The "Other" Hawaii

As I lamented in past blogs about painting a part of Hawaii that didn't include the ocean or the beach, so I have finally painted! This is an 11"x14" panel of an ancient Hawaiian burial ground that is about a mile or so walk down the Ala Loa Trail from our beach. It always looks kind of spooky when the dark afternoon clouds roll down the side of mountain, and thats what I was trying to portray. I worked 3 different times on the piece to finally finish it, and when it was done, I named it "The Path of our Ancestors". You know, I think I might like painting some more of these alternative Hawaii subjects.........Aloha :)

Up the Coast

Saw this vista while driving north along the coast and it caught my eye. I alway hesitate to try such broad landscapes on small panels (9" x 12") but I found it really attractive. I also find that if I stop and think too much, that I can think of a multitude of reasons not to try and or do something new. My block in and my initial color work did not achieve the "sparkle" and attactiveness of the original scene, and I was disappointed, but could still see the potential in the piece. I find that 95% of the time I am disappointed with my first pass on a piece. If I stick with it, normally it will turn the corner.....and this one did! I have to always remember to persevere, and you will be rewarded.

Meanwhile, Back at the Beach

Its hard to leave your comfort zone. I keep thinking I'm going to try some new subject matter other than oceans and beaches, and I do see some inspiration landscapes, but I just love the blue water. This is an acrylic 8"x12" of a break in the brush that leads to a beautiful sand beach. I like providing the viewer with a path to follow.........kind of a reason to interact with the painting. I like the abstraction too. :) Someday maybe tomorrow, I'll paint some mountains. And maybe I'll trade in my acrylics for oils too. Someday.....

Back to Work

I have been away from the studio for almost 3 weeks, and its nice to be home. While looking over some of my previous work, and thinking about what I might like to paint next, I was finding that I try really hard to paint things that "look like Hawaii". I mean beaches and palm trees, and ocean views....classic Hawaii. The problem with this is that the Big Island is not "classic Hawaii"...its rocks, and lava flows, grass lands and mountains. But I think......well who would want to own this kind of a landscape? And then I get stuck.....I get stuck because I try to paint things I think people would like to buy. So look for a little more rugged Hawaii in coming works, just because I like it, and not because I think it might sell, and we shall see what happens.

The piece I have here in the post is called "Trade Winds".........its an 8" x 10" and I tied to catch the breeze/wind that is always blowing here on the Big Island. I've also cut back a bit on the amout of colors on my palette, as the previous painting I posted seemed to get a bit hard to control color-wise. This piece still has the bang of color, with more unity. On we go!!

The Sailing Club

I started this 11" x 14" on location in front of the sailing club. I liked the way the trees back dropped the building and the row of boats. The club is in the back corner of the marina, and everytime I would drive by it, I would think...."I have to paint that". And looking back now.........I'm glad I did! :)

Home at last

After a long 3 weeks of work on the mainland, I'm finally back home in Hawaii and ready to get back at it. This piece is done from one of my favoite viewpoints, the backside of Honokohau Harbor marina. Its a sunny, high sky day with a few unchartered boats still left parked in their slips, with the trade winds blowing through the palms in the afternoon.
The bulk of this larger piece (14" x 18") was done in the studio over the course of 3 painting sessions, and it was kind of a test to gauge how my plein air skills were translating into studio work. A positive influnence I think.

Bring on the color

I saw this little cluster of palm trees without a whole lot of anything else going on. I was going to move on, but I really liked the movement of the tree trunks, so I decided to just see what would happen. This cute little 8"x 10" happened! I've added cerrulean Blue and Cad red light to my pallette, and am enjoying the color pop. This piece gives me confidence to create.

Old Hawaii

Just to the north of the harbor is a park, where the ancient Hawaiians used to live and fish. Great effort is made to keep these areas original and undisturbed. This painting shows a bit of this history. I like the way this painting makes you feel like you are looking out on to the bay the way the ancients did.

Another productive day at the harbor......even though my day got off to a slow start as I left my tube of white home, and had to buy another at the art store to get started. This is the point at the mouth of the harbor. I was attracted to this scene by the bouy, and the navigation warning light attached to the point. This piece has that nice Hawaii sparkle!

#41, The winter surge

Took my paints for a long walk down the coast line. Its all lava rock cliffs with the winter surge splashing up against them. I found this small cove where the water swirled as it washed in and out, so I thought I would give it a try. I think I did a good job creating movement in the water, and a strong center of interest with the deeper cerrulean blue pool, and the gold bleached lava rock. I like the work, but wonder is this subject "saleable"?? It seems to need something more, but what?? More color?, Maybe a stonger group of rocks in the left side of the pool? Anyways this is painting number 41 on my way to 100 plein air works. Maybe by 100, I will know the answers. :)

Out of the Breeze and into the Trees

I was watching this grove of palm trees waiting for the sun to go low enough to light up their trunks. When it finally happened, I gave it a try. I like the mass of the fronds and the background.........I might like to vary the coloration on the trunks next go round, and work to capture the low lighting a bit more. But hey....I'm outside painting palm trees!!

A fight to the finish

We drove down south today to Naalehu. Wonderful rocky coastlines and .....WIND! Set up to paint this rocky point and had much trouble shifting from realistic to abstract. I can't stop painting rocks instead of just massing them in, and I have trouble with the greens on top of the point......it keeps looking like a bad green toupee. After about an hours worth of painting in which my water blew over twice and my whole easel tipped over once, and I gashed open my hand trying to catch it................this is the results! I like the liveliness of the ocean.....this was a good learning experience.

Back lit Begonias

We have this wonderful potted Begonia on our back lani, and every day I say..."Today I will paint those Begonias". Well today I did! I'm pushing myself towards abstract..especially in the flowers....just blobs of color, and dark leaf mass. They are the best part of this painting.

Shapes and Color

Got back outside again today, and found a new beach. A big view on a smaller panel. Since there was no real center of interest, and too big of a scene, I just worked on shapes and color. I like the results.....but I will soften the right hand edges of the bright green bushes.

Reaching out to the ocean

Sometimes I do a plein air piece and nature just doesn't arrange itself in the best possible way.........So, I have to restucture it a bit. Originally this had a solid rock "barricade" across the ocean which halted the viewers enrty into the painting and made it uninviting. Back home I punched a hole in the rocks so the viewer could let his eye wander all the way to the water, and brightened the sand in the entry to make sure the viewer got all the way to the ocean. Now you can feel yourself move towards the gap and down to the ocean.

Don and Judy's tulip tree

Was feeling a bit under the weather today, but still wanted get my daily painting in. Luckily my neighbor has a beautiful tulip tree growing outside my studio window. So here it is in late afternoon sun.

Closer to Home

We have these really nice Dipladenias growing up the side of our fence. They were illuminated in the morning sun, so I thought they might make a nice subject. Pink is a really hard color to get right!! So after about 40 minutes of work, I let the piece dry and brought it inside to adjust the pinks.........now thery're better. Nothing spectacular, but this is kind of a cheerful piece.

Arrrrrrrrgggh!

I like to paint. Its more fun when things go smoothly, but struggling with problems are a part of the process. Then there are paintings like this one. You set up and wait for the light..........when it finally happens you start. And your color mixes are off, and the light is changing too rapidly, and you all of a sudden you start painting each rock, instead of a coast line, and your paint is drying before you can get it off your pallette. ARRRRRRRGH!!! I have this vision of picking up my french easel and throwing over the cliff into the ocean. Phew.. You have to know when to say when, and I finally did here, and packed up and went home. Lumps of coal like this one make you appreciate the diamonds even more. On we go. :)

How Dry I am

Took my paints down the hill to our community beach today, looking for something interesting to paint. It was about 3:30pm, and as usual, the sun is hiding behind the volcanic vog and overcast, and nothing really is catching my eye. Way down the coast is an old volcanic cinder cone with a lone tree perched on it. The atmosphere is so dense that it reads very soft and greyed down. I like that tree, so why not? My paints are drying really fast, so I am doing a bit of scrubbing, but its giving me a nice softness and color variation. Here is the results. This may not be classic Hawaii, but it is spot on "Big Island" Hawaii.

Look what I found

Here on the Big Island, a lot of our sunsets are obscured by clouds and volcanic emmissions called "vog". Every once in a while the winds will blow off the haze and we get a nice sunset. Just when I was ready to give up on it....pow.....there it was! This is a little slice of ocean view painted from my backyard. Next time I go chasing a sunset, I think I'll add some Cad red light to my pallette.

Going Bananas

I always look at my banana trees and think they would make a great subject, but I am always intimidated by the amount of leaves. So this month I am trying to choose a subject each day that will push me out of my comfort zone and force me to try to tackle things I would normally avoid. So here they are! I started out trying to paint each leave, but luckily I came to my senses about half way through, and just painted the lights, darks and mid-tones where I saw them, and the look of leaves happened. I like this looser look too.

Life is a Beach

Another day at the beach. I was attracted to the spikey palm tree to the left when I decided to paint this scene, and the clouds in the sky, so I grabbed an 11"x14" panel and started. Some of this painting I enjoy...some parts I don't. I don't care for the "lead in". Its too far to the right where you enter the painting at the beach. I like the sand "path" through the painting back into the brush, and the big sky, but the colors are a bit drab overall in this piece. I'll chalk this one up to the learning curve, and its on we go!

Pushing the limits

Went to Old Airport beach today, and wanted to try a larger panel..........12"x 16" today. Blazing sun, and acrylic paint......not a good combination, but today, I got it to work a bit. I'm getting better at blocking in and abstracting the color shapes.......I still have to make color corrections because the acrylics dry a bit darker, but that seems to give me a nice color variation like in the sky and the ocean. The part that pleased me the most were the rocks at the waters edge. No painting rocks today......just brush strokes of color, an viola!! Rocks!
I wish I could build up a thicker layer of paint, but with the acrylics I can't squeeze enough out at a time without a lot of it drying up. Now where did I leave my set of oils??

#28

This is painting #28 in my learning to paint in plein aire series. Its a painting of a pink geranium in my rock garden, painted in the dusk of evening. I'm making note of its number because its taken this many starts before I really "got it" as far as abstracting and painting shapes instead of flowers. I like the looseness...and I have plenty of color still using my limited palette. On ward to # 29

Waiting on the Sun.....again

Its early evening, and I'm in a scenic area..........a pull-off area along the highway where people can "look at the scenery". I have my eye on some bouganvillas across the street, and I'm waiting for the sun to come out from under the clouds to light them up. And waiting, and waiting.......... OK, its not going to happen. But there is a sliver of orange sun on the horizon, so I'll give that a try. And you know what...its not bad. Hurray for me!

Old Airport Beach

I tried an 11"x14" panel today at one of the local beaches. It was a sunny clear sky, mid-day, but the good part was that I could view my subject from under the shelter of a picnic pavillion roof. I'm getting better at abstracting shapes of color, instead of trying to "paint things". The colors of this say Hawaii to me. I think I may make a few minor alterations to this back in the studio, such as creating a gap in the rocks to invite the viewer all the way into the scene, and adjusting the shadow shapes a bit, to differentiate them from being part of the trees. After I complete these revisions, I will repost the piece to compare the differences.

Flower Time

I have seen many nice simple paintings of a single flower in a glass, so I thought I would give that a try. I got a nice protea, and set it up, and added some purple to my pallette. Some of this I like, and some I don't. I start of with the idea of real colors, but they always seem a bit dull and lifeless.......so I kind of take off and punch them up a bit. Its a good thing I use a limited pallette...............I like the flower and the glass, but the fabric and the background are not happening. Not simple enough, with too much going on. I'm learning.

Can I do it?

I wanted to try one more piece at the harbor before I left. I had a limited time to work, as I had to pick up my wife in approximatley 1 hour. I knew this was a complicated subject to try in such a short period of time, but I wanted to push myself into harder things to see what I can do and to help me advance as a painter. Here is the results..............I liked it better the next day after my frustration wore off. :)

Sunshine. Palm Trees and Boats

I was at the harbor again....there is so much there to see. I tried a larger 11"x14" panel today with mixed results. The paint kept getting really sticky making it hard to cover the whole canvas, before it dried up. After I finished the palm trees, the sun was low enough to where the water was silver and the boats were coming in for the day. I did the little sailboat in this sparkle of light just to "try" to capture the effect. I think I did OK.

Waiting for the sun

This afternoon/early evening I was waiting for the sun to set low enough to "light up" the house across the street. One of the things I have to contend with is the narrow window of early evening light, before the sun drops below the cloud layer at the horizon and its gone for good. So I wait as long as I think I can then I paint The House Across the Street.........and wouldn't you know it, half way through the sun beams right on it. Too late now...........

maybe next time

A day of Adventure and the vanishing cows

On this day my wife and I packed the car and drove north looking for a "change of scenery" for subject matter. As you head up in elevation here in Hawaii, it cools down and there are grassy hills with mountains and pine trees. After exploring a bit we drove down a little side road and came upon a grassy field filled with cows. What a cool subject! Since the road was very narrow, we had to drive to the end of it and turn around to park the truck...........and wouldn't you know it, by the time we got back there wasn't a cow in sight! They all had walked down into a narrow ravine out of any line of sight...........guess they we shy cows.

About a half hour later we arrived at Kawaihae Harbor, The sun was getting low enough where it made the water all silver and sparkly..........this is it. Todays "challenge"...make the painting sparkle like the ocean is. This 8"x10" is the result which I was really happy with.......and so was one of the onlookers who watched me paint it, as he literally bought it right off my easel before it was dry. :) I painted a smaller canoe that was sitting in the inlet with mixed results........but not every swing is a home run. All in all it was a good learning day.

Inside Edition

Today the day was so busy, it was dark before I could paint outside, so I set up a small still life in my studio. The control of painting inside was nice, but I still pushed a little for speed as I wanted to paint wet into wet with my acrylics. I kinda like this little 8"x10"

Is bigger, better?

I have been starting to think about trying a bit larger painting the next time I out. My largest to this point have been 8"x10" and I'm quite comfortable with that size. However......my aspiration is to become good enough to sell this work, and a larger format, perhaps 16"x20" is what I'm shooting for. So I'm going to try a 11"x14" or 12"x16" today, and work my way up in size. I just don't want to loose the look of spontanaety the smaller pieces have.

The 2 little pieces shown here, were painted in my driveway ....late afternoon, early evening.

Another fun Day!

Painted at the marina again today.......I've seen some sailboats there that I always like, so I thought I would give them a try. There was a lot of stuff going on, and trying to simplify and abstract it was very hard. I will paint these boats again at a later date to see the difference. After I finished the boats I turned my easel to the right and tried the bouganvillas that grow all around the marina. Lastly I painted one of the extinct volcanos here on the Big Island. I finally freed up a bit, and using a lot of paint is helping...all in all a productive day.

These look interesting

Sometimes for me its easier to paint simple when doing less complicated subjects. With these little still lifes, painted outdoors, I can control the elements present in my painting. I spend more time painting and less time "trying to figure it out". Plus they still give you the outdoor feel.

My most favorite place

Honokohau marina is one of my most favorite places here in Hawaii. There are boats, beaches and lots of stuff going on all the time. These 2 pieces were painted there on 8"x10" panels, mid morning. They are both done in acrylic, with an effort being made to use more paint, and not be so stingy. I'm liking the way it feels to use more paint, and my results are better. I'm also making an effort to be looser and less detailed. Well here they are.

The need for speed

Tried a sunset off my back lani, with mixed results. The sun goes down a lot faster than one thinks, and my ability to mix colors and keep up with it are not up to par yet. I also decided to add Cad. red light to my pallette after not getting the warmer reds and oranges I wanted. Here are paintings #8, 9 in my plein air learning process. I'm also switching to a bigger brush next time.

Its hard to be simple

I'm finding that its a little difficult simplifying my subject matter. I'm looking for a loose, colorful painting, but I'm having a hard time simplifying my subjects. Case in point with this painting.........I kept trying to paint all the rocks in my rock garden. This is something I need to work on.

Still not getting the color I want

I am still struggling a bit with my limited pallette. While my paintings have more harmony with this 4 color pallette, they lack the excitement I want. I like this little 8"x10" panel called "The Derelict". Its a solid representation of what I saw at the marina. To me it seems as though it needs a bit more energy. What do you think?

The Learning Curve

I'm still hanging with the acrylics a bit longer as I read a bit on the American Artist website on acrylic painting that made me think. It was about painting looser, and using more paint......a problem I have as I worry about wasting it. Today I used more paint....and still worried about it, but when the pieces were done there was no leftover paint on my glass! Plus it was a LOT MORE FUN! The pieces I did today were numbers 9 and 10. Todays post will show 3 and 4. If you follow the progression of the blog you'll really see the difference.

Where do they get those colors?

So I'm trying to take a bit more realistic approach to my color in my plein aire venture. I'm starting very basically with just white, aliz. crimson, ultramarine blue, cad. yellow light, and viridian green. I'm finding it very hard to get the brightness of the reds, pinks and purples I want. I think I will be adding more to my pallette soon, but I want to explore this limited pallette a bit more 1st. Here is plein aire painting #2