West Hawaii Plein Air Painters Schedule

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Aloha nui loa, Richard

Plein Air Painting Schedule

Big Island of Hawaii - Kona-side

The Painting Schedules are not being posted here anymore - please go to the link below and look to the most recent newsletter - mahalos: http://richardrochkovsky.com/newsletter-archive . . . and while you're there - look around a little . .

Painting Sessions are from 9a to 12:30p with a short critique to follow

Kohala Plein Air Schedule - fridays Contact Peter at: kohalapleinairpainters@gmail.com Hilo-side Plein Air Painting Schedule - thursdays Leslie at: leslie@lesismore.us or at their website: http://paaohi.blogspot.com/

Practicing with a Plastic Crutch

Nice title, eh?

I don't do this very often - probably not often enough, but I was hesitant about painting a lot of foam on top of what was a pretty complicated piece of deep ocean - easy enough to do a wipe, but that never leaves the underlying painting as fresh and clean as it was - so . . . I used a clear piece of plastic sheet for practice.  Here I used one of those clear envelopes that we use to protect prints for sale:

showing the crutch

with the crutch painted

Of course the problem was I really liked the plastic sketch and as far as part of my mind was concerned (there's not that much left) I had finished the painting and it was time to go on to another one.  Months later (two days ago) I finally got it done:

Leo's Backyard2 - 11x14 - Plein air oils

and I like it better!

New Show at Living Arts Gallery in Hawi

Off to The Living ARTS Gallery in Hawi for the show "Island Landmarks" coming up next month - visit, it's a wonderful place with friendly people and lots of good art:

Kahalu'u Calm - 14x11 - plein air oils

I really love this little beach but especially the life guard shack (yeah - I loved them in Joisey too) - the chinese red displayed against any color is outstanding!!  and these people are just a bunch of happy paint blobs (well - I think they look happy).

Last Week's Session - MaGoons' (Mahai'ula Bay)

Quiet overcast day - not much color - not much shade, but here you go:

Newly Hung at the Kailua Village Artists' Gallery

more palms - this one from Mahai'ula, I like to call it - MaGoons - now showing at the Kailua Village Artists Gallery - downtown

South end - Mahai'ula Bay - 9x12 - plein air oils

A Very SKOILY Couple of Days

I've been painting these SKOILS=SKetches in OILS for a while - just some 45 minute quickies - 6x9 on loose canvas for the convenience.  These first two done with the West Hawaii Plein Air Painters on Friday's session at Kealakekua Bay

 Lava Pinnacles - 9x6 - Plein air Skoil

Headlands - 9x6 - Plein air Skoil

 Took Saturday off and painted Kahalu'u on Sunday:

Life Guard Shack - 9x6 - Plein air Skoil

 and this painted from the computer screen while at the Kailua Village Gallery on Monday:

City of Refuge - studio skoil

Click here to visit my gallery

Why Plein Air?

The immediate response to that, of course, is "WHY NOT?" and there are a lot more why nots then there are whys, but let's first define terms.  I've worked a few galleries in my time and have always been relieved when approached by a client who knows what plein air means.  Simply it was a term used about the Impressionists' proclivity to paint "outside" and means "in the fresh air" or painting on site, and that opens up a whole bunch of problems that I'll go into in future entries. 

Plein air, for me, consists of totally immersing yourself in the act of painting - without hesitation, almost without thought - listening/smelling/feeling the environment - sand under your feet/sun on your face/breeze in your hair - and painting with abandon until the session is complete.  I have coordinated the West Hawaii Plein Air Painters for the last six or seven years.  We usually paint on Fridays in the morning because the light is better here coming over the mountain in the morning to our backs (face to the Pacific) and gradually clouding over to a glare around 1p.  The encouragement, then, is to paint from 9a to 12:30p and FINISH THE PAINTING!!! An alla prima experience of the best kind.  That's the philosophy of it, the mechanics and logistics of it are a lot more complicated then that - what to take - what to do without - easel?  and on and on - stay tuned and we'll travel along this path together, I've got a lot to say that I've never said so this should be a good journey for both of us.

Aloha nui loa,

richard

click image for gallery

CURSES . . . SKOILED AGAIN ! ! !

Two from last night. This first a memory from a squall I noticed late in the afternoon - unusual because it was done on white canvas:

late afternoon squall - 9x6 - plein air skoil

 Bought some big absurdly fat cooking bananas the other day - paint them today - eat them tomorrow!

red band - 9x6 - plein air skoil

Don't forget the BIG SHOW in Hilo - go support an artist or two.

Lavern

Finally photographed some of the paintings i finished last week - will post them later. this one painted with the WHPAP at that little park at the inlet to Honokohau Harbor last Friday. Unearthly color always here first thing in the morning. Caught Lavern on her way into the office - she's bigger then i thought.  - knifed in the rocks on this one:

"Lavern, punching the time clock" - 11x14 - plein air oils

Lavern is the eight foot tiger shark that hangs around the Honokohau small boat marina - she was being hasseled a few weeks ago by some neandrathal kids and made it to YouTube.

Kaloko Ponds 2 - First Stage - Oils

Lately I've been starting pieces by sketching a real rough "road map" of the scene with a brush in cadmium red (long story on how that came about - some other post, maybe) and then start adding viridian green and/or dyoxinine purple and alizarin crimson to start dashing in the darknessess.  My four rules of applying paint are, to work:

1. dark to light
2. thin to thick
3. transparent to opaque
4. big to little

A few weeks ago we went out to Kaloko Ponds and I produced one painting with the first stage done in acrylics, and the first stage of another bigger painting done in oils.

Kaloko Ponds Wall 1 - plein air oils - 8x8

Kaloko Ponds Wall 2 - plein air oils - 11x14

I've been using colored grounds for years, mostly yellow, and the colour de jour is Valspar, Mello Mustard, exterior house paint - good stuff!   The stones in the wall were created by wiping the paint away with a paper towel and you can see the stones and underwater (eventually) stuffs and the short beach in the lower right hand corner.  I've scheduled the group for the ponds tomorrow and will post either the end of stage two, or the final painting when i get it done.

Six Who Passed While the Skoils Boiled

Okok - the title doesn't make sense, but i like the alliteration.  I just can't help sharing these things.  Once again - Skoils are SKetches in OILS - 6x9 on loose canvas.

clouds and clouds - early morning over Hualalai:

keauhou bay

Come paint with me and us - West Hawaii Plein Air Painters every Friday.

YouTube Painting Demonstrations

That symbol means  
CAUTION - EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL TO FOLLOW : 
and this time it's painting demonstrations on YOU TUBE.  And everyone that has a camera is here (including yours truly) with their "fool proof, easy, gonna change your life" methods in water colors, oils, acrylics, pastels, and stuff you've never heard of - here are some of the good guys:

Richard Robinson  
One of my favorites, stylistically and tempermentally - easy to understand and listen to and dedicated to the fine points of plein air and quick fresh studio work as well.  He also has a newsletter service and some "private" free lessons that you can participate in as well as a free e-book that i'll give you the address for later.
Richard's main YouTube channel - you can access most of his  teaching videos from here - there's also a link to his website, which i reccommend:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rvalentinorobinson?feature=watch

Here's the link to the Hawaii e-book - it's free - download it and think about doing one of yourown:
http://www.livepaintinglessons.com/Hawaiibook/

Paul Taggard
I love this guy and admire his perserverance and doggedness and hate his perserverence and doggedness!! And/but he explains things clearly and over and over again so that you can't help but eventually "get it".  His instruction videos are "all media" so just take your choice and settle in for a real "journey".
Paul's channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/artworkshopwithpaul
there's a link here to his website as well, but there's more than enough choices at this location to keep busy for a long time.

I've watched a lot of these videos and will try to add to this list in the future - if you've got some of your own favorites, let me know.

richard

The Skoil's Still the Thing

Yeah I know I know - you'd think that painting on the Big Island of Hawaii would be an easy thing, but it has it's own special challenges - like finding a place to stand where there will be shade for a few hours.

SKOILS are SKetches in OILS, painted in one go (ala prima) and completed in about 45 minutes on loose canvas - 6x9 size (because that's half of a full sheet of loose canvas). Here are some of them:

Chinaman's Hat - Old Airport - 9x6 - Plein Air Skoil

Thru the Butcher Shop Window - Holualoa

6x9 - Plein Air Skoil

Kaloko Ponds

Painting from two weeks ago session at Kaloko Ponds, one of my favorite places to paint - a short drive from the studio to kealekehe parkway, take the jeep out of gear, and coast down to queen k.  The entrance's tough if you don't know where it is - turn makai where you see the backside of a stopsign where the yellow hatch marks scar the pavement before the costco stop light - very convenient and lots of shade out there.

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Kaloko Ponds Tree - 10x8 - plein air oils

Looks good, eh?  check out a detail of the rocks to the right hand side half way up:

Surprising, yeh?  amazing how much your mind/eye fills in, isn't  it?  s'ok, it makes my job easier.

the SKOILS as FOIL

The rhymes will get worse - i guarantee it.  Many more umbrella paintings to come.

SKOILS are SKetches in OILS, painted in one go (ala prima) and completed in about 45 minutes on loose canvas - 9x12 size (because that's half of a full sheet of loose canvas).

magic sands morning umbrella - plein air skoil - 9x6

magic sands morning umbrella - plein air skoil - 9x6

holding firm - hapuna - plein air skoil - 9x6

None of these are on display yet, so, I'll keep you informed - maybe a future show?

Richard's Most Recent Works

I put this album together when I realized that I'm doing more painting then blogging and these are just some of my favorite paintings - enjoy.


         click image above

Hokukano Ranch Session - "Gussie's Place"

  click image above

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Mele Kalikimaka

Happy Holidays and a Wonderful 2013 from the Big Island of Hawaii

richard rochkovsky

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a few artist trading cards

artist trading cards are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" paintings, either original or editions (ACEO is the nomenclature - "Artist Trading  Card Edition or Original") - these are original oils:

hualalai morning - oils

kiholo north - acrylics

aloha Keauhou Outrigger