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.

🎨