. Also painted over some older work I didn't like at 9x12, and 5x7, so 4 works, all a different size. Nothing like variety.

Today's outdoor painting

Worked a little larger again today at 11x14 and put a lot of detail into this one although still tried to keep it loose. This is Keauhou Bay near us and one of my favorite spots for a dip. Had dramatic clouds early on so put them into the sky before they blew away. 

Tiny biker

A friend of mine is an avid biker and posts photos of his adventures. I needed a break from sand and surf and sun so did a small painting of a lone biker among the Oregon haystack rocks and wide beaches. This is 5x7 so the biker is really small. LOL.

New pointillist work

Here is a larger work than my recent plein air small pieces, done in the studio. I had an old 16x20 canvas stretched that had some lines of paint which still showed through when I gessoed over them so knew I had to paint thick to hide these lines. My first try at my normal style was OK but the lines still bothered me in spots, plus the painting lacked life. I decided to paint over it with a pointillist style borrowed from the 1880's French artists like Pisarro and Seurat, using small dots of paint all over. I may need to darken the dark areas a little but I like how it's coming so far. 

This view is from the waterfront behind the Kona Inn downtown, looking north toward the extensive rockwalls there. 

  

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. 

2016 work outdoors

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.