Family

My family has always been supportive of my artistic endeavors.  I have this memory from elementary school days of my mom boiling onion skins in a small pot over the stove.  All this so I could design and dye Easter eggs that would be entered into the “natural dyes” category of my school’s egg decorating contest.  (Looking back, I think the color of these onion skin-dyed Easter eggs marked the start of my love affair with sepia tones and the color of burnt sienna.)  

Fast forward to the early years of my Marketing Communications career, when I was taking on freelance assignments and community service PR projects.  My young nieces and nephew were sometimes called upon to step in as models for photo shoots or as talent in videos on some of my projects.  They’ve appeared in a catalog for the University of Hawaii Bookstore, a video for Hospice Hawaii and some other things that I worked on.      





Whitney's Summer





                Today, my family continues to support my art with encouraging and positive comments.  They also never complain when I take or find a photo of them and it ends being translated to a watercolor portrait.  Thanks to my favorite (family) models for making my painting extra-enjoyable.                    
            

                In 2010, “Whitney’s Summer” was accepted into the Hawaii Watercolor Society (HWS) Open Show, the first time I entered a painting into a juried show.  “Wedding Day Moment” was recently accepted into the juried 2012 HWS Open Show.  It will be part of 2012 Open Exhibit from Sept. 25 – Oct. 19 at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Linekona School Main Gallery.  Please come and visit the HWS Open Show and support local artists!   



Wedding Day Moment







Cleansing My Palette

I’m glad that I didn’t really know a lot about watercolors when I first started.  The initial challenge of applying “paint to paper” was what pulled me in.  I loved how watercolors seem to flow and move on paper, and after drawing and sketching, watercolor painting held the most appeal for me.     

It really takes practice to know how paints will react when mixed with water and brushed on paper, over and with other colors.  Some colors can really brighten your work, while others make it flat and dull.  I needed to become familiar with knowing which paints would give me the right effects and help me keep the “light” in my paintings.  I’m still surprised, for better or worse, when layering in colors.   

            So I’ve been spending some time to cleanse my palette and organize my paints.  I’ve been taking notes on what other artists use.  For now, I’ve narrowed it down to some chosen ones, but I still can’t let go of others.  Alizarin Crimson, for one.  Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna? – had to do a coin toss between you two.  But, Blue Apatite Genuine – did I ever really need this?     

            This is my new palette, for now.  My next painting will let me know if my choices were good.

Daughter of a Double Race

I love looking at the archived black and white photo images of Princess Kaiulani, the beautiful hapa-haole princess who had been chosen by Queen Liliuokalani as heir apparent.  Kaiulani’s story, like many others of Hawaiian royal lineage, was not destined to have a happy ending.  She died when she was 23, after seeing her Aunt Liliuokalani, the Queen, dethroned and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed by the Americans.  Kaiulani lives forever young in images, with her ageless transcendent beauty.  Her father was the Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn, who chose to stay in Hawaii as the place to make his living and start his family.  Her mother was Miriam Likelike, sister to King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani.  When she was a teenager, Kaiulani was sent to the land of her father, Great Britain, for her formal schooling. Princess Kaiulani, from the Hawaii State Archives

       I wanted to portray her in color, imagining the color of her glowing skin and with a touch of the modern to her ball gown.  Her oval face would be composed and of royal bearing, and eyes would convey wisdom with a measure of sadness.                 When she left the Islands to travel to Great Britain for school, the poet Robert Louis Stevenson, who also hailed from Scotland and had been staying in Hawaii at the time, wrote a poem for Kaiulani.  The beginning of that poem reads:  “Forth from her land to mine she goes, The island maid, the island rose, Light of heart and bright of face: The daughter of a double race.” From “To Princess Kaiulani” by R.L.S.