"ALOHA" is more than a greeting!

     The local art association holds a "Faces & Figures" show each year.  Focusing on people, the entry can be an official portrait to figure drawing, or a painting of the figure in action.  This year I decided to do a tribute to the people of Lahaina, Hawaii. 

    I started with a drawing of the fire in the background at daybreak. In the foreground, I focused on a man pulling himself out of the water across the bay as several hands reach out to help him. Each hand represents a particular type of assistance from comfort, to warmth, to medical care, then to food and clothing, and finally to rebuilding. Interspersed among the hands are words hidden in the greenery and hibiscus flowers as seen in Hawaii. 

    The concept idea was fairly easy; the execution was not!  It is a large 30 x 40 painting and needless to say, the human body isn't necessarily easy to paint. Pushing a body up out of water requires shoulder muscles and muscles in the arms to contract and this must be portrayed in a believable way.  Also, depicting a wet body and dripping water are involved. I even had one of the hands halfway under water.  Talk about assigning myself a hard task! Hey we like challenges, right?  How else can we learn if we don't challenge and push ourselves?  

    Well, it didn't win an award, but I am very proud of the results! It is something new and more difficult than I have accomplished before and I am happy with that.  I happened to show it to a doctor friend of mine and his response was "That makes a powerful statement."  I'll take it!

                                                "ALOHA"

                                                 30 x 40

                                                    Oils