Dusk at Kaunao'a Bay

Date: 02/25/2012

Location: Mauna Kea Beach

Size: 60" x 48"

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

Artist's Comments: The second of two commissioned paintings was a wonderful treat to create.  The first painting "House on the Hill" featured the shoreline, hotel and slopes of Hualalai mountain. For the second piece, the collectors wanted to capture another view of the beautiful bay and provided me with a photo that they captured from the hotel itself looking down on the beach.  The picture was taken during the day and they asked if I could create a sunset scene for them.

Sunsets are quickly becoming one of my favorite subjects to paint.  I started by reviewing countless photos and in-person viewings of Hawaii's sunsets (the field work required by this painting was just treacherous!). Since the color scheme of the decor is orange and turquoise, I was particularly interested in a golden sunset that faded into subdued aqua tones.

One day while enjoying an afternoon cocktail under the shade of a friend's lanai, we witnessed a wonderful sunset.  The sun was just above the horizon and took on a wonderful orange, yellow, white shade that was so luminous yet, not too bright for our gaze.  At this moment, I looked around and noticed that at this time of day, the surrounding landscape took on a wonderful glow.  All the colors were visible but seemed to be kissed with a tinge of gold. That was my inspiration and I did my best at recreating this luminous ball of fire as it made its journey to the other side of the world. 

The collectors wanted me to create this piece with some realism but mixed with an impressionistic feel.  I decided to render the palm trees and structures with more careful detail.  For the ocean and foreground foliage I decided to use a palette knife to create an impressionistic feel and to bring in texture to the painting. I painted these areas with subdued tones so that your eye is drawn into the bright sea and setting sun.

Collector's Photo

To view other paintings in my collection, click on the section labeled "View all SitaScapes" located at the top right of my blog. I have categorized my paintings by the month as I complete them.

House on the Hill

Date: 02/01/2012

Location: Mauna Kea Beach

Size: 80 x 60 (diptych)

Medium: Oil on stretched canvas

Artist's Comments:  After thorough research and numerous studies completed; I was finally ready to start on my first commission project at Mauna Kea Beach.  The clients were just finishing their home located just on the slopes behind this picturesque beach.  They wanted to bring the warmth of the shoreline into their home and needed a 2-panel painting that would appear on either side of their entertainment armoire.  Each panel needed to be a vertical composition but when viewed together, they create a horizontal scene.

I chose a perspective looking back over the shoreline onto the wonderful tall palm trees and onto the summit of Hualalai mountain.  Other than a fabulous, powder-soft beach, Mauna Kea holds some of the tallest and most graceful palm trees which line the beach and neighboring hotel.  Just behind these palms is a dense overgrown jungle that creates wonderfully cool shadows contrasting against the warm shoreline. I created texture in the skyline by using my palette knife to mimic the soft clouds which seemingly snuggle up to the slopes of Hualalai.  To contrast this texture, I create the shoreline and ocean with layers of softly painted variations of azure blue and bright turquoise.

Throughout the painting, I tried to allow bits and pieces of the under-painting to show through so a tie was created with the iconic "Mauna Kea orange".  This color was my primary accent and is a nice contrast against turquoise blue.  It wasn't chance that these two colors were the inspiration behind the color scheme provided to the interior designer, Eric Henderson/Henderson Design Group and in turn were the requested color scheme in this painting.

As I developed this scene, I quickly realized the challenge for me would be to capture the vastness of the beach.  Towards the completion of the painting, I decided the best way to achieve the scale of the shoreline was to add people.  I'm not the most comfortable at painting figures but drawing on the inspiration, I went forward and drew "mud people".  Without worrying about details in the figures, I simply used mud-like shades to renter the faces and in turn provide a sense of the sun shading out all detail. 

Of course the final detail to add and the inspiration for this title, was the owner's home painted on the slopes of Hualalai barely peering over the lush foliage.

To view other paintings in my collection, click on the section labeled "View all SitaScapes" located at the top right of my blog. I have categorized my paintings by the month as I complete them.