Henry Ossawa Tanner

My husband who is a banjo player and I have been admiring Henry Ossawa Tanner's most famous painting, The Banjo Lesson.  I love the tenderness and emotion as well as the warm and cool lighting.

Tanner was the first black American painter to gain international acclaim.
  
 He moved to Paris in 1891 to study, and decided to stay there, being readily accepted in French artistic circles. His painting entitled Daniel in the Lions Den was accepted into the1896 Salon. He married Jessie Olsson, a white Swedish-American opera singer.  The son of a Minister, in his later years his subjects were Biblical.  I chose "Fishermen at Sea".

Luke 8: 23 - 25 But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.  And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

No matter what storms come our way we can have Jesus still our heart while we go through them.

Gideon, mighty warrior

I named this one "Is his name Gideon?"  Though that is not his name, I felt certain at the time, Kai and her husband would name him that.  I did this painting to help relax myself while my daughter was laboring, 30 hours, (though total labor was 38 hours) to long of a story for now, perhaps another day. 

 My 2 grandchildren at one day old.

 Little Gal is 3 + months.  We thank God both are very healthy, including Kai, the one who labored 38 hours.  What a miracle all the way around.

 The night before Kai went into labor we had a shower for her, here is the Midwife, Assistant and Kai

Kai and her husband lay in the soft grass in the early stages of labor.

I've been away for a while.  I love what Francis Schaeffer writes in his book Art and the Bible, "“Christianity is not just involved with "salvation", but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has a value because he is made in the image of God.” 

And another which I use on my own art:

 Aloha Raliegh

December on Maui

How did I do capturing the symmetry of this row of Travelers palm with a few blooms of red ginger in front?

I must go back one day to get a shot in full light.

I also need to prune my own Traveler Palm.

 The resort had a Gingerbread house contest, I love this Chinese Pagoda

 Last Wednesday's plein air.  I arrived just after the rain cleared but gave up after an hour due to the drastic light change.  I might be able to work on it in the studio next week.

 A cute old Chapel up at Kapalua

 This morning I awoke before the sun with a nice hard rain.

Almost every evening I see egrets migrating north for the night, this morning I saw them traveling south.  I wonder what they are after?

The bird photo wasn't as good as real life and this rainbow was far more spectacular as well.  You'll just have to come to Hawaii and see for yourselves.

Egrets
10 X 8

Kokio kea

Tropical Bloom
10 X 8

Christmas on Maui

Grace Baptist Church Choir singing last Sunday at The Cannery Mall.
While her Dad and Mom were singing on stage, Uncle took tender care of her!

Merry Christmas







I used my watercolor for a model for my first bas relief.
I've had a friend tell me she liked the watercolor better, though that was looking at photos of both.   I hope to have another bas relief done by February for an Open Studio.  I plan to frame each side by side and get a consensus from the general public.  Feel free to let me know your opinions.

Aging and Loving My New Season

A lawn full of fresh water, what a spoiled cat having the whole lawn to drink from!

New Gal and Yours Truly, just a few days old.  I stumbled across a great documentary on Youtube,

called the Fabulous Fashionistas.  Funny it coincided with my 59th birthday.  You need to see it as it celebrates aging.   I would post a direct link but haven't figured out how to install all the fancy apps to do so.  Look it up, it's a breath of fresh air.

My kids took me out for the nicest lunch on my birthday.  We had to leave Harry home, as he was sick, and Kai, et ux, as she was working.  Notice the terrific sunny day with the ocean view, as well as my gorgeous, healthy kids.  Wow! I am so blessed and thankful.

Honolua Bay

10 X 8

     A couple of weeks ago our plein air group meet at Fleming Beach, it turned out to be only 3 of us.  A huge swell had come and we stood watching for close to an hour.  I later read on a surf report, the swell was called disorganized.  Meaning there were huge peaks breaking everywhere in the bay.  We couldn't focus on one area to even try to capture a painting of it.  Early, as I packed for the day I had decided to leave my camera at home because I was disillusioned with it's perspective, or more precisely, distorted perspective.  I thought I'm better off reworking the images I capture later in my studio.  I also paid close attention to placing my different tubes of paint in the proper bag to carry up north.  Finally settling on this rocky outcrop, I started to set up, when I discovered I had left that specially packed bag of  paint in my studio.  I did the best I could with a sketch from the small amount of paint left over on my palette.  As well as an image from a cell phone.  

     Later in my studio I pulled out a painting that I had abandoned just to experiment.   By this point I didn't have much hope for success.  Though much to my surprise, I must say I'm very pleased with the results of the under painting in this!

 To every thing there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:   

Ecclesiastes 3

New Medium, Bas Relief

Gorgeous skies

glowing deeper,

then shades of indigo taking over

Playing around in the garden one day I was compelled to paint my Traveler's Palm.  I liked the design I had captured and at the same time I had become interested in frescoes and plaster molds. After reading on all the different techniques I could use I decided to go with bas relief.  I'm excited to show my work in progress, I'm not finished yet.




My latest passion has been birds with the plants.  I try to work with photos of the birds that I am able to capture, though I have used a few birds of the islands that are extinct.  I've been challenged with collecting the reference photos, as well as the know how of this new medium.  Perhaps, one day, I'll be able to have a show and hang the watercolor model side by side with the relief.  I welcome any tips and how to's on my new adventure.   These are both 14 X 11

Aloha Ral

Desolate or Wild

The Pali

  There are many times the parking lot of this look out point is so full and noisy, as many pull over to catch some awesome views of the humpbacks swimming by.   Saturday I pulled over to catch the rain squalls on the ocean and to remind myself to return and catch the desolation and openness that is just a short walk down the cliff.

 This is the view looking south from the look out.  I didn't spot any whales this day.  A few have been spotted but usually they don't start breaching and showing their playful side until late December.  

The lighting on this particular one is so gorgeous.

Yesterday we got some incredibly huge surf on our North and West Shores.  I didn't take my camera thinking I just wanted to sketch and work in the studio from my plein air sketches.  The news called our swell disorganized, meaning the peaks were everywhere.  The three of us who showed up from our plein air group were to excited to focus on one area.  Though after watching from two different beaches, I picked this as my scene to work from, a friend caught this on her cell phone.  I've been working on a bas relief in my studio so today,  I'm torn between which one to work on.

Psalm 89 8 & 9

O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee?  or to thy faithfulness round about thee?

Thou rulest the raging of the sea:  when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.