Date: 7/11/2011
Location: Mauna Kea Beach
Size: 12" x 9"
Medium: Oil on stretched canvas
Artist's Comments: Another sketch in my Mauna Kea series. Here I was joined by my friend and teacher Lori Hight. We decided to attempt to capture the vast expanse of the white sand shoreline fronting the Mauna Kea hotel and decided the only way to make this a recongnizable scene was to not only capture the scale of the beach but to also correctly reference some of the iconic symbols. The small restaurant and beach-boy bungalows, the row of tall palm trees, the shaded hotel structure and Hualalai Mountain in the distance. It took me a few times working the initial sketch before I felt I captured the correct scale for all these important items. Initially, I was overwhelmed with the scene and didn't want to try to capture the droves of beach goers enjoying the water. But when I returned home and was finalizing the piece I realized that the people would provide an important scale to help convey the vastness of the beach. So I whipped out my smallest of brushes and attempted to squish and squiggle my little people. I really got into it and tried to imagine little stories of each of my figures. I particularity enjoy how I was able to capture the correct value of the hotel building so that it is barely visible as if emerging from the shade of the surrounding landscape. The warm tones in the recending foliage along the hillside were a nice surprise which I worked very hard not to “erase”. The original pink tones from my sketch emerge randomly and bring warmth and energy.
To view other paintings in my collection, click on the section labeled "View all SitaScapes" located at the top right of my blog. I have categorized my paintings by the month as I complete them.
