Paintings and Prints by Arthur Johnsen

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.