Meet Chauncey, my dream bulldog pup. He's the best: super cute without the flatulence, slobbering and overheating that would occur daily if he lived with me in Hawaii (and reality). Dogs and cats have so much love and emotion in their eyes. I love to paint their sweet faces and I attempt to capture their personality. It is different than painting birds in that aspect. Birds have those cute teardrop eyes, but their personality is in the whole body positioning. With dogs and cats, you don't need to even see their whole body. All they have to do is make contact, eye-to-eye, and its over. I mean, look at those sweet eyes, how can you say no? All dewy-eyed and determined... Little Chauncey is a fictional dog, but we gave him an ole English name because he looks like a real swell chap. Fancy a game of fetch?
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The song generated the painting today. What is funny is that I thought I had a conversation with one of my friends about painting seagulls, and now I'm not sure if that was a dream or reality... At any rate, seagulls got stuck in my brain and the only way to unstick them was to put them in this painting! Even though we have amazing surf here in Hawaii, we don't have that many docks or piers, not like California. So this painting reminds me of beach days in Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz. My older brother taught me to surf all those years back in Santa Cruz on a Nerfboard, rashguard and boardshorts. Did I mention it was in Santa Cruz water in April? I lasted all of ten minutes and decided I didn't like surfing that much. I relinquished my foam-top board to my bro and he went paddling to the outside surf while I sat on the beach drippping wet and freezing my tush off. Two years later, I rediscovered surfing in Hawaii and realized that bikini surfing in the hot sun and rolling waves is way more fun! Looking back, I'm thankful to have shared that experience with my brother... even if he ditched me for the waves ;) Don't feel bad Mike, I get it now... I have sunsets on the brain right now because I working on a really fun large size sunset/wave/wine painting. So when I was creating the concept for this painting, naturally I thought, "this should be at sunset!" The birdies are some of my favorites: Black-Capped Chickadees. Its so nice of the male to give the female a flower before taking her out for a night on the town! (even if it looks like it might have come from the same tree where they are currently perched...) It's good to know that chivalry is still alive and kicking. Every girl likes a flower once in a while, even if it's plucked from her own front yard! (it's the thought, ya know?) So I'm back to my heart birds of Ke Aloha, they just make me smile:) I am not a fan of simply numbering my paintings, not that it's a bad thing, but it's just not my thing. I like each painting to have it's own personality, so I will take the extra hour or so to come up with the best fitting title for every painting. If I just went with numbers, this painting would be titled "Ke Aloha 'I'iwi 3" and to me that doesn't sound as fun as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". You can almost hear the gospel singing "Ain't no mountain high enough! Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from youuuuu!" ...yup, definitely going to have this song stuck in my head all day today!
One thing I miss in Hawaii: snow days. Not like I ever experienced snow days in the Bay Area, California, but almost every winter my family would bundle up and drive to Tahoe to feed our ski/snowboard fix. It always amazed me that those tiny little specks of frozen rain could fall from the sky and accumulate over night, magically buildling massive powdery blankets of snow for us kids to play with in the morning. My little female Northern Cardinal is in awe of the same phenomenon:) Roxy Girl! She was a tough cookie, being almost all black. Fortunately, her mama Johanna sent me some good photos and a video that showed her personality. Roxy is just relaxing with her favorite ball in the lawn. She will look great with her brother "Lucky Boy" (click here to see his portrait). I really enjoy painting family pet portraits. Personally owning a cat and dog, I consider my pets my babies and I have the pictures to prove it! The process of creating someone else's pet child in paint is a little scary only because I really want to capture the pet's personality. When I paint a family pet portrait, I make sketches and get approval. Then I start painting and as I go, I report back to my client to make sure Roxy (or Olive or Teddy...) does in fact look like Roxy and not just a cute dog. Olive, a black lab, was another all-black beauty and my initial painting of her looked great! Except for the minor detail that the black lab I painted didn't look like Olive. So I had to start from scratch and learn from my mistakes. And so it goes! I love how Roxy Girl turned out, and I'm ready for more! Baby Fatties are the best- this is an 'Akohekohe Birdette. The 'Akohekohe, aka Crested Honeycreeper, is a native Hawaiian bird. Currently listed as Critically Endangered, the 'Akohekohe lives in small numbers on Maui. Conservationists are trying to raise their numbers by removing invasive plant and animal species in Hawaiian forests. When possible, conservationists are also hatching and raising babies in bird centers, then releasing them into the wild when they are capable of surviving on their own. My 'Akohekohe Birdette is growing strong. He even looks like he is doing a sidestep dance move. I think I can hear "Baby, I Was Born This Way!" in the background... Ahh, the 'Akepa! I just love their cute little round heads and bodies and the brilliant orange plumage of the male:) I know I've mentioned it before, but it takes the male about four years to fully fill out his electric Tang ensemble... very patient man! I decided to paint my Ke Aloha 'Akepa in their favorite tree, the Acacia Koa (...Koa for short). 'Akepa like to nest in cavities found in old growth trees and hardwoods, so the Koa is a prime choice. The Koa flower is a little powder puff so I added a few in for color and pizzazz. Tiny birds make tiny hearts, but it's not the size of the heart that matters! For more information on purchasing kto ARTwork, go to my CONTACT page or visit Genesis Galleries Hawaii. For more information on helping the conservation of Hawaiian bird species, check out: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/oceansandislands/hawaii.html If you would like to help out with donations, check out: https://www.abcbirds.org/membership/donate.cfm make sure to scroll down to "Bird Conservation In Hawaii" on the "I wish my donatation to support:" line. I had "Fly Me To The Moon" stuck in my head for a few days while designing and painting this one... These are sweet little American Yellow Warblers out on the town for a late-night date. I wanted to make the male looking like he's on top of the world with his eyes closed, but I think he might be asleep already, as content as can be. He reminds me of my husband when we were stuck in the Denver airport due to a storm that iced the plane and delayed our flight until the morning. I stayed awake the whole night while he snored on the floor, curled up with a bag as a pillow and another as a leg rest. Oh well, at least my lady Yellow Warbler a warm body to snuggle with under the full moon! |
AuthorKaren Obuhanych (kto ART) is a Hawaii-based artist who relishes in the simple, happy moments of everyday life. Archives
May 2019
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