Local Hawaiian Art

I was lucky enough to get to go to Hawaii for a few weeks. It came about suddenly, and I am enjoying every moment of it. It is our first time here, and coming straight from Guam, we were expecting the climate to be the same. Wrong! Hawaii is much less humid, the breeze i

s comfortably cool, and NO insects! Very nice indeed. I am spending a lot of time just walking around, watching people, looking at stores, sitting on the beach, reading, listening to the waves and the breeze ...And of course I have visited a few local art galleries as well. I can’t help but stop and check it out - whether I like it or not, and whether I find it interesting or not. I am always curious. And not surprisingly I see a lot of Hawaiian land - and seascapes, flowers and hula girls. Guam is different, yet similar. The heritage naturally is different, yet the nature and flowers seem alike, to me, anyway. So in a lot of ways, the art here reminds me of the island I just left for a few week

s.

Thinking back - where I grew up on the Danish West Coast, it was the same thing: people painted what they were surrounded by. Most of my fellow artist were mainly inspired by the rugged Nature around the Northern Sea. The tall, freezing waves, the violent wind and the rough beaches. A differently beautiful landscape (-and about as opposite to this tropical setting as you can get). Every time I go home to visit, I see the same motifs and the same cool blue color schemes. And over time (perhaps because of not living there anymore) it has become quite nostalgic to me.

I guess it is a natural thing for your surroundings to rub off in your work to a certain extend. I have found that myself, even though all my environments have been extremely different. I think I pick up something from each place, and carry it with me in my work from place to place.

Snapshots from a local art gallery booth in Honolulu

On Guam you are surrounded by flowers year round. Exotic, colorful flowers. This photo is taken in our garden. Suddenly they have found their way into my mind and my work...

In the past I have never really been that interested in flowers in art! While still living in NJ I did make a couple of paintings before leaving that, contained flowers. I don’t know where they came from, but somehow they fitted in with the theme and feel of my work. I wonder if my mind was slowly trying to get used to the idea of living on Guam...? Here on this tropical island, you are surrounded by flowers year round: Easter, Christmas - midsummer. Makes very little different in the flower department! Nature is full of colors, often in the shape of flowers on the ground or bushes. Perhaps it is seeing all these stunning nuances and gentle shapes around me - maybe the view from my studio - or simply the heat? But whatever it is, I have gained an interest in the world of colorful exotic flowers in painting... And of course, when I realized this mind shift, the first artist I went to explore was Georgia O’keeffe. I now own a little art pocket book with one hundred of her flowers.

I was always aware my work changed with my surroundings. Never the less - I never really saw a flower chapter coming...

Georgia O’Keeffe has recently moved into my art library...

First Painting 2009

Looking back, I (subconsciously) seem to change things up in January. I always look over my work in the beginning of a new year: materials, direction, statement etc. and generally think it over. I usually know exactly where I am going with a painting, even before I begin. I am planning ahead, and can almost see the finished piece in my mind.

This painting was different - on purpose. I wanted to work more loosely, and had only decided on the main figure and color scheme, but what else was going to happen in the picture, as well as a title, I did not know.

As I went along, I painted these water lilly-like flowers, very quickly and with runny watery paint. I started to think of the painting as “Water Lilly”. But as the flowers appeared, and also covered the dress, I realized that it was a different painting I was working on; instead of it being “Water Lilly”, it suddenly turned in to “Wallflower” instead. Very interesting I thought - and very unexpected.

I clearly like to be in control of my work, know where I am going and to have (at least some kind of) an idea of the final outcome. But it is also very exciting when the painting leads you.

Another change in this piece (as well as in the next two pieces I am currently working on) is that the canvas is covered in a plain white paper collage, purely for texture, but there is no additional collage involved.

I’ll keep playing, and should perhaps be more open to letting things happen as I go and listen to the painting, instead of just listening to me.