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)

Birthday weekend

I had a wonderful birthday weekend starting with a refreshing swim with Richard and Ric at Kehena Beach. We swam to the first island then back across the bay almost to Kehena point where there is a rock formation in the shape of a male anatomy. Leave it to Richard to find it. The ocean was pretty rough and coming back in I had some trouble with the current that kept pushing me back. Luckily my two escorts plus Craig and Paul came and helped me out. Someone came up to me later and told me I looked like the queen of Kehena with my entourage. And the whole beach sang Happy Birthday, well, it felt like the whole beach. Maybe it was just my immediate friends. Still, it was a great way to start my birthday!

Doggie art

A J Gallery Notes: Red Road Redux

A J Gallery Notes: Red Road Redux

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Sunset in Puna

Lino cut Ganesh

Here's my first effort at linocutting. It's a little messy but fun.

Busy week

Work, work, swim, swim, work , swim, work, work, swim... A very good week.
copyright 2006 Tuko

See Kuane's portrait at the Arthur Johnsen Gallery

The Portrait Show is coming down today at the East Hawaii Cultural Center, and so I will be hanging this portrait at the gallery so people can still come see it in Hilo. Go to 46 Waianuenue and look for the big GALLERY sign.

Another near perfect day

Here's an image you don't see here in Hawaii, autumn leaves. Eternal summer has it's advantages but I sometimes do miss seasons. The trees here don't even have rings. I remember fondly walking through a beautiful forest of color in Prospect Park, Brooklyn in the fall.

Protea

photo by Craig Wilson
There are some plants that are just quintessential Hawaii. This is one of them. We have a friend who grows them on his farm in Kau. I would consider painting one of these but when someone takes such a good photo of something it's like why bother? I guess that's why abstract art became so popular.

High Speed comes to the jungle

We have finally joined the 21st Century with our wireless connection. It took many phone calls and several reschedulings due to heavy rains but we are now up with high speed T1 connections, whatever that means. I'm just amazed that I can create a piece of art and send it through the air, no cables or wires and someone receives it and can see exactly what I did, in seconds. It seems like magic. And the best part of all is the day after we got connected AOL announced free internet service for broadband users. I've been a loyal customer since 1995 and I can't believe now they want to just give it to me for free. Another miracle.

Back to the cute stuff

I feel like the queen of cute.

Portrait Show at the East Hawaii Cultural Center

Here I am with handsome Kuane (Duane) at the show's opening. He made me the most amazing lei using ti leaves. Click on the photo to get a better look.













At the same time the Arthur Johnsen Gallery was open for First Friday and we also decorated for the Hawaii's World Heritage Festival window display competition. Everyone came through with their stuff.

Craig's been working very hard to frame my pieces and they really add so much to the art. The piece in the corner right is my newest I call "Exiled in Puna". Above that is a giclee of "Nuts for Cocos". To it's left is a painting that took me all spring to paint because it rained so much I couldn't stay out for long periods, let alone get out to paint (Plein Air painting can be a pain). I call this one "Road from Kalani".

Cute art world

I'm taking a short break from the serious painting world to do a some illustrations, like this.