Question 7: What do you paint?

I love painting landscapes en plein air, which means I love to paint and draw on site in nature. My husband and I tried to plan trips to places we both had not seen before and my favorite method was a road trip in a camper so we could see the scenery and stop where and when and how long we wanted. It is the perfect type of travelling for plein air painting. Watercolor is also a good medium to travel with for practical reasons, but even when doing shorter trips, I always take my brushes, pens and paints. You might notice in the picture above that Iʻm wearing red ski pants. that is because when I sit still outside, I need to dress about 10 degrees less to keep warm and comfortable. In Hawaii you may see me in a long sleeved fleece if I am in wind or shade.

Nature is book of revelation to me. In Romans 1:20 Paul writes: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

I paint calligraphic abstracts I call Color Bridges. These are icons which I create in prayer and with intention and intuition that use harmonic color to present the viewer an image that can be used as a tool and aid in devotion. These reflect my prayers for encouragement on various themes such as sympathy, determination, recovery, etc.

I use art as a practice to express and serve others through the stories the artwork tells, or the making of the artwork itself alone or in community.

Question 8: What water do you use?

I use regular plain tap water. But I have used lake water and even ocean water out of neccessity and sometimes curiosity to see what would happen. In watercolor, you can add mediums to increase or decrease the flow of the water and paint, such as gum arabic, ox gall, etc. I once spent a few weeks finding out if I could paint in sub-zero weather. The answer is yes, kind of. You need to use warm water or add alcohol to keep it from freezing, but you canʻt really add layers, unless you take it inside to dry and back out again.

Question: 9: Why do you paint?

I paint because it is a way to create images that tell stories. I like to share stories I have heard from others, my favorite of this genre is wahipana paintings or paintings depicting a location that has stories about it held by the local families who have lived there. I also like to depict scenes or stories that I feel an emotional connection to. Sometimes, I just like to paint to play with the colors and to observe something in nature, like a flower or a scene with light on it. It is both a relaxing and a challenging activity.