Return To Paradise

I awaken in the morning on my first day in Honolulu to songs of birds and the deep-throated coos of doves. I am thinking, “I am in Paradise.” Soon I am walking around Magic Island. The air is fresh. Bathers loll on the beach. Gentle waves wash past the reef and lap up on the white sand where all the local Hawaiians congregate on any summer day. Life is easy and laughter is in the air. I feel happy and free.

I am revisiting my old island home after being away 20 years, so long ago. I wonder why I ever left. Why couldn’t I have been content in this lovely Pacific culture? I feel some pain as I think back to the time I had so many pressures, so many reasons. I had just graduated from The University of Hawaii with my Masters of Fine Arts degree and I didn’t know what to do next, with no money, no job, and disappointed in love. I was insecure in every way.

Since I left, Hawaii has changed with more high-rise apartments, more people. But the sun, trade winds, and my good health make me feel that I have not changed so much. I suddenly feel I am Back Home in the Islands. During a month-long stay over Christmas 2010, I revisit my old painting haunts along Nuuanu Stream in the mountains, at Haleiwa on the north shore, at Haunama Bay, the Honolulu Zoo, Kahala, and along Waikiki Beach.

I find the lush foliage and flowers are just as lush. I can’t find the old path I found by following a lop-eared rabbit into the Nuuanu Stream, but I find an old friend who leads me to the Queen’s Pool to paint with my watercolors. These are quickie works, as I eagerly reinvent my own images of the new Hawaii.

I would like to share with you some new watercolors -- my personal mementos of a Return to Paradise.

KING VULTURE

King Buzzard, 4"x6", unframed watercolor, $30.

I find this outrageously colorful bird posing on his perch at Honolulu Zoo. The King Vulture spreads his wings and poses for me for about 10 minutes. He is indeed a lovely though lethal bird to his prey. Speaking of prey, I paint another vulture eating something, which turns out to be a small mouse. That is rather gross. I would paint more exotic birds in their cages at the Honolulu Zoo if they didn’t move around so much and if I were not so tired and sweaty. I have no easel and have to balance my watercolor pad on the guard railing. I have trouble maneuvering the pad, paint brush, paint box, and water. I work very fast from frustration and fatigue and my bird watercolors are very quick. I keep trying to capture my impressions. (4”x6”, unframed watercolor, $30)

GLANCING FROM MAGIC ISLAND 

Glancing From Magic Island, 4"x6", unframed watercolor, $30.

On my morning walk, I see this young man in peaceful reverie in Honolulu’s favorite park where joggers go early morning before the sun grows hot. Now the breeze cools the air. Suddenly I stop when I see a young man sitting on a bench looking out at the ocean. He does not notice I am staring at him from my camp stool. He seems to be waiting for someone as he shifts his position. He answers his cell phone. I try to remember one position I have already put him in, perhaps a pensive one. Perhaps I am the one staring out at the ocean which frames him in thought. I am reminded of a famous German Romantic artist, Karl Friedrich, who painted a man in a black coat standing on a cliff and staring out at the great beyond. (4”x6”, unframed watercolor, $30)

TEMPLE SHACK

Temple Shack, 4"x6", unframed watercolor, $30

I find a shady place to paint which happens to be beneath a massive blooming and sweetly scented Jasmine tree. I am in heaven as I sit in its shade, smell the fragrances, and look upon this small building with red walls – perhaps a shed – which stands at the corner of a Korean temple. Red is always dramatic. And I lose all sense of time. Before I know, it is 4:30, the park is closing, and I must leave. (4”x6’, unframed watercolor, $30)

LIGHTNESS OF LIGHT

Lightness Of Light, 4"x6", unframed watercolor, $30

I look out at the light beach landscape and suddenly it is accented with dark shadows relieved by light accents from the sun- like an opening to the sky or light green grass. I am attracted to a Japanese mother and child. I like the “lightness of light.” How wonderfully different: white on white, rather than dark greens and browns of the tropical forest. I am sitting on a terrace at Kahala Resort Hotel drinking coffee. So I paint and drink coffee for two hours. (4”x6”, unframed watercolor, $30)