aloha Keauhou Outrigger

West Hawaii Plein Air Painters Session-Ackermans' Beach

Throughness - what's behind the patterns

A concept i've been thinking about for years and thought i'd lost sight of - so i went through a lot of the stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for decades and put this montage together.  Turn up the sound and enjoy (there's a full screen button in the lower right corner - please use it).

Let me know what you think.

Painting Slide Show - 2010

  Turn up the speakers and enjoy!!

Just Me Show

Honokohau See Arch - 20x16 - plein air/alla prima oils

Meet the artist reception 5p-7p October 29th

Kona Frame Shop

19 new works on display for the month of November

Still Life and Dappling

Still life at Honl Bay - 9x12 - oils on board

This was painted only a few days after “the excitement”, which is to say the tsunami.  The waves had set up this little still life and raked the sea grass into an interesting tangle.  Here I had my new colors (Gamblin professional oils rather than the student grade stuff that they sell at Ace Hardware) working well and I even managed to stifle my inclinations and tone down the far away palms.

Dapple Fantasia at Kaloko Ponds - 11x14 - oils on board

A lot of vibrant brushwork going in here and some wonderful dappling effects in the colorful shadows.

5x7 Quickies

Gussie's Hammock - Keauhou Bay - 7x5 - oils on board

Wanted to do some little quickies to see how they sell and just to unlimber into these new paints.  Each one took about 50 years and 45 minutes (50 years of iving experience and 45 minutes of real painting time).  I hope they look like they were as much fun as they were to do.

We go to Gussie Pace's estate at Keauhou Bay sometimes for a painting session and this is her hammock with the bay in the background – the next one is her concrete pond – it somehow just reminded me of Beverly Hillbilies.

Gussie's Concrete Pond - Keauhou Bay
5x7 - oils on board

Early Morning Palm Andante - City of Refuge
5x7 - oils on board

The one above and the next two I made up (confessions of a plein ar painter) and I think I enjoyed the first two more.

Palm Allegro - City of Refuge
5x7 - oils on board

Morning Respite - 5x7 - oils on board

Fred & Ginger and Friends

Fred and Ginger do Anaeho'omalu Bay
12x14 - oils on board

Fred & Ginger dancin’ dancin’ is about 50% plein air and 50% studio.  I really got carried away painting the negative space around all of the twigs and branches (I love that negative space)   See detail below:

Waiting Canoes - Keauhou Bay - 20x24
oils on stretched canvas

One of my favorite pieces and about 75% plein air.  What excites me is the liquid handling of the dappling on the canoes and the way the strong backlighting works in the foliage at the upper left.  Strong light coming through foliage fuzzes out all of the detail.

Big Surf at Wawaloli Point - 14x11 - oils on board

We had some wonderfully big surf a few weeks ago and since my painting group goes out once a week we managed to catch some of it.  On the next older page there’s a painting from almost exactly the same location on a nice calm day.

Church and Shadows

Christ Episcopal Church - Kealakekua - 14x11 - oil on board

Voggy cloudy day (vog=volcanic smog) and I think I caught that here, I diluted most of my colors with white and started with a yellow ochre canvas instead of my typically cadmium yellow light one.  Also I moved some of the tombstones around a little – no big deal – I once moved Maui about two miles.

Kayak at Manini Beach - 10x8 - oils on board

Manini is mostly a coral beach and may still be but I haven’t been there since “the excitement”  (tsunami).  There was one movie of the damage here that made the national news of one of the
 houses around this beach floating out to sea in Kealakekua Bay.

Keiki Pond at Waealoli Point - 14x11 - oils on board

The companion piece to the big wave painting on the newer page.  Here I was concentrating on the foreground which I usually dash in at the end of the session in a couple of minutes, here,and in Christ Church, I made more of an effort and it really paid off.

Morning Mist at Waialea Beach - 14x11 - oils on board

Pauls Place and Other Fun Stuff

Not-a-flower - 6x6 - oils on board

Not-a-flower was a practice piece that I did concentrating on the transparent aspects of certain oil color pigments.   "Not-a-flower" because I just made it up!

Surf Path at Kaloko Ponds - 8x10 - oils on board

Nice hot day at Kaloko Ponds!   Here i was mostly concerned with the shadows in the foreground.   Shadows aren't just blank darknesses for me, they have colors and vibrancies within them - I usually try to paint them and the dappling as if they were liquids.

Ecstacy Palm - 8x8 - oils on board

Pauls Place - Holualoa -  - oils on board

This little store in Holualoa was the center of that old town, and still is except the community has changed from rural coffee land to a kind of Art colony.

Wave Lense and Company

Life Guard Tower, Kahalu'u - 10x8 - oils on board

They've started to replace these fine old colorful guard towers with some made out of fibreglas and totally lacking in charm or color - I was lucky to get this one befoe it was replaced.   I painted this from the Kalenakai Grill at the Keauhou Beach Outrigger Resort.

Little Blue Church at the Pali - Napo'opo'o
oils on board

A very active piece painted from Manini Beach with the pali quickly sketched on and a white mist behind the nearest palm trees.

Kua Bay Wave Lense - 18x12 - oils on paper

We usually paint in the morning when the light is best and low.  At Kua Bay the light streams over the saddle at first light and gets refracted onto the sandy bottom at the base of the waves as they come to shore creating a chartreuse band that moves along with the breakers - a wonderful sight and very difficult to paint.