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Last month, I had the good fortune to participate in the Maui Plein Air Invitational event, painting Paradise alongside some of the best plein air painters working today! The 23 invited painters are free to go anywhere on the island and paint for a week. There are a few scheduled paint-outs where we need to work in a specific area, but other than that, we can go all over the island, and work at our own pace.  At the end of the week, we have a big show in Lahaina and present our efforts. It's always great fun and so inspiring.

 

The event started off on Saturday, February 15th with a kick-off paint out at the Lahaina Harbor. As this is my fourth year doing this event, I've become pretty familiar with this area so I didn't worry about finding a painting spot. However, it's been months since I last painted outside, so the jitters were considerable. What do I do in such situations? I go to a familiar motif/ composition. In my case, that would be a one point perspective looking down a street with a couple of cars facing me or away from me. Here's what I did;

 

 

 

Hotel Street

16 x 8 inches, oil on linen panel

available

 

 

This is the street in front of the old Pioneer Inn. I was actually set up on the sidewalk looking down a one-way street, which is why the car on the right is facing me. Most of the view was in shadow when I started but soon the sun came out and blasted everything. I was able to stick to my plan and resisted chasing the light. 

 

Having completed one painting, I felt less nervous but I really needed to catch up on sleep since I hardly slept the previous two nights getting ready for this trip (as in, making panels at 3AM!)  I found a nice shady spot by the shore, and took a nap in my car with my windows wide open. There was a nice tropical breeze and the sound of lapping water and I fell asleep immediately.

 

When I awoke a couple of hours later, I had this sense of urgency about doing another painting. Rather than drive around looking for a spot, I just set up my gear next to my trunk and decided to paint whatever I could see from there. This was my view;

 

Greens And More Greens

9 x 12 inches, oil on linen

available

 

The greens were so overwhelmingly lush! A few notes of reds and turquoise really sang in this sea of greens. 

 

 

Return to Wailuku

12 x 24 inches, oil on linen

sold 

 

This is Wailuku. I feel at ease in this working class neighborhood. There aren't any tourists and the locals are friendly and curious about what I was doing. Very supportive and encouraging, too.

 

Last year I painted a similar view close from this location. It was more or less a blue / bluegreen palette, painted it in the early afternoon. This year I wanted to try a warmer palette and I headed out there to catch the morning light. This turned out to be a two-session painting due to its complexity. These days, in plein air events like this, it's not unusual to see artists doing larger paintings over two or three sessions. When I first started years ago I don't remember seeing many big pieces or multi-session paintings. At 12 x 24, mine is not a huge painting, but still a good size, but required drawing cars and buildings in perspective, so I really needed two sessions.

 

 

He Got To The Other Side

12 x 16 inches, oil on linen

sold

 

I spent the morning in Wailuku, and in the afternoon, I painted in another local working class neighborhood near Paukualo. I started by doing a thumbnail sketch with a Bic pen. As I breathed through the pen cap that I held in between my front teeth, it made a whistling noise which I found amusing. And apparently I wasn't the only one because this rooster came strutting over to me and stood in front of me, looking at me expectantly. Perhaps he thought I'd share my lunch? Upon concluding that I was not going to share my lunch, he started to walk away. But! When I resumed whistling through my pen cap, he came right back and stood in front of me as before. Every time he walked away, I whistled and he came back. In this way, he actually posed for me so that I could paint him from life! Gotta love it. 

 

 

Another Mai Tai,8 x 16 inches, oil on linen sold

There were three scheduled paint-outs during the event, and this is the second one, painted at the swanky Montage Kapalua Bay resort. It's a beautiful property but I found it a little challenging because of the built environment. Painting high-end resort hotels and making it look interesting on canvas is not easy to do, especially for someone who naturally gravitates toward the gritty neighborhoods.

The last couple of years I painted the outdoor bar, which I do enjoy. But I got there a little late and Ken DeWaard and Randy Sexton were already set up painting the bar so I had to move on.

 

As if the motifs weren't challenging enough, the weather decided to throw curve balls at us. Within the three hours, we had sunshine, high winds, down pour, more sunshine, high winds and pouring rain. At one point I was holding an umbrella sideways with one hand (because the rain was blowing sideways) and holding a brush with the other. 

 

Needless to say, the rapidly changing conditions can't be captured in a painting. My solution was to paint from memory - that of the evening hour of the previous few days. Beautiful sunsets are a daily occurrence here on the tropical island, and I have my share of evening sky paintings from past years. While the colors I used are not accurate, that hardly mattered. What I'm after is the feeling I get looking at this light. 

 

 

First Light, D.T. Fleming Beach 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen  available

Painted early morning at D.T. Fleming Beach in Kapalua. This is a beautiful beach and in the morning, hardly anyone is there save surfers and bodyboarders. I set up before the sun came over the West Maui Mountains, and anticipated the first light on the tree at the end of the jutting land mass. The clouds were lit up way before the land, so I had plenty to do while waiting for the first light. 

 

 

A Living History: Wo-Hing Temple, Lahaina,  15.5 x 16 inches, oil on linen sold

 

This year, there was a special emphasis on depicting culturally significant spots and I still hadn't done one toward the end of the painting week. One of the historical buildings was suggested to me, and I went to check it out. This is the Wo-Hing Temple building, built in 1912 (?) as a gathering place for Chinese immigrants. It's a really beautiful building but I hesitated because let's face it; a portrait of a building needs to be drawn accurately and you can't really fudge it. And all those Chinese characters? I know how to write them, so it's not like I'd be faking them but still... Seemed a little daunting considering it needed to be done en plein air, and on the busiest street in Lahaina.

 

I decided to go ahead with it because the little voice in me started daring me and I'm a sucker for a challenge. Besides, I had shipped a beautiful hand-crafted frame for a yet-to-be painted panel, and this was pretty much the last chance I had to do a larger size painting. It seemed a shame at least not try it. 

 

I thought I'd have a hard time doing this painting, and I did. Most of the difficulty came from having to set up on a busy street with cars and pedestrians constantly streaming by. The drawing aspect of the building was less problematic because I chose a one-point perspective vantage point, which is much less complicated than a two-point. It's more formal, direct, and I thought more appropriate for this painting.

 

I used my brighter colors than any of my other paintings. Almost looks like someone else did it. Haha~

 

 

 

My wall at the gala and the exhibition

 

There were a few more paintings that didn't make the cut, so I wiped those. There are always a few stinkers and I just scrape them before I start deluding myself into thinking I can somehow fix them. The problem is usually in design, which is so fundamental that a mere tweak here and there won't help. Better to start afresh than keep fighting an un-winnable battle! 

 

At the gala event, My rooster painting got some recognition. As if painting in Paradise for a week with your tribe isn't reward enough, being awarded for doing what you love to do is such an affirmation. Oh sure, we say we don't care about awards, but I'd be lying if having my ego stroked thus didn't feel like I did something right, or at least I'm on the right path and making progress.

 

The Usual Suspects From L to R: Me, Greg Barnes, Leon Holms, Ronaldo Macedo, Mark Fehlman

 

And so another Maui Plein Air Invitational event came and went. When all's said and done, I really feel fortunate to be a part of this tribe. I get to go to beautiful places and paint alongside some great painters, and hang out and talk art. I love my job!

***

Many of the paintings sold during the event but I did bring home a few. If you'd like more information on the available paintings, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email - I'll be glad to answer questions. I have more Maui paintings in the studio as well, and am happy send you images of those as well. Don't worry, I won't even try to sell you :-D

Mahalo,

-Terry