I know it's been way too long since I last posted. This is my latest painting (except for the one after this). It is now across the continent in Long Island at Ille Arts, my friend, Sara De Luca's beautiful gallery for her holiday show.

Kehena Beach Ironwood Tree

I've been drawing the now iconic ironwood tree that stood in the north end of Kehena beach with it's gnarly roots exposed, a measure of how much of the beach has been dropping over the years. It finally fell over the Thanksgiving weekend during a particularly huge rainstorm. I'm not sure if anyone was at the beach when it actually fell because of the storm. But here are some of those sketches starting from 2006. There are folks here who remember the tree when it was still living with pine needles (greenery). People were still climbing it 'til almost the end and when it fell it had been hanging on with maybe only 6 inches to a foot to spare. I'll post the most recent drawings soon.

Here's a photo taken just last September.

New Work at the Wailoa Center

Earlier this year Esther Szegedy asked me to be a part of a group show with the theme title Every Picture Tells a Story. I made up this promo for the group. The opening is today, Friday, November 4th, at the Wailoa Center near downtown Hilo.

I did a mixture of sizes and did a whole series of 6x6 originals. Brian Tanimoto, a great framer in Hilo made up the fantastic frames for me. Here's a sampling of my art (as always, all copyrights protected). Prints will be available at the Arthur Johnsen Gallery.

kitty, kitty

bunny meets octopus

bunnydive

abstract mermaid

arthur stuff in Oahu

I went to Oahu for a quick weekend trip. One evening while walking around Waikiki I stumbled upon a parking garage with the most incredible murals. I recognized them immediately as Arthur's, my friend that I frequently write about, paint with, hang with, who's taught me so much about art and painting and life.

One (meaning me) forgets sometimes just how accomplished Arthur Johnsen is. And then you just come across this by happenstance in the middle of the night in Waikiki... his murals at a parking garage, a parking garage! in Waikiki. Go Arthur!

West Hawaii paper

I got in the Friday paper of the West Hawaii paper, a nice surprise.

Happy Holidays

Finally it's the year of the rabbit!! Hope it's even more terrific that 2010!!

Inspiration

I wish I could say it always comes from within but having been commercially working for the past 20 years, a deadline is a strong motivator. And so there is this show that is coming up, a juried one at the Wailoa Center, a state sponsored and operated gallery in Hilo. The theme was companion animals. I don't have a pet here but there are plenty of people who do and so I saw this sleepy guy at a cafe down the street from where I live. Well it's about 4 miles down because I have no cafe in my neighborhood actually.

At first I started to do something a little more shall we say realistic. It wasn't really because I did my usual 'abstract' coloring to it. But then I decided to do a more fun doggie. And there we have it. The show is being judged this weekend (deadline) and opens next week.