Don't you want to Lava Lava?

Date: 08/28/2012

 Location: Lava Lava Beach Club at Anaeho'omalu Bay

 Size: 6" x 4"

 Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

 Artist's Comments: My new favorite restaurant just opened this summer at Lava Lava Beach Club. It’s located smack down on the shoreline of Anaehoomalu Bay and is by far the best ambiance restaurant on the island. Yes, Four Seasons Resort has nothing on this Oceanside restaurant and lounge.  There are large comfortable sofas scattered on the beach so you get the feeling of lounging in your living room while watching kite surfers, paddle boarders, canoe paddles and stunning wide-screen sunsets.  But unlike your living room, when you want another beer, someone brings it to you!  I did a quick sketch of this restaurant using my new Guerrilla Painter sketch box. Although I don’t feel this was a successful painting it is valuable for me to reflect on where my shortcomings were and I think they are namely poor value choices.  Oh well!  At least the beer was cold and my company memorable!

 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.

The Little Fish Catcher

Date: 08/26/2012

 Location: Kiholo

 Size: 12" x 9"

 Medium: Oil on panel

 Artist's Comments: I had been thinking about purchasing a small paint box that would allow me to sketch small paintings while I was enjoying time at the beach or other beautiful places on the island.  Lugging around a full size easel and all the paints for the slim possibility of finding a favorable spot to paint was just not becoming a reasonable option for me. Also, the minimum size canvas that could fit on a full size easel is 9x12 and that would need at least 2 hours of paint time to complete – which always didn't fit into the plans for the day.  So, I decided if I painted smaller and had a easy-travel easel I might be more inclined to practice painting in small 4x6 sketches while I was enjoying time in Hawaii.  After much research I decided on the Thumbox V2 by Guerrilla Painter. It arrived just in time for our Summer camping trip at Kiholo and I was so thrilled to test it out.  My friends daughter loves the shoreline and especially catching (and releasing) small fish in tide pools. She can spend hours dotting from tide pool to tide pool catching the little fish and counting them. I think she caught up to 30 that day!  I decided she would be a great model for me to paint. She was such a great model and didn't move much at all during the sitting. She was so excited to be my model and I told her that when she is in college, she could model for art classes at the college to make extra cash. She liked that idea!  It was a nice change to paint a live model again and I used the techniques I could remember from John Cosby’s workshop.  I feel captured the gestures well and the values were correct except perhaps the sky and Maui in the distance. Those should be a lighter value than I rendered to push them more into the distance.

 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.

Dancing with the Tradewinds

Date: 08/11/2012

Size: 16" x 20"

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

Artist's Comments: During my Cream of the Crop exhibition I decided to work on a small study to help the public understand my process in developing a painting. I especially wanted to use the pallet knife to render the sky so that I could display how this technique is applied.  Completing this short demo allowed me to connect with attendees in a unique way and, it was especially rewarding to see children come up and watch me paint. I purposefully selected a simple scene that I could almost paint from memory and intuition which allowed me to talk and connect with others during the process.  While painting the sky, a gentleman stood nearby and came up to me surprised how I was using ultramarine blue for my sky color.  He had such trouble when trying to use ultramarine because the sky always appeared too dark a value. I showed him my tricks in painting skyline namely mixing allot of white in with the ultramarine and blending cerulean blue and pink into the mixture to show gradation of color between the bottom and top of the canvas. This allowed there to be faint change in color that provided interest in the large space. What I ended up with a simple palm tree portrait dancing in the trade-winds and the opportunity to connect with so many wonderful people.

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.

A Donkey Named Abygale

Date: 08/06/2012

Location: Holualoa

Size: 8" x 10"

Medium: Oil on canvas panel

Artist's Comments: In preparation for my Cream of the Crop art show, I needed to bring at least one painting that paid homage to Kona Coffee and because I didn't have any paintings in my collection, I needed to get one started.  Recently, my sister-in-law adopted a wild Kona Nightingale donkey and she quickly became a part of the family.  My nephew named her Abygale Sweetcheeks and a little stable was built for her to call home. The timing of Abygale's arrival was perfect as I wanted to paint and Nightingale donkey but didn't know how I was going to get a wild one to model for me. After taking some reference photos of her I returned to my studio and immediately went to work.  I decided on a simple background of coffee trees and improvised a burlap sack across her shoulders.  In conjunction with this painting, I also did a quick sketch of the old Uichida coffee farm and thought the pair went well together.

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.

Jewels of the Jungle

Date: 8/02/2012

Location: Captain Cook

Size: 4 panels, 24" x 48" each

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

Artist's Comments: I worked with interior designer, Eric Henderson, to create a painting that would compliment a very colorful property whose primary colors were fuchsia, tangerine and lime green.  The space was a very large wall and needed a substantial piece to complete the space.  We selected 4 panels and Eric asked me to create a flower portrait.  At first I was stumped on what fuchsia flower I would paint then, on a trip to my brother's house in Captain Cook, I found the perfect subject. In the jungle behind his home was a small grouping of wild heliconia. They were primarily a reddish tone but as I got closer hints of pink emerged.  I immediately knew I found the subject for this piece and took some reference photos with the help of my niece and nephew.  When I started to paint the blooms, I enjoyed mixing the perfect reddish/fuchsia tones for the flowers and purposefully didn't want all the flowers to be he exact same shade.  Heliconia have a waxy finish to them and I knew I needed to render this effect correctly.  I tried a glaze of white but that made the flowers appear too bland. Then I had an idea and decided to create the wax finish with a wash of fuchsia and that did the trick! When finished, I admired how the bright fuchsia flowers resembled bright pink rubies glowing brightly in the Hawaiian jungle.
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.