More photos from a week with PAPOH

Here I am with Lynne Boyer, winner of our QuickDraw competition where she painted a scene of downtown Hilo in under 2 hours (voted best by the artists). She is also a former world surfing champion. Sheesh, so much talent...

Plein Air Week finale

Just some photos from the week the plein air painters of Hawaii (check out http://pleinairpaintersofhawaii.com) came to Hilo...

Plants are your friends

Can you tell she's Hispanic? (it's what the client ordered) My friends will notice that my characters dress like me. I have several pairs of these green pants. They're my favorite.

Recent work

I had an assignment of illustrating the story of Hansel and Gretel 'Retold'. I was surprised that the art director chose this image (I had given her two sketches for this panel). Usually people choose something more 'safe' which was the other image. It was so cool that she picked the one she did because I thought it was a much more fun image. Here, Gretel is telling how the witch had planned to make Hansel and her into gingerbread cookies and eat them.

Plein Air Week

Next week we (Big Island artists) are hosting a plein air painters' group from Maui. Arthur and I scouted some areas around Hilo. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Earthquake

Sunday morning around 7:08 the ground started shaking. I actually thought, wow, is this the one? I half expected the ground to open up under us and lava shoot out. That's what you get when you live in lava zone two. Kehena hasn't had a lava flow since the days of George Washington so some think we're due. I hope not. And at least this time it didn't happen. The epicenter was more off the coast of Kona (Puako area to be exact) and that side suffered the brunt of the quake. I think a piece of paper fell here. Whew. I was surprised at how much coverage CNN gave the quake. They kept showing the same grocery store (in Honolulu--not even this island) and asking people what they were buying. Apparently, Honolulu lost power due to the combination of the earthquake and heavy rains. Slow news day.

Trash Art Show

Volcano artist Ira Ono puts on a Trash Art Show at the East Hawaii Cultural Center once a year. It's one of the most fun events in Hilo. The wildly creative seem to be drawn out though the top winning art pieces were actually quite elegant as well. After the initial viewing of art we were invited upstairs for the trashart fashion show. The final photo is my friend Julie who is quite the acrobatic mermaid herself. She can often be seen at Kehena beach doing cartwheels and headstands as the waves come crash up to cover her face.

Red Road update

On Friday, Paul from Kalani set up a meeting with Ben Ishi, the engineer from the company that was doing the road widening. Arthur, Paul and I and some others in the community came to meet with him in the pouring rain. It was somewhat fruitful, there were some trees we couldn't save because they were in the puka (hole) that they were trying to fill, but others that were scheduled to be dozed out of convenience (like they wouldn't have to be so careful) were saved. Though Arthur was unhappy that any trees had to be cut down, it was a victory worth negotiating. More photos on the AJ Gallery blog (AJGallery.blogspot.com).

Save our trees

Can't believe that our favorite spot to paint is going through a radical change. I've got about 5 paintings in various stages of completion at this spot. In the name of improving the road, the county is widening the road and thereby cutting down trees to make it "safer" and of course uglier. Wish they had an aesthetics committee. We just found out yesterday of this plan. So arthur and I worked through the night and painted signs--as that was what our council person, Gary Safarik, told us to do. We put the signs on the trees around midnight. I hope it wasn't in vain. Click any photo to see it bigger.

Funny Art

My nephew ran for president of his 7th grade class and won. Coincidentally I had to draw a boy who is king of the US...
I also had to draw a bunny that was more interested in eating a cupcake than healthy carrots, similar to me and my candy bar for lunch diet.

Worms and fish

Sometimes I have to draw the silliest things, like these worms in a basket. Having fun is the key to happiness in life.
(Don't forget, all art on this blog is copyright protected, it's unlawful to copy without permission)