Happy Painting

Gail, a fellow artist at the Arthur Johnsen Gallery, asked me to do a painting with the theme of Happy. At first, she wanted a painting of her dog "Happy", a very cute little chihuahua. That would actually be a cool show. But she then said just paint whatever makes you happy. Well, painting makes me happy, but that would be a very boring painting.

I originally came up with a concept of me in water. Then I thought how about water in me, literally. The idea was okay but the execution wasn't what I wanted--after doing it out of my head (ha!). So I had my sister, Jean, pose for me.

I love the ocean. The ocean makes me happy.

http://gailduituturaga.com/

Illustration project

I just finished a series of illustrations for a client in the west coast. I had some fun with doing variations with color, a definite advantage with the computer.

Hilo town

I'm currently in Hilo, it's overcast at the moment. Looks like it will rain later. Very typical for here, the rainiest city in the U.S. where it can rain as much as 150 to 200 inches per year (you can measure with a yardstick). Living 45 minutes from this mini-opolis (opposite of megapolis) I only come in once a week. Especially these days with the price of gas being so outrageous here in paradise.

I'm at Arthur's gallery (www.arthurjohnsengallery.com) and should be working on a painting for a show that's happening in a week and a half. The theme is "Happy" as in what makes you happy. Well, as my late sister Judy used to say about me, Tuko is the happy one. I think it bugged her. Well, she was funny. Anyway, I have an idea of what to do for my painting and I will post it as soon as it's done.

Welcome to my new journal page

I call this life in paradise not just because I live in this idyllic place of beauty and wonderful people but also because I made a conscious decision in my twenties to live the life I wanted, specifically, to do art for a living. And thankfully, I have had good things come my way, though it was all quite a deliberate trail towards this life.