Progress on a Diptych

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

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

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

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

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

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