A J Gallery Notes

New AJ Paintings at the Gallery

2011-10-07T10:55:00.007-10:00

Following my trip to O'ahu and a brief holo-holo around the Big Island, I finished up some smallish paintings to put in the gallery. The O'ahu paintings will migrate over to the Cedar Street Gallery in a few weeks, while the Kohala area paintings will go up to my friend Prakash's beautiful Elements gallery in Hawi. There is even a very classic view of Foster Gardens which I did in the late 90's. The style is a bit more precise and careful than my current work.

(Double click on the images to see them at a larger size)

More O'ahu fun....

2011-09-01T23:02:00.006-10:00

Noe Tanigawa gave me the birthday present of a Butoh class, of all things. If I expected anything, it was a sort of free-form contact improv but with lots of angst and darkness. Instead, the teacher led us through endless exercises that were incredibly physically demanding, kind of like a Graham technique but with the most charming visualizations. For example we were told to smell a flower growing out of our chest, which was a more poetic way of saying "Chest out, breathe!". The teacher was a tiny woman of indeterminate age, with the most expressive face and gestures imaginable. Completely charming and delightful. At one point we were turning from tiny baby monkeys into giant Buddhas, and to watch her movements was to completely believe in the transformation.

I joined Mark Brown for a painting session at Waimea Valley. He was painting the lower two panels of an enormous vertical triptych, in a free lyrical style very evocative of Gauguin.

Adventures on O'ahu

2011-08-29T23:24:00.007-10:00

I came over to O'ahu to attend an opening ceremony and preview at the Disney Aulani Resort, in Ko'olina, west of Pearl Harbor. I'm lucky to be able to stay at the Nu'uanu home of my dear friend, mentor and "big sistah" Mary Philpotts McGrath, and her very kindhearted and tolerant husband John.

The Aulani resort is very spectacular, but the event was somewhat of a bummer for me. Not only was my own contribution nowhere to be seen, but it actually took a huge last minute effort on the part of Peggy Krantz, my art rep, to find it! So after a whole evening of ogling the spectacular artworks by OTHER members of the art community, who are probably all buying villas in France with the proceeds from this commission, I was practically choking back tears as I searched for my own artwork. Once I found it, though, I was pleased that it looked good in its location and was not an embarrassment to me.

Mary herself did some wonderful panels which were hanging in the spa area, totally suggestive of underwater tranquillity.

The next morning we trouped up to Jonathan Edwards Staub's home on a ridge on the Roundtop mountain, with views in both directions toward Diamond Head and Ewa, and with one of the most stunning gardens in between. A stellar group of designers and artists assembled to work on plein air paintings and other projects. I photographed Debby Young clambering up the pathway to get out of the drizzling rain.

Today I enjoyed a little painting time with Mark Brown, who was working in Ho'omaluhia botanical gardens with his friend Greg. I set myself up and painted the same view, but of course my version is much smaller and blue-er than his!

Native Plants and Critters

2011-08-02T15:49:00.009-10:00

Inspiration is not always timely or convenient for me. I knew I wanted to enter something into the Hawai'i Nei art show opening this friday at the Wailoa Center in Hilo (opening reception 5-7), but I didn't know that when the impulse congealed it would be in the form of three huge canvases, 4' x 6'. I'd always wanted to depict one of the massive koa trees that grow in isolated locations on the Hawaiian Islands. These trees are so huge and old that often their limbs bend down to the ground in graceful curves like branches in a Japanese screen. So I finally decided, "if not now, when?" and got to work.

Into the branches of the koa tree I painted a Hawaiian Hawk, or io, and a few i'iwi and amakihi songbirds. I'm not sure that the little birds would actually fly so close to the fierce bird of prey.

I had to deliver the painting in separate components which I screwed together into a big folding screen since none of the walls at the center are large enough. While there I was surprised to find that several other gallery artists had entered and gotten into the show!

The Hawai'i Nei show just moved from its original location at the Volcano Art Center, and was shepherded to its new home by the familiar gallery personnel Ter and Fia. It's a great showcase for native species lovers, regardless of their professional experience.

Mobile Hanging Thingies

2011-06-29T22:07:00.008-10:00

Randy Takaki who does the installation at the East Hawai'i Cultural Center is a master of his craft. He took the apparent chaos of Elfie Wilkins-Nacht's very prolific and abundant offerings and turned them into a very elegant and attractive show. My own pieces were problematic in that no one had ever come up with this format of hanging panels before. So I ended up hanging all of those myself. I think the end result is quite nice, although different from my expectations.

For one thing I had hoped all the windows of the room could be opened up to the wind and light, but unfortunately only one was made available to me, and we couldn't budge the glass. So in a land of beautiful breezes the room is stuffy and still. I am hoping to have a fan blowing on the hangings so they will spin as intended.

On Trippiness

2011-06-28T13:26:00.013-10:00

My friend Noe Tanigawa explained to me that a big criterion for her in creating artwork was the quality of "Trippiness." By this I think she means that visual fascination of a good LSD experience, or that otherworldliness we used to experience as children lying under the Christmas tree looking up through the branches with all the glitter and lights.

I decided to let loose with my inner trippiness in a collection of new works for an art show opening this Friday, July 1 at the East Hawaii Cultural Center. I have the small room on the makai corner of the building, while Elfie Wilkins-Nacht and the Hawai'i Photo Shooters are occupying the other galleries.

Most trippy of all are my spinning, hanging mobile paintings, done on both sides of wooden panels and suspended in clusters from the ceiling. The biggest are 18" across, and can work up quite a frightening momentum in a windstorm such as I sometimes have whipping through my studio. But in general they spin at a leisurely rate and one can enjoy a rippling play of light constantly moving across surfaces that have been heavily textured in modeling paste and then painted in metallic and iridescent colors. My favorite ones are the simplest, with brown and black shapes that recall African sculpture.

I'm also showing a pair of giant paintings with swimmers suspended among dolphins, or over coral formations, against a background of gleaming gold. I used a broom to create huge swirls of texture that illuminate and add an element of -- trippiness!

Also, finally, the (nearly) completed panels for my client on Kaua'i. I think having them formally displayed to the public will help me figure out what, if anything, needs to be done to finalize them. They are a sort of art-deco, socialist-realist fantasy recreation of a Hawai'i that may or may not have looked anything like this!

Progress on a Diptych

2011-04-24T06:58:00.007-10:00

I finally put paint on canvas for a pair of figurative paintings for my client on Kaua'i. The male and female figures are supposed to evoke the mythic nature of the place where the house is being built, on the far end of the North Shore. Limahuli Valley is a beautiful park now, filled with ancient Hawaiian walls and functional taro patches, and a wide variety of native plant species. To achieve this the workers had to clear out a profusion of non-native invasive species that have congested most areas of all the islands.

The palette of the diptych will be very subdued, like several earlier commissions which I'm showing here as well. I'm getting to that in a circuitous manner, doing the initial blocking in with a relatively unrestrained color range which I'll dampen down as I progress.

Paintings of O'ahu

2011-04-19T10:12:00.022-10:00

This posting is especially for the noted Honolulu interior designer Fran Obayashi. She used a big painting of mine at Queen's Medical Center, showing a bunch of pink flowering shower trees at Kapi'olani Park. Now we are looking for something similar but different. That loop of shower trees with the glimpses of Le'ahi during the flowering season is pretty hard to beat, but O'ahu as a whole is a painter's paradise with one spectacular vista after another. Of course one has to maneuver around and between all the buildings and highway interchanges! I'm biased in a way because I grew up on O'ahu and still think it is the most beautiful of the Hawaiian islands.

New Paintings by AJ

2011-04-10T15:56:00.004-10:00

Cosette, Tuko and I drove into Hilo yesterday to catch the one day sale at Ben Franklin store, where we spent lots of money on canvases and other art supplies. Too bad that's the only place now in town to buy art things, as they have a small variety of mostly not such great stuff. But we had fun, going to the East Hawai'i Cultural Center to see the Spring Art Show, which we were all too busy and important to enter (actually the entry date is Saturday, which is when I have life drawing at my studio, which is my excuse). It was a surprisingly sophisticated show with very sparse hanging and many nice pieces. Then we went to check out the new "One" Gallery, which is a revamping of the old Ka Huina Gallery. It is cluttered but nicely done with some good artists, in a charming old Hilo building.

I brought some new paintings into our gallery last week. One of them is a portrait of a mother and her baby, a commission from a nice young surgeon. I thought the baby looked interestingly serious. The other two were actually in my summer show at the Wailoa Center but I reworked them quite a bit: Keokea beach, in Kohala, and Kaluahine Falls, the intermittently running waterfall south of Waipi'o Valley.

Jack & Rod's Portraits

2011-03-01T09:37:00.009-10:00

Here are a couple of portraits I did recently of a super-nice couple from San Francisco. They had emailed me some photos of their city-hall marriage ceremony, where I thought they looked like identical twins, but when I actually sat to paint their likenesses I discovered how very different they really are.

My technique is pretty idiosyncratic, and far from the ideal of the traditional atelier with its careful rendering and painstaking glazing. I block things in quickly and very casually, with the knowledge that I can always remove the paint if I make an error, which I usually do. My progressive bifocals can play havoc on my vertical and horizontal proportions, and I sometimes have to overlap an actual photo on my computer with a jpg of the painting to catch the problem areas. But over the years I have developed a pretty good feeling for putting things in place and anticipating what colors I will need. My favorite is the bluish tinge of a 5 o'clock shadow, much to the consternation of Rod, who was careful to shave for the following sitting!

My portrait heroine is the painter Alice Neel. I also adore and admire Don Bachardy who is an amazing artist.

Painting with John Matsushita

2011-02-16T15:19:00.009-10:00

Two weekends ago Rod Cameron invited Tuko, and by extension, Cosette and myself, to go up to the rainforest near Mountain View and paint in a treehouse. Not wanting to miss anything involving the famous Rod, I joined the group for an exquisite day of plein air painting among the giant hapu'u ferns, ohi'a and olapa trees, and clambering anthuriums. The treehouse is the creation of an ingenious builder named Sky, and to his credit it actually did not kill the beautiful big ohi'a trees that it surrounded. Truly a magical experience. Also present were the beautiful Anne Catlin and her good friend John Matsushita, who is giving an encaustic workshop soon. These are the details:

Encaustic Wax Painting Workshop
Beginning this February, local artist and adventure seeker John Matsushita will be teaching a workshop on the tradition of encaustic wax painting. Class space is open to 12 students at any age and skill level for intimate and personal learning. Painting classes begin Saturday, Feb 19th from 9am-1pm and run 5 consecutive Saturdays (Feb.19, 26, March 5, 12, 19) with an option of extension.

Sensitive to touch and temperature extremes, the tradition of wax painting has been in practice for thousands of years. Despite their seeming fragility, encaustics preserve very well, with examples in Egyptian and Greek artifacts dating back to 800 B.C. The Greeks applied wax and resin for weatherproofing, eventually using it for decoration upon warships. Perhaps the best known encaustic works are the funerary portraits painted throughout Egypt over 1,500 years ago.

Students are invited to bring unconventional materials to experiment with the wax. They will learn basic and advanced applications and can create at their own pace. Additional assistance will be provided for those in need. $300 includes materials, with financial aid and member discounts available.

John Matsushita is Hawaii-born and raised, with a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Hawai'i –Manoa, with study at the Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna. As a painter he works in molten wax against recycled wooden panels that he salvages from construction refuse. His encaustic paintings have been featured at VAC’s Emerging Artist Exhibit and he is currently represented in the Volcano Art Gallery. As a sculptor, he works in wood and stone, which he carves away to reveal landscapes and features of the natural environment that he feels a sense of deep connection with. His artistic focus has largely involved volunteer projects with limited resources beyond natural materials that have been foraged from the land itself.
This class will take place at the Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus: 19-4074 Old Volcano Road. For more info, call 967-8222 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org.

Plein Air Class at Volcano Village

2011-02-07T19:31:00.015-10:00

These photos were take by Everett Charters on Sunday, January 30, 2011 .

Hats off to the students who attended my plein-air oil painting class up in Volcano Village last Sunday. It's not an easy thing to tackle a new way of applying and manipulating paint, and some of you had never even used oils before! I'm hoping that some of the fear factor may have been dissipated and that you might be encouraged to try the technique on your own. Remember that representation of a scene is really optional, and that oil paints can be used to play around and do just about anything that you can conceive of!

Just acquire a few colors (people get rid of paints at garage sales frequently) and use any old surface, and have some fun!

I'll be happy to help with any questions, and would love to receive your feedback on the class. Write to me at arthurjohnsen@hotmail.com

Aloha!
Arthur

Plein Air "Takeaway" Technique

2011-01-27T13:49:00.007-10:00

I’ll be teaching this oil-painting technique on Sunday, January 30 at the Volcano Art Center's Niaulani building in Volcano Village. Here are some notes to ponder:

Paints to use when starting a painting (more transparent, dry quickly)

For Trees, buildings, etc:

Ultramarine Blue
Prussian Blue (good for the ocean)
Dioxazine Purple
Yellow Ochre
Viridian Green
Sap Green
Alizarine Crimson
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Indian Yellow (very strong clear transparent yellow)
Permanent Rose
Quinacridone Magenta

For sky areas and for a sense of distance (use sparingly):

Naples Yellow
White
Cobalt Turquoise (good for ocean and underwater seafoam)

Paints to use only later in the process (very opaque, dry very slowly):

Cadmium Yellow Light (or Cad. Lemon or Hansa Yellow)
Cad. Yellow Medium or Dark
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red Light, Medium, and/or Dark
Cad Light Green
Permanent Green
any Gamblin Radiant Series

Regard the scene (or still life or figure). See if you can “grok” the overall dance or movement of what’s going on. Is there a focal point of interest? Is there a path going into the space? (consider inventing one if there is not!) Does the space between things do any special movement? (i.e. a tunnel of space over a shady lane, or a sweep of air along a coastline, or mysterious glades among treetrunks...) What emotion is expressed by this scene? Squint if it helps to see the larger masses and the overall pattern. If the light is doing something truly amazing, take a picture now since those effects rarely last! Same thing with animals or people doing interesting things in your scene.

Step 1: Dot paint directly from tubes onto canvas for quickest results. Your choice of color now will set the tone for the whole painting. Balance observation with fantasy and imagination regarding color! Use your largest brush to mush paint into approximate shapes without regard to lighting effect, just simplified silhouettes. Let the tones be in the middle, neither very light nor very dark. Cover the canvas completely with thinned paints, using either turpentine or turps mixed with some dryer. Borrow paint with your brush from heavier areas if needed to distribute and re-arrange. Note that more distant objects are lighter in tone, so add white or let the paint be more transparent.

When the whole canvas is covered, take a moment to congratulate yourself. Eat a cookie and drink a sip of your hot tea.

Step 2: Use a medium size brush dipped in darker paints to draw shadows and structural details. Adjust the darkness so more distant objects are sketched in lighter tones. This would be the time to add the more important tree trunks and branches.

Step 3: Then take a rag in one hand and dip a smaller clean brush in thinner. A t-shirt rag on your finger works well for this step, or just keep re-cleaning the brush. Start wiping away areas where the sun directly hits the objects: rooftops, tree bulges facing the sky, sunlight patches on a road surface or a lawn, linear streaks along tree trunks facing the light.
If the canvas has been toned a deep color, this step may take some imagination and delayed gratification since you are working to achieve a sense of light.

Step 4: Start adding highlights using strong, thick opaque paints. Now’s the time for cadmiums. Sunlight is yellow, and so a stronger effect of light can be achieved with yellow tints. White clouds can have a pure yellow edge to pop them against the blue sky. Tree trunk highlights can have a cadmium orange edge to pop them against all the green and blue shadows. Road highlights can be pink, yellow or orange depending on the paving material. Lawns and trees can have pure yellow or cadmium green light highlights. Permanent Green can be used sparingly. The Gamblin Radiant Series can be helpful.

Time and energy permitting, the final working of the painting can go on to whatever level of exactitude you prefer. Take photos of the scene if you like so you can tweak the details later. But oftentimes the first bold approach will result in a fresh, exciting painting that might not be improved with a lot of fussing!

Thanks as always to Roger Montoya of New Mexico for always generously sharing his techniques!

Afternoon at the Gallery, January26

2011-01-26T15:15:00.008-10:00

These are some photos from around the gallery just to show what's new this year. I'm always on everyone's case to keep producing new art, but the truth is that it's pretty challenging to keep it coming! New, fresh art is often the first to get sold, and so sometimes it can seem like the gallery doesn't change very much. But it does have its progression of novelty....

We looked longingly at a space that's opening up on bayfront, just down from Sig Zane's very prestigious store. Dreams of expansion and better exposure danced in our heads, but the rent (double our current, plus lots of insurance needs!) was daunting. A mishap with a very grouchy manager clinched the non-deal, as he threw Cosette and Tuko out of the space for just being there looking around! We think we'll stick with our current location and our friendly landlords!

To celebrate Valentine's Day and month, we are having a sale on cards, t-shirts, pareos and boxes. I personally love the little hand-crafted items, but they take a lot of time for the $$ amount we can charge. But it's just this sort of thing that will be popping up on those TV antiques road shows in future years, unbelievably rare items from the hands of artists!

I'll be teaching an oil-painting workshop this Sunday up in Volcano Village, at the Niaulani campus of the Art Center. It's been a while since I've taught, so it will be a good chance to brush up on my people skills and communication arts.

A friend of David Hubbard provided this shot of him working on a portrait.

Fifth Anniversary Celebration!

2010-09-05T19:19:00.016-10:00

Everett took these photos of us in front of our works, and some shots of the party we had on Friday September 3. Noticeably absent are the dynamic duo of Leslie Sears and David Hubbard, but we'll post their photos eventually. Everett is updating our website arthurjohnsengallery.com and has been compiling files of photos to draw upon.

The main news this month is that Sonya has to leave the islands due to her husband's allergies. This is a bummer because she is a super nice person and her artworks are very beautiful. In an effort to lighten her load and send her happily on her way, we are holding a silent auction of her paintings and pastels. This is an extraordinary opportunity to purchase gorgeous artworks at a very minimal price! Many of the pastels are unusually framed with custom matboards with real sand texturing them. The auction will last until the end of September.

The opening was fun and well attended. We always have tasty and abundant food to share, which I imagine has an attractive effect. Up the street at the East Hawai'i Cultural Center, a group of environmentally active artists opened a show of native species and habitats, while in a side gallery John Mydock presented an array of very spectacular turned and carved and radically painted wooden objects. In my humble opinion this show establishes his position as one of the Big Island's most powerful and creative artists, much as Henry Bianchini's amazing show did in July at the same venue.

Our Fifth Anniversary Bash this Friday

2010-08-30T11:51:00.005-10:00

Hard to believe we've been on Waianuenue Avenue as long as we have. It's a tiny gallery on a very noisy street with ambulances screaming up and down on their way to the hospital up above Rainbow Falls (Waianuenue = water of the rainbow, get it??). But the very things that keep us small and humble are also the strengths that have allowed us to stay open while businesses have come and gone throughout downtown Hilo. We are more or less a co-operative group where everyone showing on the walls shares time working at the gallery. So if you walk in you are going to meet a creative spirit no matter what day it is. Now we are even open on Saturdays, thanks to the generous willingness of Deborah Beaver, who uses the time to actually paint in the shop. We are also very excited about the participation of our new friend and ally Everett Charters, who is a technogeek, very intelligent, and with great ideas on how to improve our website.

Members of the A J Gallery will be celebrating our 5th anniversary with a special opening this Friday, September 3, from 5 to 7 PM. Come join us for music and pupus!

Kaua'i No Ka Oi

2010-08-26T17:56:00.008-10:00

I had a mission to visit a new client on her property just across from Limahuli Gardens on the far North coast of Kaua'i. She was inspired by my paintings in Mary's book "Hawai'i A Sense of Place" and by my big lobby painting at the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville, to commission a couple of figurative paintings for her house which is still in the early stages of construction. When it's finished the house will have an incredible view up into the Limahuli Valley with its green spires and legend-haunted stones. Constance herself is a remarkable individual with a strong sense of connection to the land and a desire to bring beauty and improvement to the world around her.

Everett and I visited my high school friend Helen Cox and her husband John in Kalaheo, south Kaua'i, and walked their two dogs in the golden afternoon light. What a beautiful island Kaua'i is. Then after a night with Constance on the north shore we checked into the Princeville St. Regis for several days of pre-birthday celebration. Very glamorous, very nice location, but super expensive for every little detail. The best part was Everett gravitating toward a Wahine Kupuna (elder woman) sitting in the lobby one morning, "talking story" about life and art on the island. Auntie Dora, known to her family as "Puna", brought artifacts, shells, Hawaiian quilting projects (Everett's favorite) and lots of stories to share.

New (Old) Card Designs

2010-08-18T16:38:00.010-10:00

Anyone who knows me has seen that lately I've been obsessed with Hawaiian kapa (tapa, or barkcloth) stamp designs. This is a holdover from some fruitful collaborations with Mary Philpotts and her gang over the last several years. But it's also just an increasing appreciation for how creatively the kanaka maoli (native people) used their resources and combined their design motifs. I have a big box of linoleum blocks that emulate the designs, although not at the original sizes which were scaled to the limitations of carved bamboo ('ohe kapala) and the cut stems of plants.

I keep searching for a synthesis of my regular painting style with the graphic brilliance of old Hawai'i nei. I've collaged printed paper into paintings and on their borders. Tuko inspired me with her border for Nikko's memorial photo portrait (see August 3), with its colorful collage of my tapa print origami papers.

Now I've been unearthing old paintings of mine and making cards and prints using kapa-motif borders. This gives a nostalgic effect that is appropriate to the atmosphere of the Puna of a decade or two ago, when the road was still a sleepy one-lane byway paved in a motley patchwork of red and grey cinder. These cards are printed on my home Epson photo r1900 and are now available at the gallery which, astonishingly, will be celebrating its 5th anniversary with a party on the first Friday of September.

Lava at Fox's Landing

2010-08-08T09:52:00.008-10:00

Everett called and said he'd heard that the lava flow over the coast at Fox's Landing is now the most spectacular it's been in 20 years. So we decided to hike out yesterday afternoon with some of Nikko's ashes to deposit into the flowing lava as he had requested. Tuko and Craig, Neil and Chuck joined us in the late afternoon for the two and a half mile hike out to what used to be the beach out beyond Kalapana. Fox's landing was always a deliriously beautiful oasis in the miles of rugged coastline, but now it is a steaming mass of black lava with burnt palm trees and hau thicket laying over it. The slopes behind the beach are lushly forested in palm trees, but they have been singed at the bases by brush fires.

The active lava flows were out beyond where we could easily or safely get to, so we decided not to risk our necks to place the ashes there. Instead we returned in the twilight to where the Hawaiian families have planted hundreds of tiny palm trees in the black rock and sand on the new beach at Kaimu. There we had a group hug after Everett gently placed ashes under several lucky palm keiki.

The Keli'iho'omalu family was hosting a huge luau for a couple of high school graduates, one of which is an amazingly handsome young man named Ikaika, whom I've watched growing up from when he was a kid in my studio art classes, the son of our Hawaiian language teacher Lei Ilae. So we heaped plates with raw crab, poke, opihi, squid luau, lomi salmon, kalua pig, and other delicacies, and joined the merry party which was the biggest gathering of people I've ever seen other than perhaps our Punahou High School reunion luaus. Those Kalapana families really know how to party.

Nikko Marott, 1948-2010

2010-08-03T08:17:00.008-10:00

Auwe, our dear friend Nikko passed away on Wednesday, July 28. He had been in Hilo Medical Center for three weeks, which was a difficult time for him and those of us watching over him, made tolerable only by the very kindhearted nursing staff at the hospital. Prostate cancer is usually fairly minor, but because N had had cancer previously, it was more aggressive in his body. Nikko could be a grouchy curmudgeon on occasion but this was just a small aspect of a truly radiant and beautiful soul. He reached out in friendship to the Hawaiian community and in his last days was rewarded by many visitors chanting, blessing, dancing, and singing to him as he lay in his room at HMC.

Nikko's father Jim, his brother and sister-in-law Jerry and Debby, came from California to be with him along with his close friends Everett Charters and Pamela Pierron. The room was filled with love and tender caring.

Nikko's last philanthropic gesture was to create his "1000 Cranes Project" to benefit the Hospice of Hilo. Most of the strands of origami birds, stamped with tapa motifs and folded by Nikko and friends, have been spoken for. But some will still be available at the gallery, with a suggested donation of $30 to the Hospice. They are really beautiful, and a touching reminder of Nikko and real evidence of his handwork.

We held a pa'ina (party) for Nikko at David Ellis' house in the front of Puna Palisades, on Saturday July 31. Puna Keli'iho'omalu and Kawika provided wonderful Hawaiian music. Kids from the Kukulu Kumuhana program and Uncle Robert Keli'ihoomalu's extended family presented some dances and then frolicked in the pool, and kumu Frank Kawaikapu Hewitt did a beautiful blessing over our potluck feast. Later we scattered some ashes down at the point overlooking Kehena Beach, in the soft twilight, as Willy Cole chanted in praise of our home on Ka Moku o Keawe, the Big Island.

Mau ke aloha ia 'oe, beloved friend and brother!

The Nature of Things

2010-07-28T10:24:00.013-10:00

Our group show "The Nature of Things" is coming down in a few days. It has been a really lovely display far exceeding my expectations. I'm proud to be showing with Patti Pease Johnson, Don Albrecht, Patti Datlof and Marian Fieldman, all very creative individuals plus very nice people. It's sad that we can't just leave it up for a few more months!!

Diamond Head Revisited

2010-07-22T11:47:00.017-10:00

Every year the shower trees at Kapi'olani Park, in front of Diamond Head Crater on O'ahu, burst into an amazing display of pink and yellow blossoms. I've been lucky enough to be staying on the island on several occasions and have done numerous paintings of the subject. At my 40th Punahou Reunion, I showed a big 3' x 7' version on linen canvas which I sold to one of my classmates, Bonnie Murphie, to hang in her new condo right across the street from all the flowering trees. Just for fun, and as a reference for another classmate who might order a new painting, here is a group of paintings that I did about ten years ago.

Crane Invasion and other stories

2010-07-15T23:59:00.008-10:00

My dear friend Nikko Marott started folding cranes a couple of months ago, as a form of loving-kindness meditation. With each origami piece he sent out a prayer for all beings to be at peace and be free from pain. I love origami myself and of course I love color and design. So I got the idea of surprising Nikko with a pile of big origami papers that were printed with my Hawaiian Kapa linoleum blocks. This turned out to be enormously fun, since as the paper folds against itself numerous new and unexpected design combinations emerge, much like a kaleidoscope. Each bird became a one-person, one-time-only art experience, unpredictable, and never to be repeated.

Soon the house was filled with cranes, and Nikko made me laugh by making up stories about the crane invasion and lining them up in different arrangements. This project turned into a 1000 Crane installation at the Wailoa Art Center this month, as a part of the group show I'm in called "The Nature of Things," available to view until July 28.

Nikko is now in Hilo Medical Center with badly metastasized cancer, and he may or may not survive much longer. The wonderful thing is that he had, in his typical way, an idea to help other people by making the cranes a fundraiser for the Hospice of Hilo. Each strand of cranes is available for purchase and represents a donation to this very worthy organization. When the Wailoa show comes down, the cranes will be available at the gallery.

2010-06-27T08:50:00.004-10:00

July will be an exciting month for art here in our corner of the Big Island. The gallery will open on Friday July 2 in the evening, to honor our new artists. The next friday I'll be at the Wailoa Center helping to host the opening of our group show organized by Patti Pease Johnson, with a group of five local artists showing art inspired by nature. And down at Kalani Honua Retreat Center, a vibrant art festival is being organized by Richard Koob and our own Tuko Fujisaki, to celebrate the many artforms and artists working in the Puna District.

Four New Painters at the Gallery!

2010-05-26T12:20:00.010-10:00

We welcome our new painters Deborah Beaver, Sonya Stanchfield, David Hubbard, and Leslie Sears! I'll post more about each one but for now here's a little sample of the fresh styles to be seen at the gallery. As always, each artist takes a shift at the gallery so when you wander in you're sure to encounter some creative energy.

Emily Herb joins our gallery

2010-05-14T09:35:00.003-10:00

The wonderful pottery of Emily Herb has been added to our gallery. She lends her vision of native birds to make beautiful and functional art. Please come take a look in person!

We Survived Merrie Monarch

2010-04-17T07:24:00.005-10:00

I'm typing this blog entry one-handedly since I just had a surgery to repair my poor ol' rotator cuff (shoulder joint) which finally broke down after years of artistic over-use. Fortunately my friends Alaina and Gheerling are letting me recuperate for the weekend at their rented house in Lanikai!

Merrie Monarch week was exhausting. For the first time we got a booth at the big craft fair, so not only did we have to create and occupy the booth, but we had to fill it with artworks! I spent a great deal of time with Tuko and Cosette printing new pareos and tanktops with tapa and petroglyph motifs.

Tuko outdid herself designing our new rack card, which includes a map showing our location in the grand scheme of downtown Hilo!

Opihikao Evenings

2010-03-14T22:09:00.007-10:00

I took a long time off from painting in my usual haunts along the Red Road (Puna Coastal Highway 137). This was partly because I injured my shoulder, and partly just out of tedium. I thought I was bored with the subject matter. But really it is beautiful to be out in the sea breeze, with the sunlight creating an ever-changing blaze of colors in the trees and on the rocks. Today Tuko and I joined Abby Rabinowitz, a painter from California who is looking at some property in the neighborhood. I've been working into a blue painting that I started many months ago. Waiting so long to pick it up again makes it very hard as the palm fronds all change position, and the ocean tide and waves change a lot too. In particular the drought has thinned out the palm foliage and made it a lot browner.

Paintings and Prints by Arthur Johnsen

2010-03-12T08:53:00.014-10:00

I'm posting some very casual shots of my current works so my dear friend in Alaska can see what's available. This is not everything I have available now, just things that exemplify the color of the islands with an eye to what would help an Alaskan get through a long cold winter! Many of these paintings and prints were hung for the last two months at the Mayor's office in Hilo.

tsunami excitement

2010-03-01T18:04:00.009-10:00

I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of an incredibly loud, low-flying gigantic aircraft roaring overhead at 6 AM, followed by the anxiety-producing siren blaring near our neighborhood. I figured that we wouldn't be allowed to drive into Hilo, so I had a philosophical (i.e.neglectful) reaction to the idea of a tsunami ploughing up Waianuenue Avenue and busting down our gallery door. But while those of us down in lowest Puna (Tuko and I) lolled about in my studio enjoying our life drawing session, Gail was hard at work with a small gang of friends and family rescuing all the precious artworks threatened by the coming tidal wave.

As it turned out the wave did not rise very high, and so on Sunday we showed up at the freakishly stripped-down gallery and re-assembled the display with the help of Gail's beautiful daughter Sanoe. Hats off to Gail and her award-winning efforts on our behalf. Here's a photo of her recent painting of Sanoe dressing up for a hula performance.

One Day at the Gallery

2010-02-24T12:06:00.017-10:00

Having neglected to update this blog since Christmas, I just wandered around with my camera to share a few of the artworks at the gallery this month. Bonnie's new sunset painting is beauty on a grand scale, while Tuko and Cosette continue to produce charming smaller scenes. Esther's been having some severe health challenges, but you'd never guess it from the hilarity and good spirits of her typical work including this big dog with his slipper collection. I love the big colorful paintings by Steve Irvine, but we may be removing them soon as we need each painter to spend some hours helping to run the place and he can't seem to pull that together.

Amy's necklace contains, of all things, a petrified camel's tooth!

We have a couple of new glass sculptures by an artist down in Paradise Park, Daniel Moe.

I'm liking my new tapa-design mats on some of my landscape prints, just some of many uses I'm finding for a big stack of Nepalese rice paper given to me by Tim, across the street at the Katmandu gallery.

I happen to have a couple of old portraits of Chiu Leong and Eva Lee, which I had to retouch for them. Something about the wierd weather lately was making them bubble up and produce a powdery residue which fortunately came off without damaging the portraits... It's funny to revisit this older genre of work and note the slightly cartoonish treatment of Eva's big beautiful eyes, and of Chiu's inability to stay awake for the portrait process.

And then of course I have my little boxes in the shape of hearts which I made for Valentine's day.

Xmas Party at the Gallery

2009-12-14T23:33:00.002-10:00

Christmas and Hanukka and the holidays in general can be challenging times, and yet through it all bursts a golden seam of pure, joyful creativity. I'm not sure why this is, but perhaps it has to do with the recurring goal of making smallish items, affordable to folks that can't spend on big "real" paintings and artwork. There is a freedom and pleasure to such informal production!

Each year we make batches of ornaments to hang on the gallery tree, and they change from one year to the next. I'd like to think that this makes them wildly collectible, which of course only time will tell. This year Cosette and I decoupaged tapa motifs onto rectangles and squares, while other artists in the gallery decoupaged miniature prints of flowers, mermaids, rabbits, dogs, cats, and Frida Kahlo.

Here's Tuko's invitation for our party this Friday afternoon/evening.

Weekend in Kohala

2009-11-05T10:57:00.012-10:00

Nikko attended a retreat with Rimpoche Anam Thubten, a young Tibetan teacher, up at the Starseed Ranch in Kohala. I went to the introductory talk at the library in Waimea, and even though I liked the Rimpoche a lot, I decided to use the weekend to paint the landscape up north. Since the ranch is very close to the end of the road, I set up my first canvas at the Pololu overlook which is the classic Kohala scene. Then the next day I did it again! I'm attaching some of the "in progress" photos for a look at the technique which I learned from Roger Montoya which is such a great method that I can't seem to find a better way to start a painting. To cut to the chase you just apply the paint right out of the tube before smearing it around with solvent. The trick is to pick out paints that will mix together to give you a mid-range tone from which you can remove highlights and add darker details with a minimum of fuss.

I hooked up with Mary Sky Schoolcraft, a plein air artist who has established a very successful new gallery in Hawi, the Living Arts
Collective. We spent the usual long period of stopping at various locations before finally settling on a view down at Keokea Beach Park. I painted the distant headlands which at first had a clear shot of Haleakala mountain on Maui in the far horizon.

The next morning we trundled down the coast to a spectacular cove called Kapanaia, which was formerly much harder to get to over badly rutted dirt roads. Now it's paved and graded and we could drive right to the overlook. In every direction was a splendid subject for a painting, so I decided on another vertical cross-section of a deep vista from the foreground water to the distant summit of the Kohala Mountains, with the gap of Pololu Valley slicing in from the left.

A big shout out to John and Prakash Flynn, my friends of decades, who own a beautiful, fantastic shop in Hawi called Elements. They were wonderful hosts to Nikko and me and a constant source of inspiration for the professional way they organize and run their gallery.

October News: New Artists!

2009-10-14T14:17:00.016-10:00

Our jewelry cabinet is glittering with treasure these days, with two amazingly talented young women displaying their masterpieces that must be seen to be believed. Dawn Wallace-Gadd comes from a family of very successful and gifted artists, and we are lucky to have her work in the gallery. Amy Flanders studied with Dawn's parents, and her jewelry is similarly astonishing in its rich variety of ideas and precious materials.

Rick Ryken is now showing some of his paintings in the back room and over the front entrance. He started painting a few years ago, studying with Steve Irvine and David Hubbard, whose influences can be seen in his exuberant colors and wild paint treatment. Rick has retail experience from owning a gallery in Alaska, and so it will be good to have his energy and knowledge on board.

Bonnie Sol's not really our new artist any more but she continues to be the most productive, surprising us with rich and well-painted landscapes, florals, and still lives. I particularly like her moody depictions of the in-between times of twilight and late afternoon.

Other new artists I'll write about soon will be Lino Laure and Steve Irvine.

We'll be featuring these talents on November 6, first Friday and "Black and White Night," which is a chance to go gallery crawling and enjoy Hilo after dark.

We had a clean-up day on Sunday, bringing the gallery up to snuff. I personally spent the whole afternoon in the bathroom cleaning and polishing everything and then repainting that pink peach color on the walls. I guess the rest of the gallery is sparkly clean too, but being near-sighted I don't notice a huge difference. I'm told that we could eat off the floors now but I don't believe it.

I heard from Lauren at Fine Art Associates that everyone liked my mural for the St. Regis Princeville Resort, Hooray. Here's a shot of it in the now cleaned-up lobby space. I'm told that the St. Regis chain is one of the most exclusive hostelries in the world and that this was actually a phenomenal boost for my career!

I finally sent off this portrait of Danny, the son of my friends Paul and Mike. He's a really cute kid, but I'm sure that by this time the portrait is a historical rather than contemporary document. I must learn to just project and trace like other artists, so it's not so arduous to get a likeness!

A Fine Young Model

2009-10-04T11:13:00.007-10:00

Caroline gave me a whole set of brand new "magic pencils" which are my favorite drawing implement these days. Usually I just use the one that has yellow-blue-red leads all together in one pencil, or else the one that has yellow-red-orange. But yesterday morning to celebrate the new pencils I used all of them, including one very wierd one that has fluorescent yellow, blue and orange. It showed up on dark brown paper. Zack was a great model for studying musculature, although he had a hard time holding still. I'm asking him back for next Friday's class, since our focus is on joints and muscle connections.

Final Portrait Class

2009-09-25T23:29:00.009-10:00

I'm afraid my demonstration sketches, with all their quick and facile realism, are by no means the most interesting paintings to come out of today's portrait session. We used Alizarin, Ultramarine, Ochre and White on a celadon green toned gessoed paper. It was hard to conquer the green and give the paintings a warm cast, but in spite of that we got a whole line-up of extraordinary portraits of Tolli and Christine!

Classes in October will be on Fridays from 2 to 4:30. We'll be going back to the basics of figure drawing and painting.

St. Regis Princeville at Last

2009-09-24T20:23:00.011-10:00

For some reason, as my friend Neil and I approached Kaua'i's north shore in our white rental Xterra, the promenade theme from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was playing on my inner iPod. You know, the one with all the trumpets and the stately melody. When we entered the St. Regis Princeville Resort overlooking Hanalei Bay and the mountains of NaPali, the serendipity of this musical selection became clear. The designers of this new version of the old hotel have stripped down and re-created the space into something very much worthy of trumpets playing.

Amazingly enough, my painting is the central focus of the entire grand lobby area, a fact that was never quite conveyed to me. Perhaps it's better this way as I would have been frozen in nervous terror at the responsibility. Fortunately I do think that my Hi'iaka and Lohi'au canvas has enough drama and iconic nature in spite of its quirky details to stand in this space and even add to the legendary qualities. Now I appreciate why the designer, Rhonda Rasmussen of the WATG design group was so hard to please during this project. Well, I hope she's OK with it now, because Neil and I worked our butts off getting the piece restretched and in place!

Portrait Class #3

2009-09-17T21:52:00.006-10:00

I love our portrait class. It's extraordinary for me to see folks of all abilities and experiences tackling one of the most difficult art projects and accomplishing such wonderful pieces! Craig, Rick and Elijah are three friends of widely differing appearances who were willing to come and sit for us. We moved from a single color to a triad of colors. Next week, our final portrait class will use three colors plus white on a tinted ground.

We'll be meeting on Friday since I'll be on Kaua'i for the week, helping to restretch and install the big mural I just finished for the Princeville St. Regis Hotel.

(Shown below, my class helper and artist extraordinaire, Tuko Fujisaki)

Princeville St. Regis Mural

2009-09-16T23:11:00.004-10:00

With the help of my amazing temporary assistant Neil, I painted and repainted and tightened up edges and covered errors to the point where my big Hi'iaka and Lohi'au mural was ready to be photographed by Robbyn Peck, who has the giclee printing business Island Giclee in Hilo. Then I rolled it up and packed it in cardboard, and did the same to the stretcher bars and the plywood backing, so it can be shipped to Kaua'i! I'll breathe a big sigh when it's finally installed, which I'll go over to help with next week.

Portrait Class & Princeville Painting

2009-09-11T23:04:00.013-10:00

Mostly what I'm doing these days is jamming on the mural for the Princeville St. Regis Hotel. Having spent months proposing various sketches, now I have just days to actually paint the thing in all its 8' x 9' glory. Fortunately the designer insisted that it be just one color on a cream background, which makes it a matter of fine tuning shapes and filling them in.

Nothing can keep me from my portrait class, though, it's so much fun. I get to tell people what to do! Not only that but -- annoyingly enough, often I'll lean in or take their seat and actually demonstrate on their drawing itself. I can't think of a better way to show how to make progress, although I can tell it's a struggle for some of the students to maintain equanimity! I think it's a good practice to not be so attached to the actual drawing and be willing to change it radically.

Our Models were Yoko, an exquisite Japanese friend, and a beautiful young artist named Stella. It was very hard to draw Stella so she looks as young as she actually is!

Life Drawing: Portraits

2009-09-03T18:30:00.018-10:00

September is portrait month at the AJ studio. This is in honor of Didier who always focuses on the face in any drawing of a model. Actually most people do this until they learn the discipline of treating the whole figure with equal attention. I rounded up three very short-haired friends and we did a round robin of profiles and frontal portraits. Next week we'll tackle the more difficult and complex 3/4 angles.

Life Drawing: Oils! Final Class!

2009-08-28T15:31:00.010-10:00

This was a fun class for me because I got to do a couple of demonstration paintings. Not many students showed up, sad to say since it was one of the best classes yet, but the small group made it much less of a chore. Nevertheless afterward I was very tired and had to lie down before my birthday dinner at Kalani!

We worked on a rather dark purplish gessoed paper in Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine Blue, and Permalba White. The challenge was to raise the colors up to a full range of brilliance in spite of the limited palette. Most of the paintings remained in the dark range but especially after a little photoshop enhancement they look really fun!

Next Thursday we'll start on our month of portrait drawing, provided I don't have to go to Kaua'i to install the new painting/mural.

Life Drawing in September: Portraiture

2009-08-27T22:35:00.003-10:00

Here's a little flyer for next month's life drawing Thursday class. So often in drawing the figure, people zero in on the face and spend excessive time and energy rendering it. For various reasons this can make for a very wierd drawing. To honor this impulse and give the students a chance to work it out of their systems I decided a whole month of portraiture might be in order.

We'll tackle the structure of the skull, neck and shoulders, and work on creating convincing sculptural renditions of the forms in space. We'll look at the differences between sexes, body types and races, and skin colorations, and how to convey these artistically. Starting with charcoal and progressing through conte and monochromatic paint, we'll end the month with painted portraits.

I'm hoping to find multiple models for each Thursday afternoon. I'd like to work out an arrangement where the model gets to keep the portraits rather than expecting the normal monetary donations. Any volunteers?? Call me at 965-7642 or email me arthurjohnsen@hotmail.com

Princeville Update

2009-08-25T13:28:00.009-10:00

I'm working to make this sketch resemble the original pareo design from my portfolio that inspired the designers at the Princeville St. Regis. I think it will be easier when I'm working at full size (8' x 9') but first I have to satisfy myself and the designers with this preliminary. Yes, I know the horizon line looks tilted. That's one of those things that pop out when you make the switch to a digital image. I experimented in photoshop placing some of my current and previous sketches into the actual wall niche.

(down below is the original pareo, as hung up in my studio)

Life Drawing in 3-color oils

2009-08-21T16:22:00.013-10:00

I'm very proud of this class. Many of these folks had never worked in oils before. All these fine drawings are done on gessoed paper, which is a good learning material although it does take some labor to prepare. The colors were Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, and Alizarin Crimson. While not the hugest palette possible, these three colors do enable a lot of effects. Some of the students were struggling with the fumes, even though my studio couldn't be more wide open. I love Yumiko's unintentionally whimsical drawings. Richard of course brings the full blaze of his erotic intensity to bear. Didiet is making amazing progress, and so is Caroline Delano (in the picture). I had a chance to do a quick drawing in between making the rounds and snooping over shoulders, which is good because it reminds me how difficult the assignment is.

2009-08-21T11:21:00.001-10:00

This is the latest sketch for the Hi'iaka and Lohi'au painting, hopefully for the Princeville St. Regis. (click on it to see it at a larger size)

Drawing in Oils: Monochrome

2009-08-18T23:12:00.008-10:00

In this month's Quixotic attempt to teach oil painting in four quick lessons, the second Thursday class tackled rendering our beautiful model in a single color, burnt umber. The last drawing for the day was burnt umber plus white on a toned ground of gessoed kraft paper. This is really a big challenge but the students got through it with fairly good results, especially of course the talented teaching assistant Tuko Fujisaki.

Big Work in Progress

2009-08-17T08:37:00.009-10:00

The end of August is my deadline for this painting I'm doing for the Princeville St. Regis hotel. Naturally my friends are all very alarmed that I'm still in the sketch stage on the project, but the painting will just be in two colors and so the graphic design is the most important thing to accomplish. The designers were inspired by a pareo design I did way back in 1983 showing Hi'iaka and Lohi'au, the goddess and prince in the ancient Hawaiian legend. So even though I have shown dozens of sketches of varying complexities, they have consistently sent me back to the drawing board, wanting it to be in that original woodblocky style. It's been a real challenge!

Life Drawing in August: Oils and Acrylics

2009-08-02T11:14:00.004-10:00

I thought that it would be fun to let the students try some juicier drawing techniques! Oils in particular have a bad rep as being difficult but, depending on how you use them, they can be as easy as a box of crayons. They are the ultimate in a moveable, changeable medium and they should help in the study of overall shape and background-foreground relationship (i.e. negative space!). Plus they are wonderful for capturing light effects.

I find acrylics a bit more challenging but they can yield wonderful rich results.

We'll use a very limited palette of colors, on recycled drawing papers. The emphasis will still be on observing, understanding and rendering the human form, with the tools, tricks, and perceptions entailed in the process.

more Bugsy

2009-08-02T10:45:00.012-10:00

Now that Bugsy's gone I really like the sketches I did during our beach sketching expeditions. The photos are of when I first found him and he was a malnourished wreck. But still cute!

Note to self: Draw loved ones much more often, if not daily!

Bugsy R.I.P.

2009-08-01T07:44:00.003-10:00

I hope not many blogs are written by heartbroken people, otherwise who would read them? Nevertheless I thought I'd post a last good-bye to Bugsy, the amazing little dog who kept me company for 3/4s of this year. We were minding our own business on a residential street in Hilo, waiting for my acupuncturist, when a big white dog came out from under a fence. To my surprise he grabbed Bugsy in his jaws, crept back under the fence, and ran away. I leaped over the fence and pursued him and he finally put Bugsy down. But Bugs was so badly hurt that later at the vets I had to have him put to sleep.

Bugsy was a really fun little guy, a tiny creature with a huge personality. He looked like he was cobbled together out of spare parts from other animals. He had a mane and a curved neck like a mule, with huge ears and bulging eyes. When he yawned he transformed into a mythical gryphon with a fiercely curving tongue. I'll miss him terribly. Fortunately Tuko sketched him several times.

Life Drawing #3: Line

2009-07-16T19:46:00.002-10:00

Many of the students in my class know how to draw well already, but I've noticed that most have a rushed and sketchy approach. Either that or a heavy-handed quality. So I assigned the venerable "Blind Contour" lesson, where you draw slowly and carefully without looking at the paper. I wish I'd thought to photograph these results as they had a wonderful Picasso-esque quality. Then I relented and let them look at the paper for the rest of the afternoon, which in some ways led back to hesitancy, erasure and dissatisfaction. But the point is just to go slow and observe more carefully.

We had Poni modeling for us, a wonderful Hawaiian maiden with natural grace. Of course having a good-looking model can sometimes make a class harder since one then has an anxiety about doing justice to such beauty.

Portrait of Phillip Paul

2009-07-13T22:05:00.003-10:00

Phillip Paul is an art collector whom I've known for many years. He has a nice group of works by Douglas Simonson, who is an artist I admire. Phil recently bought a big (3' x 7') painting I did of Hanalei Valley, on Kaua'i, and has been stopping by on occasion to make periodic payments. Needless to say I think he is wonderful. So I corralled him into sitting for a portrait. I'm not sure it's finished yet; it has a strangely stiff quality, like a Russian icon. Maybe I'll get him to bring it back down so I can soften it up and inject more life....

Drawing Joe Lake

2009-07-11T14:14:00.005-10:00

Joe was a wonderful model, a fine specimen of the bodybuilder's art. He put a huge amount of effort into the session, actually going through the strict dehydration regimen those guys do before a competition. Like all really superb models, though, he left me wishing that I myself had been in better form, equal to the task of interpreting and recording all that evidence of muscle under skin.

Afterward he was kind enough to assume the Lohi'au pose for my lobby painting-in-progress for the Princeville hotel. In exchange I did this big quick sketch portrait for him to take home to his wife Fawnette. As John Singer Sargent once famously said, "A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth."

Life Drawing #2: Proportion

2009-07-10T08:26:00.006-10:00

How do you introduce the study of anatomy in one short lesson? Personally I get a bit tongue-tied at the challenge. So I stood our model Neil up on a pedestal (sorry I forgot to take photos) and showed the classic proportional trick of using the height of the head as a measuring device. Adult humans are generally about 7.5 head heights tall, but if you want to make them look heroic you make them 8. In other words you make the head smaller, for whatever that says about our concept of heroes.

Oddly enough I got different head heights when I turned Neil to different angles. I hate when that happens. I guess it has to do with how the measurement is taken in the first place, and a one-inch change makes a big difference over the course of the whole body.

Next week: LINE; I'm looking for an interesting, maybe voluptuous model with whom we can trace outlines in a sensitive manner, in soft pencil on white paper.

Morgan saves the Day

2009-07-04T21:25:00.003-10:00

Our scheduled model Wailana did not show up and so we pressed our youngest prettiest member into service as a substitute model. She had never done it before but likes to do new things, and as it turned out she was a natural. So beautiful and graceful that Matisse for sure would have loved to draw her!

Our model for next Saturday is a great and very well developed body builder named Joe, and so I am thinking of changing my plan for our Thursday afternoon class. I think I will lead a crash study of anatomy and the way the muscles attach to the skeletal structure, to help keep students from getting lost in the array of fine bumpy muscles that Joe will present.

(Materials will be provided)

First Life Drawing Session

2009-07-02T17:41:00.002-10:00

I began my five-week life drawing intensive with an exercise in seeing negative shapes. If you can recall the coyote (from the roadrunner cartoons) punching through a wall at high speed, and leaving his exact shape as a hole in the wall, the solid wall would be his negative shape. These can be very helpful in composing a drawing, and getting the shape of the body to fall into place on the paper.

So I cut some large cardboard frames, and had Neil model on a table behind them so you could only see parts of his body, surrounded by various-shaped glimpses of the white wall behind. Then I had the students draw that rectangle in careful perspective (a challenge in itself!) and then sketch the white areas in white conte. As the group struggled with this concept I berated myself over a really bad way to start the class, but by the end of the 2 1/2 hours they were getting it and producing some great drawings! And overall they agreed that it was a helpful lesson.

Next week I plan to review the gesture drawing and why it is part of our usual life drawing practice. I'll also give a quick review of anatomy and human proportions.

Register for this class (Thursday afternoons for the month of July) by calling me at 965-7642! Or email me at arthurjohnsen@hotmail.com.

We also have a non-instructional session Saturday mornings at my studio from 9-11:30 AM, model fee by donation.

Life Drawing with Arthur Johnsen

2009-06-30T13:08:00.004-10:00

Arthur will have his first life drawing session with instructions this Thursday, July 2nd, from 2 to 4:30. Be ready to learn a lot. Materials for the first class will be provided. Please call 965-7642 and let him know you're coming. (Click Image to enlarge)

Art Opening, Friday, June 19th

2009-06-18T23:25:00.005-10:00

Here's our newest gallery member, Bonnie Sol-Hahn, putting up her work for the latest show. 'Little Paintings of the BIG'. She's the featured artist but the rest of us will have new paintings as well.

Hula at the Gallery!

2009-04-04T15:43:00.013-10:00

With very short notice, Kumu hula (teacher) Ehulani Stephanie agreed to bring members of her halau (hula school) down to the gallery first Friday evening April 3 to perform for our art opening. Cosette, Tuko and I created some new work to celebrate the month of Merrie Monarch, which of course is a huge Hawaiian cultural event in Hilo. We hope to add to our collection of new paintings as the actual week approaches.

I found inspiration for my works in some photos taken by my friend Nikko at one of the halau's performances, so it was especially wonderful to have them dance in the gallery. Another source: last year's opening night performance by another great halau, the Halau o Kekuhi, excited me with their incredible bright yellow pa'u costumes with twisted tapa belts.

Sketches for a Legend

2009-03-19T10:03:00.005-10:00

I did some sketches for a hotel project I might get to do. The painting would be a large one for behind a reception desk, so a Hawaiian legend was proposed. I enjoy doing sketches of this sort because one can give free play to the imagination within the bounds of what one knows of the tradition. The hard part comes later when you have to make sure everything fits in with some accuracy and with no insult to the culture. These images are from the story of Pele and Hiiaka, where Pele travels in her spirit body and dazzles the court of Lohi'au, prince of Kaua'i. Later Hi'iaka, Pele's sister, must bring Lohi'au back to life from where his body has been hidden high on the Napali cliffs. Then finally I sketched the two of them descending back to the shore on a rainbow, which is one version of the story.

In the Garden

2009-02-23T08:34:00.007-10:00

There's a part of me that likes to just plunk down in front of a plant and draw it. I never think this is a very sale-able artform but Mary Philpotts ASID occasionally makes use of dense and subtle drawings of botanical subjects. I guess they link to an art tradition in Hawai'i that goes back to a time when tropical florals were new and exciting subjects for Westerners. Here are some I did recently in Davis Dalbok's garden and one from the garden at Ramashala, a nearby retreat center.

The Art of the Frame

2009-02-20T16:44:00.007-10:00

I've had this show up at the gallery for a month so it's about time I blogged about it. Mostly it's about the woodworker Kevin Sulgit who lives nearby, who has undertaken the saint-like task of framing my work in native hardwoods (and some soft ones, i.e. coconut)

Kevin brings an artistic eye to this task, agreeing to respect my "frame liner" which is the black lathe frame I use to make sure the edges of my work are not covered, a personal idiosyncracy. This is often a lot more difficult than it would seem, since my own hand-made liners are often tilted in cross section. Also Kevin combines woods in a very novel way, placing contrasting types in concentric bands or other laminated designs. Wherever possible Kevin references the painting subject in his choice of woods.

Various Big Island Adventures

2009-01-23T11:03:00.009-10:00

Here is my most recent portrait, of John Ballentine who lives in Oakland, CA.

My dear friend Pamela Stevenson visited for a week. After a strenuous year of creating a gigantic wood firing kiln in British Columbia she was here for a bit of down time, relaxing in my studio and at the beach. We visited the volcano briefly, where the goddess Pele enters the sea with much heat and light, and the amazing sight of glowing rocks floating on the waves. We drove up the Hamakua Coast to Ahualoa, passing a stunning view of Mauna Kea in its snow-capped glory. On the Kohala coast my brother took this picture of me sketching at Beach 67, under the keawe tree shade, where we went to check out the huge waves. On the way home we stopped for a swim at Honoli'i Beach just north of Hilo.

Yesterday Tuko and I painted botanicals in the gorgeous garden that Davis Dalbock has created up the Opihikao Road.

2 Portraits & a Puppy

2008-12-28T09:03:00.010-10:00

About four weeks ago I was driving up Highway 130 when I spotted a small batlike creature running down the middle of the road. Sensing danger I pulled over, crouched down and called to it. It came crawling as fast as it could on its spindly, weak and starved little bow-legs. This was the beginning of the Story of Bugsy.

Here for the first time on the internet are photos of this rare creature, a cross between a bat, a bug, and a small Doberman Pincer, hence the name Bugsy.

Here is a photo of our Christmas bamboo branch, laden with my hand-painted ornaments.

Here also are photos of my recent portraits. One is of my glamorous computer lady, Dawn Hurwitz. The other is of my neighbor Doug.

HPP artists' studio tour

2008-12-10T15:48:00.002-10:00

Esther, Arthur, Yumiko-san, our hula friend from Japan, and I went art studio tour hopping last Sunday. In a way it kind of reminded me of going to open houses. One house in particular was quite gorgeous and met Arthur's approval. In fact, we all wanted to move there...
Please go to my blog to see more photos.

Eric Johnsen: Master Builder

2008-11-24T14:36:00.000-10:00

I'm very proud of my brother Eric. A master builder to me is someone who doesn't necessarily have a degree in architecture, yet brings an enormous amount of creativity and beauty to the structures he builds, whether they be a small bathing shed or a magnificent mansion. Inspired by the house we grew up in above Honolulu in Nu'uanu Valley, a modernist 50's style house designed by Alfred Preis and constructed by the finest Japanese craftsmen, Eric creates the most beautiful structures and furnishes them with exquisite cabinetry.

The latest of these masterpieces to be finished is a house for Gwen and Ray Chaiken, on a knoll overlooking Hawaiian Homesteads pastureland near Waimea, with a grand view of Mauna Kea. Eric invited me to fill the empty walls with my artwork in time for the open-house-blessing party they threw yesterday. I wouldn't go to this effort for just anybody but since it was Eric I brought up 32 paintings and prints and managed to find wallspace for every piece, although none of what I brought were large enough for some of the big walls.

Installation was amusing and painful as both Eric and I had matching rotater-cuff shoulder injuries on opposite sides, our working arms (he's left-handed). Together we struggled as a complete human being and managed to get everything up.

I wish I'd taken more photos of the building itself, and actually my photography petered out after one or two rooms since it seemed too dark. But here are a few shots; maybe I'll take more later in the week.

One that Got Away

2008-11-16T15:48:00.000-10:00

I have quite a few paintings hung around Kalani retreat center, down the road where I lived in the early 90's. Most of them are for sale, while some are just permanent decorations which I traded for rent back in the day. A very small few, in fact just one or two, are not for sale, just there on a long term loan. Anyway, they sold one of those by mistake the other day. Rather than creating any bad energy I am just going along with it, but I am a bit sad. I like this painting a lot because it shows Richard Koob and Roger Montoya painting on the coast near Opihikao. Roger, my wonderful painter friend from New Mexico, actually helped me on the painting, turning it from my sketchy style into something quite bold and wonderful. I love the kind of Katzenjammer Kids cartooniness of it.

Paint-out!

2008-11-13T09:26:00.001-10:00

Our friends from Maui and Oahu (and elsewhere??) joined us for several days of painting around Hilo and Puna. I was on Oahu until Wednesday so I missed most of it but I did get to paint with the group in Keaukaha, which is an always fascinating land-and-seascape of lagoons, rocks, and the distant slopes of Mauna Kea.

A Visit with Jan and Vi Medusky

2008-11-12T10:18:00.001-10:00

I was in Honolulu last week to celebrate Hallowe'en at the Cirque du Soleil with a posse of friends, but also to hobnob with gallery owners and designers and gently remind folks that I exist and am doing good artworks for their projects.

One of the highlights of the week was an invitation up to the residential summit of Roundtop above Honolulu, where I enjoyed a nice breakfast prepared by Jan Medusky. He and his wife Vi Jones-Medusky furnished their house with my paintings back in the mid 90's, so it was kind of a treat to revisit these pieces in their context. Gratifyingly enough they held up well and still look good even though I'd like to think I've improved in my work.

Jan and Vi are both super people, and Vi is especially memorable for her wonderfully positive, even radiant outlook. This is all the more remarkable given that she has Lou Gehrig's disease and is getting around in a wheelchair these days, after years of being a star surfer, runner, and all around athlete. She verbally pounced on me when I typically came out with some bit of negativity having to do with current economics (mine in particular). "Your life is a garden," she says, "and you have to plant what you want to grow!"

This is worthy advice, and I will seek to tend my life garden with greater care, weeding out the negativity when I notice it....

Painting at Paul Mitchell's Estate

2008-10-28T10:05:00.002-10:00

What would it be like to have oodles and endless oodles of money? The painters of Hilo's plein air group got to dip into this reality last thursday when we drove through the gaudy metal gate of Paul Mitchell's estate high above the town, and into a paradise of gorgeous specimen plants, fruit trees, airy & serene buildings, and magnificent waterfalls.

Tuko and I arrived late, to find everyone ensconced under shady trees, painting an exquisite little pond. A couple of them, oddly enough (David and Michael) looked as though they were painting the subject at hand but were actually doing other things, a still life and an imaginary Chinese landscape (go figure.) Tuko and I of course took care of first things first and went for a bracing dip in a pool beneath a tall waterfall.

Unfortunately my computer has been crashing and unable to access my photos, but I did manage to download this sampling of photos from that adventure.

Studio Chaos

2008-10-13T22:27:00.000-10:00

Every once in a while I take a bunch of pictures in my studio, as a sort of time capsule look at what I am doing in this present moment. I thought it might be interesting to share this even though it's kind of personal to show just how much of a slob one is. Maybe this can be a sort of testimonial "before" picture since my intention is to get rid of a lot of unnecessary stuff and create a serene, orderly workspace. Actually the worst of it is unseen here, behind the wooden walls where chaos really does rule supreme!

Also I'm noting a predominance of the smaller landscape paintings. I'm actually hoping to start filling the studio with work in different directions. The huge landscapes are a step forward, but I also want to do more abstraction and figurative work. Of course I enjoy portraiture a lot so will always want to have some of that going on too. Right now though I am getting ready to visit the Kona side and O'ahu to refresh the work in galleries there and maybe get one or two new ones. So I have a lot of unfinished work on the walls, seeking to resolve and polish up as many as I can.

Steam Plume Morning

2008-10-09T10:28:00.000-10:00

I thought I'd post these photos finally although it's been a week since I went on this lava viewing boat ride. We gathered at Pohoiki in the early morning darkness and actually boarded the boat on land, using a ladder. Most bizarre and unexpected. But then the boat was trundled down the boat ramp, into the water, and then it powered through the surf and we were on our way. Phosphorescent specks flew past us in the upsurging foam, and I could only guess at our location from the dim silhouette of the landscape. We approached the plume as it became illuminated in the pre-dawn light, and cruised around in the water in front of it while the rising sun gradually pinkened the sky and then the plume itself. Needless to say it was an amazing experience, and very impressive to have that close-up view of the steam surging and rising and billowing rapidly like a living thing, all the while sprinkling gritty ash all over us and the boat.

Wendy Machado, aloha pau 'ole

2008-10-03T15:19:00.000-10:00

I think blogs should be happy places for photos and adventures, but in this case I must pay tribute to a dear friend who just died. Wendy lived in our neighborhood with her husband Terry and their three kids until several years ago when they moved to be closer to the Kamehameha School campus in Kea'au. She was a wonderful model for many of my painting projects and was always cheerful and gracious. I don't feel that I ever did justice to her rare inner light and beauty. She had the great distinction in the Hawaiian community of being the guardian of the ancestral bones wherever they were disturbed by development in our area. She will be missed terribly.

Heat Rising

2008-09-30T11:24:00.001-10:00

On Friday we had a life drawing session at Richard's house at Kalani. I teased our model Joti that his pictures would be all over the internet, and his response was that any publicity is good publicity. Since he is a multitalented singer, dancer and artist, I guess this makes sense. On our way home Tuko and I had to stop and photograph the steam plume from the volcano's entry into the ocean, which has been seeming extra huge lately.

Painting at Green Mountain

2008-09-26T07:31:00.002-10:00

I wish I could say I had a brilliantly successful day painting with friends up on Green Mountain, overlooking Kapoho. But Tuko and I arrived quite late and the sun was beating down on the plateau with no shade in sight, and no wind to speak of, and I just withered in the humidity while trying to paint the challenging vista. Plus the picturesque storm that I included in my sketch, that was so beautifully poised over the ocean, came straight in towards us and soaked us down thoroughly. I had been painting on a thin masonite panel which bent over from the moisture. So by noon I was very ready for our ride back down the hill, courtesy of Smiley, the beautiful caretaker of the Green Lake and Green Mountain. The best part was going up and down that road, under the graceful kukui and breadfruit trees, through the patches of awapuhi ginger.

A Workshop with Dick Nelson

2008-09-21T21:13:00.002-10:00

Tuko and I attended a workshop at the East Hawai'i Cultural Center given by a teacher who I knew way back in high school. Mr Nelson was the advisor for the stage design club, of which I was the student president. Even though for some reason I never took art classes at Punahou, he still made a huge impression on me. He was cute and funny and full of wise suggestions. Although now both of us are pushing forty years older he hasn't changed all that much....

His Big Thing is color theory, specifically the notion that all colors can be derived from three pigment primaries, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, and that numerous magical effects can be obtained from the knowledgeable manipulation of colors. We did a few of the many color exercises that are handed down from the master classes of Joseph Albers, with whom Dick studied at Yale University. Using small colored papers we tried to obtain the illusions of light, transparency, shade and tint. Not as easy as it would seem.

I'm looking forward to applying these lessons to my own painting to achieve heightened effects of glowing illumination and mystery.

Anne's Show

2008-09-10T08:10:00.002-10:00

This month the gallery is showcasing the watercolors and acrylic experiments left by Anne Whitmore, plus some of the artworks in private collections that were brought in as a special treat. We had a lovely opening for her on First Friday, September 5. Anne couldn't be there in her body but some folks say they could feel her smiling. It was a very sweet and poignant evening of Anne's friends enjoying her beautiful paintings and each other.

Adios Anne

2008-08-18T23:46:00.000-10:00

Anne Whitmore, our very talented and feisty watercolorist, died after a number of months of increasing physical hardship from a cancer. She bravely kept her optimism up and her hope for the future intact for much of that time. We'll miss her really wonderful work, with its jewel-bright colors and clarity of vision. In fact for a month we'll enjoy a last big dose of it as we celebrate her life in art, starting with an evening remembrance on First Friday, the 5th of September. Hele mai to 46 Waianuenue Street and lift a toast to this fine artist, much beloved among her friends.

August Plein Air Schedule

2008-08-03T07:44:00.000-10:00

August PLEIN AIR SCHEDULE - thursdays, 8am, til pau. no fees, no formal critique.

7- Wai'uli Beach Park-(Lele'iwi) Our lovely "home base" at Keaukaha.

14- Kama'ili Cliff House-From the Kalapana-Pahoa Hwy, head toward
Kaimu. When you get to the junction, turn left-back towards Kapoho.
At the 17 mile marker, on the red road, continue 1/8 of a mile, immediately
after the blind right curve you will see large green gates with cement
pillars on the makai side. There's also a for sale sign (4 million).
Gates open at 8am. Bring something for potluck!

21- Laupaoehoe Point-From Hilo town, drive the Hamakua Hwy to
Lapahoehoe, just after the second gulch is the makai side turn off for
the Lapahoehoe Point.

28- Makuu Cliffs- From Hilo, take Kea'au by-pass road as if your
heading to Pahoa.. Turn makai (left) onto Paradise Drive, go all the
way down to Beach Road, turn right, look for painters.

More Saim Caglayan Workshop Pix

2008-08-01T07:20:00.001-10:00

These photos are mostly mine exept for the curiously tilted one of me painting on the MacKenzie cliff, me with curiously tousled and backlit hair (time for a haircut I guess) and the beautiful one of Amy and Tuko painting at Mile 17 (all by Saim himself). Another one of me on the cliffs was sent by Deirdre Donovan of Kaua'i. The others depict our group painting under Saim's patient tutelage at MacKenzie Park, which is a craggy and windswept location known in ancient Hawaiian tradition as a jumping-off place for souls on their way to the underworld.

Saim Caglayan's Workshop

2008-07-29T12:30:00.000-10:00

Gail organized a weekend workshop July 25 - 27 with Saim Caglayan, a famous plein air painter originally from Turkey but now living on Kaua'i. He is a real mover and shaker, having established important painting groups in Laguna, CA, and in the islands.

The weather was only partially cooperative, deteriorating into drizzle on Friday afternoon, but we managed to get many hours of painting in, and got to watch Saim block in several studies. I personally loved the resemblance of his style to the "New Image" movement that was avant-guard in the late seventies (think Joan Brown), where recognizable objects (horses, boats, vegetables, etc) were painted very simply and directly with minimum fuss. Saim's approach was very careful and deliberate, with a great accuracy of color matching. He exhorted us to squint to capture the shapes of light and dark areas, and render them with thick strokes of pure paint. This is a lot harder than it looks, and takes a lot of skill.

Speaking of skill, on Saturday evening many of us went up to Volcano to attend Rod Cameron's show opening at the art center. With his usual genius he spent months at the Volcano park painting impressions of the glowing magma in its many manifestations. The most spectacular canvases depicted fountaining lava with plumes of smoke lit up from below, and the coastal activity at Kalapana with huge steam clouds and lava entering the ocean. Poignant for those of us who lived through the demise of Kalapana Town were the scenes of doomed but beautiful jungle and palm trees with tongues of red lava creeping along the ground. Bravo, Rod!!

(more workshop photos soon)

Waipi'o Sketching

2008-06-22T10:34:00.000-10:00

I just got back from a painting trip to O'ahu, my home island, and an excursion to Kaua'i to attend "Ho'oulu 'Aina" a youth conference on food sovereignty. Both were wonderful experiences and I'll post photos soon, but first I thought I'd post these photos taken by my brother Eric a while back. The first is of my friend Pamela, my sister-in-law Denise, and moi at the door of my studio in Puna. The rest are of me down in Waipi'o Valley doing a quick plein-air sketch.

Movie scene

2008-06-20T08:01:00.001-10:00

I thought this was a cool scene. I wonder if it's out on video yet, looks like a good movie (by an Asian director).

The Small Show

2008-05-20T07:28:00.000-10:00

Gail wrote the following press release, and Tuko created this card to announce our "summer of Small Paintings." We decided not to have an actual opening since the body of work will (we hope) keep expanding and changing. Personally, I am still gessoing and preparing my batch of tiny boards to paint on. I think I will do a series of botanicals, playing with metallic textured backgrounds behind studies of native Hawaiian plants. The irony with small paintings is that they really take almost as much time and energy as big ones, but we charge less for them.

Small Paintings for a Shrinking Economy

The Arthur Johnsen Gallery believes just because oil has gone crazy it doesn’t mean you should give up beauty and an opportunity to invest in the best of local art. How many million dollar homes have we seen with bare walls? Does your home have that feng shui problem? To remedy this unbalanced situation, the artists of the gallery realized that smaller, more affordable paintings are just the ticket. Beginning June 1st and thru the summer, small to tiny paintings will be offered by a medley of artists on the Big Island. The gallery located at 46 Waianuenue Street in Hilo is open Monday –Friday 11-5.

Let’s not forget to remember, art is an investment in the Connection between the universe and mankind.

A Commissioned Painting

2008-05-13T18:11:00.000-10:00

I've been working on this commissioned piece for some nice folks in Kona. They had seen my paintings in Mary Philpotts' book "Hawai'i: A Sense of Place"
and wanted something with a similar feeling. But after a number of sketches they settled on a composition that smacks more of 18th century European landscape painting than the orientalist/deco of the previous triptych. So I got to try my hand at these somewhat doll sized figures in a stylized Kona beach scene. The big tree is a milo, which is one of my favorite Hawaiian coastal plants. I'm using acrylics with metallic areas and a few textural passages. It's all quite a challenge for me!

Painting with Mark Brown

2008-05-09T07:36:00.001-10:00

I spent the last week of April on O'ahu's windward side, courtesy of a dear family friend Barbara Bahnsen in Lanikai where I used to live three decades ago (yikes!) and where my grandfather lived even further back. Lanikai of course is that amazing little enclave of paradise perched just east of Kailua, where mega-mansions have been edging out the sweet little bungalows of yore.

Right away I was swept into the intense painting life of Mark Brown, the lovable big plein-air prince of the island, who tackles huge canvases on location while at the same time nurturing the skills of dozens of other artists. It is such a pleasure to join him on these daily adventures in O'ahu's most beautiful spots.

One afternoon on the windy white sands of Lanikai we were joined by Debby Young and Franco Salmoiraghi, good friends who happen to be royalty as well in the artistic world of the islands.