Portrait Show update

I got both my entries into the East Hawaii Cultural Center's show. I called Duane and told him we got in! I will update this update with photos on Friday.

Kuane

I asked Kuane to help me name this painting. Here is his description:
"KE HO'OPA'A" - (THE CHANTER)
Kuane Cariaga

The role of Ho'opa'a was given to men and women of greater experience and of more maturity. A Ho'opa'a handled the heavier instruments and played their parts mostly while sitting or kneeling. They also lent their voices to swell the chorus or utter the refrain of certain songs and chants.

Kuane is a dancer with Halau Hula Ka Makani Hali 'Ala O Puna. under the direction of his Kumu Hula, Ehulani Stephany of Puna, Hawai'i.

Portrait Show

There's a portrait show coming up this weekend. I hope I get something in it (a competition for any artist on the island). Here's my hula dancer. I've know Duane ("Kuane") for the past 2 years. A very sweet man who is a fabulous dancer. There are so many men here who are so much more graceful than me it's embarrassing.

Puna

We have a wonderful friend, Puna, who has one of the most beautiful singing voices. He is a big man and if you didn't know him you'd think he was fierce, but he's just a sweet puppy of a man. Whenever he sings it's such a treat. Sometimes even during a game of volleyball he'll brake out in song and the prettiest most delicate voice permeates. Here is my early attempt of his portrait. He makes a great subject, I will have to try again.

Trying to paint a moving ocean

The sun finally came out so I was able to get out and paint. Arthur has been travelling around the mainland with his pal Richard Koob and another friend. So I had to go solo. In these cases if I remember to take my ipod that becomes my companion.
I went to the spot that Arthur and I had been going to the previous few times. Yesterday, being a Sunday was family day and lots of locals were out fishing.
The last time I was there when the sun was setting I was running out of time and I tried to get the ocean down as fast as I could. Racing with the sun was kind of thrilling. This is the painting partially done at that point.

A J Gallery Notes: The Happy Show

A J Gallery Notes: The Happy Show

Wet weekend

After a very wet weekend all I can say about it is that at least I got some work done! It's cold again, it's July in Hawaii and it's cold, at least at 7 AM. What's this about global warming? Actually, we saw the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, on Friday and it's very convincing. I now believe that there is something to the reports and it's a very scary picture. Maybe this cat up a tree is an appropriate image for our own predicament.

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Winners and losers

Today I created Melvin for a client on the mainland. Coming up with a loser character is easier than coming up with a winner. More fun anyway. Maybe losers are more interesting. Losers are complex. We can somehow relate to them (of course, even if we are not losers ourselves--).

I was just informed that I will be able to post the image of Melvin after October when he hits the market...

Working holiday

Today (July 4th technically for me though this will post on the 5th--) was a celebration of Richard Koob's birthday. He's 60 and he's in amazing shape. He swims a mile a day at Kehena, he teaches hula, runs Kalani, his eco resort, and takes guests on rigorous adventure tours. So he had a combined 4th of July and birthday bash. I went for the barbecue dinner and hula show but most of the day was spent actually doing work, finishing up a job that's due tomorrow. So to prove to Arthur that I actually did I'm now posting these...


I started another painting at our favorite spot (of the past month) and I can't wait to get back to it. At least the weather was bad today so there wasn't much I could do outside (heavy, the rain).

Art update

After posting this painting I did a bit of a redo on the background, more like the new version and now I think I like this old painting better. I showed my sister the other one and she was somewhat frightened by the image. I guess coming from the world of illustration where we do a lot of strange things (conceptual) I didn't consider that it might be a scary image. But we grew up with cartoons didn't we? I for one was a big cartoon-aholic as a kid. I still love them but am not so obsessed.