Flowing bubble gum, gold dipped mountain tops, and hot pink slices through the landscape. Yep, I am totally in awe, and completely in love with the work of Spanish painter Paco Pomet. Stunning monochrome oil paintings {that would be amazing all on their own} made even more stunning by a perfectly bizarre, colorful pop of surrealism… love.

{via Honestly WTF / Artful Desperado}

There is one week left to go for January’s #creativeUNblock challenge {by New York based artist Trey Speegle, p.79 in Creative Block}, and I’ve been loving every second of it… and it looks like lots of you have too! There are so many pieces that you guys have made/posted. Here are just a few of my favorites so far … oh, so many techniques at work!

…………………………………………………………  by: @mariko_koda   ………………………………………………………….

 …………………………………………………………  by: @jedmikolaites  …………………………………………………………

 …………………………………………………………  by: @kaytet  …………………………………………………………

Ahhh, so good! I hope you get as much out of this challenge as I have! If you want to do it this week before the month is out, find the details here. February’s project is going up next Sunday. Ok, I had originally said the first Saturday of each month, but I can’t wait til February 7th for the first Saturday, can you? I didn’t think so! See you on Sunday February 1 for the next #creativeUNblock assignment!

This is my last day in Hawaii, and I can’t leave without writing a post about Pegge Hopper. She was born in California, and studied painting in Los Angeles. She lived Milan working as an illustrator for two years, and then moved to Honolulu in 1963 to work as an art director at a local agency. It was a visit to the state archives that would change everything… she found old photographs of native Hawaiians and was inspired to start painting again, and boy did she!  She opened her own gallery in Honolulu’s Chinatown in 1983 and hasn’t looked back! Her color palettes are stunning, and I love the combination of the solid dresses and detailed faces/hands. So simple. So unique. So Hawaiian.

Simple, clean, quiet. I love the work {especially the boats!} of Kona, Hawaii based painter Jason Wright. He studied painting & graphic design, which is pretty obvious when looking at these gorgeous, beautifully composed oil & acrylic pieces on panel. Here are Jason’s words about his work:

“I paint what I see.  You can stand anywhere in the world, look any direction, and you will see hard vs soft. The terra with its hard geometric lines against the sky and its fluidity.”

Handmade sewing needle perforations through paper. Seriously. This is the stunning work of Hawaii based artist {and Associate Professor of Art at the University of Hawaii at Monoa} Wendy Kawabata. I’m going to let her explain what this series, titled “Blind Worlds” is about:

This series looks at a range of social engagement from pacifism to activism, 

futility, rebuilding; the paths we travel, the ones we donʼt, the urge to protect, 

to defend, or withdraw; the voices heard, the ones drowned out. Wrapping 

thread, piercing paper with a needle, or staining and seaming together paper, 

reveal a process that is overt in its construction and economy, and provide 

a space for quiet, reconciliation, and attentiveness. The repetition is the insistence 

and pressure of exterior environment onto interior experience.

I have loved the watercolor work of Hawaii-born artist Kiana Mosley for quite awhile, so clearly it only makes sense that I stalk her, I mean follow her, on instagram… she has so much amazing work there! Kiana calls them “studies”, I call them “gah, where can I get this!?” She has always been a master of florals, but she’s recently been playing around with sake cups/vessels and I love them so much. In fact, I’ve even convinced her to sell a few of these {and a couple more} in my gallery! YAY! I think that calls for a pina colada by the pool … I’ll ask them to put it in a sake cup. And so, until tomorrow,

Ahhh, Hawaii. I wrote about Honolulu based artist Brenda Cablayan when I was here just over a year ago, and she seemed like the perfect painter to kick off my week in Maui. Her everyday scenes of local life make me want to turn my vacation into something a little more permanent… you know, something along the lines of moving into in a little pink house, just down a sun-drenched lane from the beach. Sigh.

Oh my word… I LOVE THIS PROJECT! I had so much fun, and I even had a couple of ah-ha moments. {As a refresher, in case you missed the first post about this – on the first Saturday of each month, for all of 2015, I’ll be posting a new project right here. Each one is from my book, Creative Block. I’m doing all of them, and you’re welcome to join in!}

The #creativeUNblock project for January is by Trey Speegle – p.79, Creative Block. Find or draw an image, copy it 50 times on cardstock, and then alter it 50 different ways. Trey also adds, “Create your own tight parameters… then give yourself a LOT of room to play.” Ok, so to be totally honest, I felt a bit overwhelmed. Alter it 50 different ways? With any supplies I want? The possibilities felt endless… but not in a good way. I decided to take Trey’s advice and add one more “tight parameter” for myself. I chose a very limited palette, mainly neon pink/red. I grabbed my gel pens, gouache, bits of cut paper, washi tape, the spirograph set I got for Christmas, and a big cup of coffee!

In the back of my mind, as I was choosing supplies, I thought, “Maybe I should grab some paint.” Nah. I’ve decided that I’m not a painter, so no need for paint. But it kept nagging me… this is supposed to be about being free to experiment. Why wasn’t I truly doing that? I wasn’t even touching the neon gouache that I’d brought out. Then it dawned on me {and I have no idea why I’ve never put this together before}… you can’t spell painting without PAIN. Ha! Very true for me… and it actually made for a fantastic piece in this little series! I decided to stop being such a baby and face my “fears”. I grabbed the paint. Wouldn’t you know, my favorite piece from the whole day was covered in paint {the hands, above}. The thing I had to get over was worrying about “ruining” the piece I was working on. Who cares? That’s the whole point in having 50 in front of you… make make make make… that includes making mistakes – or happy accidents depending how you look at it. Oh, it was amazingly liberating, in so many ways! I’m sooooo doing this again. And again, and again! {No really, I’m going to choose a totally different image, and go again before January is over!}

If you want to share what you’re making for this project, just upload your work to instagram or twitter and hashtag it with #creativeUNblock. I’ve seen lots of you doing it already, and I hope you’re having as much fun as I am! {Just a few weeks til the February project goes up}

I am on my way to Hawaii today, clearly a perfect excuse to write about Margaret Kilgallen’s surfers… again. I have no idea how many times I’ve written about her. I love all of Margaret’s work so much, and have fallen down a ridiculous number of internet rabbit holes searching for more about her. Images, interviews, and my favorite… a handful of documentary style videos in which you can hear her talk about what/who inspired her, and a chance to watch her work. In 2001 at the age of 33 she passed away {a huge loss to the art world}, and so these videos are even more special. My favorite Margaret Kilgallen quote is from this video. Here’s the gist:

“In my own work I do everything by hand… my hand will always be imperfect, because it’s human…  If I spend a lot of time going over the line and over the line trying to make it straight, I will never be able to make it straight. You can always see the line waiver, and I think that’s where the beauty is.”

Sigh. So, so true.

I have written about American painter Ali Cavanaugh a few times over the years. How can I not when she keeps producing work that looks like this!? They are, as she calls them “modern watercolor frescos”. Here’s the description of her process:

“Ali Cavanaugh carefully layers watercolor pigment on a wet kaolin clay surface using tiny round synthetic brushes. Her methods of layering translucent pigment on the white surface give the paintings a sense of  being lit from behind … The luminous quality is often described by collectors as being transcendent or sublime and the detail and light can only be experienced in person. She has spent the last seven years developing her inimitable process and refers to her paintings as “modern frescoes” because they are so uniquely different than what we know of as traditional watercolor paintings … The panels for Cavanaugh’s paintings are constructed by Ampersand Art Supply located in Buda, Texas. Ampersand first treats the wood panels with its trademarked ‘Archivalseal’ primer and then they coat the panels with a ph balanced kaolin clay veneer. This archival clay coating is delicate to the touch but very durable to the watercolor medium.”

Wow, right?