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A Hawaiian woman of goodly years sits on a mat beside the beach, her feet bare, her head and neck adorned with flowers. She has been braiding ti leaves into sandals, but at this moment her gaze is fixed beyond her meticulous work, to the sea and sky. Her expression is peaceful, reverent, reflective...
Hikers walk on a remote mountain trail, dwarfed by towering trees shrouded in mist. So vivid is the scene you can almost feel the cool air and hear the crunch of their shoes on twigs and fallen leaves. You know it is quiet there. Very, very quiet.
Gold, silver, ruby, black onyx -- koi glide in a pond, their intriguing markings reflecting the brilliance of precious gems and metals. The water ripples and swirls, becoming an entity with as much life and beauty as the fish themselves...
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“I think of myself as a re-bloomer, rather than a late one,” says Sandra Blazel. The Oahu-raised artist bloomed the first time as a consultant and data processor during a successful 18-year business career on the Islands. Beginning in 1991, she bloomed a second time as an award-winning professional painter.
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In the 1970s, Anthony Casay was the undisputed star of Hawai‘i’s art world. His signature seascapes applied the rich, balanced composition of the Old Masters to the Islands’ colorful splendor. His groundbreaking style, dubbed Hawaiian Romantic Realism, was a hit among tourist collectors in Waikïkï, then the center of Hawai'i's retail art world. Eventually, however, Casay faced competition from talented up-and-comers who mimicked or innovated his form
Palm trees and tropic skies aren't novel motifs in island art, which may explain why they're so often stuck in the background. Maui artist Charlie Lyon instead hones in: one solitary palm. One glimpse of capricious sky.
Michael Furuya’s vivid wildlifes blend striking realism with the life force of Hawaii’s native species
"The
world opened up and I was compelled into it. The world is my palette, theatre,
audience and earthly surrender to paradise and the sea.” So declares Hawaiian painter Christian Riese
Lassen. In this case, the romantic style actually is the man, both in his
language and his remarkable paintings.
LORI HIGGINS WAS ON HER WAY TO PALAU (a tropical island some 4,600 miles west of Hawai‘i) for a diving trip when a layover in the Aloha State changed her life. She decided to check out Maui. “It felt so right I never left,” says Higgins. Her fourth day on Maui, she started working as a scuba instructor at the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa. Six months later, Higgins picked up a paintbrush and became a self-taught artist, consumed with the study of the old art masters and determined to find her own creative distinction.
What happens when a classical Italian sensibility—embracing the Old World traditions of Michelangelo and the Renaissance—meets Hawai‘i’s island culture? In the breathtaking collaborative art of twin brothers Marcello and Alessio Bugagiar, the result is not culture-clash, but glorious
"I am an Impassionist!" exclaims the artist. "If I had to label my artistic style it would be called ‘Impassionism,’ because my main goal is to deeply move the viewer. I want to show the viewer what I am really seeing and feeling. I want to say, ‘Look at these colors! Taste the salt in the water! Feel the sun on your skin!’"
