A J at the Yuba

The Yuba River in California is heaven to a water-baby such as myself. You park near a pair of bridges that cross the gorge, and hike up a trail redolent with native manzanita, madrone, mesquite, laurel and live oak (watch out for the poison oak!) Then you pick a spot to lounge on the warm white rocks which seem carefully designed for human comfort, and plunge from time to time into the clear, brisk green water burbling by in swift waterfalls and large deep ponds.

My Summer Travels

Here are some pictures from my vacation on the mainland. We drove from Seattle to New York with Richard's magnificent jock friend Russell who participated in both the gay games in Chicago and the Out Games in Montreal. These pics are from the last week of my trip when Bob and John invited me to a retreat in the mountains on Echo Lake, near Tahoe.

Gallery Thursday

Just another perfect day at the gallery...

When people come into our gallery one of the first things they notice is our floor. Before we opened exactly one year ago this month (our "soft" opening) we spent a few days working on the concrete "tiles", making patterns on each square, a lot of work but a lot of fun and the end result was another artistic way to 'dress up" the floor.

Busy Friday

It was First Friday, there were two openings in town and we had to get a window display ready for the Hawaii's World Heritage Festival window display competition. Kathleen Kam brought in an amazing Chinese dragon, lanterns and Indonesian puppets, Gail brought in cool Fijian art and tapa cloth, Cosette brought in masks from Thailand and I brought my giant Japanese doll.

Arthur Johnsen Gallery in Hilo

We are located in beautiful downtown Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
We are planning to be open for First Friday, next week on August 4th. First Friday is a monthly arts event where galleries throughout Hilo stay open in the evening and invite the community to come in and see our latest works, share pupus (snacks) and talk story with the artists. If you're nearby join us for First Friday. Call 808-935-8020 with questions and for directions. We'll even give directions from the mainland. Visit our website: arthurjohnsengallery.com.

The Happy Show

Last night was the opening for Gail's Happy Show. Originally meant to be about her dog, Happy, which I think would have been a cool show, but it got modified to whatever makes you happy. The show was at the Wailoa Center. The Arthur Johnsen Gallery had good representation, thanks to our connection with Gail. Unfortunately, my photos aren't the best, one because I don't have a great camera to start with and two, the flash stopped working. So my apologies for the photos that I didn't get due to technical difficulties. Gail, I love your Dog Time oil painting!

Fun in the Studio

My friend and frequent model Poni came by for a portrait this morning. She is extremely pregnant and it was nice to paint her in full glow. She made lei to wear in the picture and to give to Richard Koob later for his birthday. Hau'oli La Hanau, Richard!!



Coincidentally I had just sent another painting of Poni in to Gail's upcoming show at the Wailoa Center, "The Art of Happiness" which is an appropriate theme since Gail is one of the most adept folks I know at generating happiness all around her. I called this painting "Ka La Hau'oli" -- the happy day, since Poni looks fairly pleased.





Some friends sent me this pic of me tormenting my cat Tiny, and of their son Danny bouncing in the studio.

Modern Postcards emailed me an offer for 20% off on their printing services. So I hemmed and hawed and approached my wonderful graphic designer cousin Cherry about doing a rack card for the gallery, but then too much time passed and I had to whip it out myself. I incorporated a multicolored version of our "Gallery" banner which hangs on the awning outside, plus images from most of our artists....




I am hoping this card will jump out at people from racks at the Hilo dock and at various hotels, etc!!

Portrait of a Young Man

This morning I did a portrait of Matthew, the scion of the Hamakua family that owns the Palms Cliff House B'n'B, which is a beautiful Victorian style mansion overlooking spectacular ocean cliffs near Akaka Falls.

Works in progress

I finally took my commissioned painting to the framer before I could add any more minute little details. I think I'd prefer doing a 10' tall mural any day. A Dutch master of marine subjects I'm not!

I am hoping to get these plein air pieces -- all down in Puna along the coastal road -- finished, framed, and into the gallery soon, but of course it is always hard to know when they are actually complete. The weather has been tantalizingly semi-cooperative. This morning was a spectacular clear day, perfect for working on the vertical palm painting, but then in the afternoon when I was hoping to go out and work on this horizontal blue painting, the clouds had moved in and flattened out the light, as so often happens these days.

Yesterday was my day to work in the gallery, so I got a lot done on this commissioned painting for Norwegian Cruise Lines. It is meant to be a gift to someone, and so I am responsible to frame it and ship it as well. Of course it should have been completed and delivered this week but it turns out there is quite a lag time in ordering koa wood frames these days. So I have a few more days to finish it up.

A Day on the Coast

Our Hawaiian Language class met at a coastal property not far from Pohoiki, where the kids from the immersion program are camping out for a week before the hard work of the fund-raising lu'au at Uncle Robert's this Saturday.





This is a very special place because the Hawaiian family was able to buy the property back after the "Great Mahele" of 1848 scrambled the ownership and deprived so many Hawaiians of their land. Very few lands of this significance remain in the hands of the kanaka maoli (natives) who cherish it and carry on the traditions of their ancestors.

Another Opihikao Afternoon

A spectacular long summertime evening to paint at this bluff overlooking the Opihikao keiki tidepool. The declining sun caught first the greens of the treetops, and then later set aflame the silvery coconut tree trunks. Every so often the sun completely vanished behind clouds and the light got very flat. It was so windy I had to jam a big rock into my easel to keep it from flying away.





I think I am almost finished with my big painting but it is a bewilderingly complex subject.