Portrait of Phillip Paul

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.