South Point Tree (Hawaii)

 

kiawe tree bent by the wind 

We went to the Big Island, Hawaii, to celebrate my husband's birthday in February. 

While driving the road to the southernmost point of the USA, 

we saw this tree. The wind was not howling that day;
maybe just a breeze ... but the tree had been permanently bent 

by the usually strong and constant wind.

It was such a stark and beautiful sight that we took photos.

Here is the picture story of how the painting 

came to be.

(scroll to the end to see the final)

The tree was all by itself in the dry field.
Beyond the tree, you can see the ocean,
with no land for 7000 miles until Antarctica. It is kind of a lonely place.

Another reference photo.

I had gathered some coconut fiber, just a bit, 

while we were at Punalu'u Beach. 

I had painted there before  on a previous visit. I posted about it in 2014, 

but the photos from that post have disappeared from this blog. 

I don't know why ... i hope to find out.

I used Golden acrylic gloss medium to adhere the coconut fibre (coir)

to the prepared wood panel.

I set the panel on top of our wooden rack to dry the acrylic medium
which will embed the coir.

I decided to use acrylic paints as my underpainting and it went very well.

Here is the aftermath of painting with oils on top of the acrylic.

And below is the final painting.

South Point Tree (kiawe) - Hawaii    acrylic, coir & oil on panel     11.5 x 22+ inches

Thank you for reading! Take great care.

🎨

A Whimbrel - from carving to drawing to painting

 Bird carvings, I have learned, are fun still lifes to paint. 

I have been sketching many of the birds

Matt carves, too, 

 to have a record ... and i love to draw.

The drawings below are good practice 

for getting the figure on the panel.

 

Whimbrel   graphite on paper   5.5 x 4 inches

Whimbrel   graphite on paper  6 x 6 inches

a Matt Robus wood carving of a Whimbrel

(sitting up on a bookcase, ready to be painted,
you see in the photo below where I put it)

the sketch in charcoal on the wood panel, birch, i think

As I do lots of times, I forgot to take any progress pics.

Whimbrel   oil on panel   14 x 14 inches

I will be putting this elegant bird on my website soon. Here is a link if you

are interested in finding out more about the large shorebirds, the Whimbrels.

Numenius phaeopus

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions,

please contact me! either by way of my website 

TeriRobusStudio

(so happy to have a website now!) or email me.

teri.robus@gmail.com

If you would like to follow my painting journey,

please add your email and sign up at the "Keep in Touch" section 

of my website. You can also leave a comment here, with your email

and I can add you to my newsletter subscriber list!

Stay safe and healthy!

🎨

ps If you want to see more of Matt's bird carvings,

his facebook page is:

Working Birds Decoys

Story of an abstract painting/support for Ukraine

 

Kind of amazed that I didn't do a blogpost about this painting. I must've
posted it on IG or FB and then forgot to put it on here.

Whatever ... I am doing it now.

At the beginning of the pandemic,

2020

in February

in 5° weather

I went outside to paint. 🥶

I really don't like cold weather 

because when I lived and dog-mushed in Fairbanks, 

a few of my fingers and toes must have gotten a bit of frostbite ...

they get cold and numb very fast now.

I painted - quickly -

this tiny painting:

oil on board  4 x 6 inches

In January, 2020, Matt and I were able to go see

the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. 

I was interested in the paintings Monet made featuring a snowy scene.

I looked hard at his painted snow.

I decided to make a large painting from my little freezing study.

The following

photos show the progress.

I love the layers that happened and the winter-cold colors.

Winter - it begins      16 x 20 x 1.5 inches       oil & cold wax on prepared gesso panel

Due to the terrible war started by Russia against Ukraine,

I would like to help the people of Ukraine in some way. I have decided 

to offer this painting, already named over 2 years ago,

for sale and I will donate the money to the 

Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund.

Thank you for considering buying this painting. I have it on my website 

now under Paintings/Abstract.

TeriRobusStudio

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy painting, happy collecting

and pray for Ukraine. 🙏

🎨