Calmin' down...

Painted this one a month ago... heading into Pine Trees (but before the "gnarly bump"!) and standing in the skinny shade of a kiawe tree.

Mornin...

Held my plein air class this morning down by the keiki beach on the north side of Honokohau Harbor. It was warm and sunny with  Hualalai Mountain's purple haze in the distance. A cute dog was "greeting"  everyone walking by while the song of a conch shell beneath the palms signaled a couple renewing their vow of 20 years. The sound of their laughter making ME laugh!
This is the painting I did... 8" x 10 " oils.

Ants in my paints...

  Started out just fine... Ole Blue (my Mazda pick-up) took the winding bumping sandy road with  the really (really) gnarly pitted turn into Pine Trees where I found a serene spot beneath a Heliotrope tree. Set up my easel, ...sweet crashing waves (music to my ears!),... cool breeze on my face, a lone surfer in the sea... I set out my paints and "dove in" to work. Mmmm...heaven! I was lovin it.

  I was about an hour into my painting when another car arrived that parked about 20 feet away.  Out came a partying beer drinking couple, their two huge and very curious dogs and a LOUD tinny sounding radio !! Now theres MILES of deserted beaches around, but noooo... I am at their musical mercy, and boy it was real tough staying in my mellow mood. 

Next (yes, next!) came an enormous truck, and now he drove past all of us to the TOP of the lava at the water's edge (almost into the ocean), flung open the doors and out spill all generations of folks ready for a fun day at the beach. 

"sigh"... I took a deep breath, and kept on painting. (My kingdom for some earplugs!) 

  And then... the drive home. After discovering my purse and my paints were filled with tiny ants from setting them on a tree stump, I dumped the little buggers and nudged the almost stuck truck out of the soft sand and headed south to the road out I remembered from years ago. Only now that road was closed for paving, and the "old" old road which has not seen a car in recent years was the only one left to choose. I got about 3/4 mile till I came to a big rocky pit. And after that stood a crumbly hill of sharp and jagged broken lava. Yet another "sigh". (No, actually it was more of an "arrrggghh!".)  Ole Blue is no 4x4  and she wanted to turn around, but there was no space wide enough. So, backing up a good quarter mile , dodging some tar patches and potholes, and listing into others, I finally got her turned around, nose pointed back to the beach.  Back to brave the gnarly pitted turn (which truly looked waaaay worse going back out)  and finally "whew".. we made it back to solid road. What a good lil' truck- I promised her a car wash!

   Anyway here's the painting!  Such memories are made of this...

  

Soon Come... my first "Hale Kai" Open Studio!

 In April I moved my art into this wonderful garden studio, painted  the floor deep blue (cause all I was missing was the ocean!) and "ta da!" - now I cannot wait  to show some of my newest paintings!  The opening is set for Tuesday May 29, from 4 to 7pm.  

Included are my newest luscious landscape "lava/sea" palette knife series (lots of juicy paint)  and my latest Tango dancers series. (Now there's a variety!)  Might even just put out that latest woodblock print of Natalia.... oh and those watercolors of the Place of Refuge... and hmmm..what about those contemporary pieces I did using Drywall compound... oh and maybe some wine and yummy chesse...

(hey, now it's sounding like fun!) 

Blacks 'n Blues

  Yet another fine day...especially when it involves painting! Once again my favorite spot  on the Kona side (it's a secret...shhhhh..) though I spent hours (really!) trying to escape the drizzle and set up long enough to paint. Soon as I would unfold the easel legs the first darn drops would hit! Ah well... rain IS always a blessing here in the islands. Mahalo nui loa, 'cause I  truly am blessed.

9" x 12". Big fat layers of paint with the pallete knife. No brush. Big mess!! (and crazy fun) Enjoy!

Aloha, Lynn

Woohoo whatta day! Up bright and early to meet with my painting students at Manini Beach, where it was just deliciously beautiful! Sparkling blue- green ocean, hazy purplish tint to the cliffs of Kealakekua Bay and a baby blue sky. We painted our hearts out trying to quickly capture those lava rocks, breaking waves and cliffside silhouettes,  then donned fins and masks and rewarded ourselves with a dip in those deep blues. Darlin, It just doesn't get better than this.

Aloha, Lynn
Ps: painting images "soon come"!

Back to Basics...the nude.

What is more inspiring...( other than the sea?)

I sketched this one a few years back, and recently added paint. 

PS: I'm planning some Life Drawing and Painting Classes for Women

I'll keep you posted... (and may be in need of models...)

Aloha, Lynn

Painting Away in Paradise...

This is  one of my favorite spots here on the Big Island. I 'm always happy painting by the sea and my lil truck ('ole "Dusty") seems to point toward the coast if I give her free rein.  So I took my kit to a small beach by the edge of the lava and painted contentedly for hours in the shade of a scrawny coconut tree. 

Afterwords- my reward!- relaxing in the cool tidal pools. Luscious!

This is my newest (and 'tres exciting!)  way of painting, all done with a palette knife. Very messy too, I might add, or hmmm...perhaps it it just me?  I can only hope I wear the colors well!

Aloha, Lynn

Back in Kona!  

You can take the girl outa Kona, but you can't take Kona outa the girl...

Missed my sunshine and wasn't real thrilled about winter's  howling winds and rain on the northern tip of our fair isle (and molding paintings - yipes!)  So... I moved back.  Now I call "home" a cute bamboo hale with a beautiful of view of the coast.  Ahhhh... now this is Hawaii...

Here's a new one I finished up last month, inspired by my own "lil darlin"...  enjoy...

"DREAMING IN COLOR"  15" X 56" oils on wood panel

KEEI BEACH

   I have a love affair for boats. Something speaks to me in the gentle curve of their sloping sides, their kinship to the sea (especially smaller wooden kayaks and canoes), shaped by hand with love and memory.

  So no wonder I was drawn to paint this plein air scene (on location) at Keei Beach in south Kona. The warm sun, the dappled shade, the boat resting softly on the beach before another voyage out,...always  feels pretty soothing to me.

It is painted in oils on an 8" x 16"  canvas panel  Enjoy.

Aloha, Lynn

WET PAINT!! 9/25/11

Oh inspiration is a funny thing. A phrase, "sea blankets", that I read regarding a different show of art, was the catalyst at first. Then, imagery unfolding, I saw flat bright blues and greens and a woman of the sea. She is big and strong and seducing, as the sea seduces me.... I cannot be away long from those cool waters, that warm embrace, that "other" underwater world. I happily dove into my paints, and here is my newest work from my little hale in Hawi, entitled, "the sea blankets". Enjoy!
Aloha, Lynn

August 19, 2011
"Following Seas"

My father was a sailor. I’ve always felt that he passed on to me my “saltwater blood” and so because of him I find a need to always be close to, or in the ocean.

He chose our homes beside bodies of water, on waterways or lakes, and as babies we were swaddled and laid in the cockpit of his boat so he could enjoy every bit of lovely wind, family at his side.

I painted this seascape in May as he took his life’s last breaths in Florida. I was here in Hawaii, spending some time at Kua Bay, just north of Kona, immersed in it’s warm turquoise waters as I tried to sooth my heavy heart, sending love and prayers long distance. Returning home I painted a calm sea with the sun shining mid day.

Toward the end of the week and the end of his days, I realized, “He was a sailor! He would want wind!” and I completely painted over my still waters to give him “fair winds and following seas” and a warm sunset guiding him to the horizon.

Aloha Dad. I love you.

HAWI

They call it “God’s Country.” When I describe, amazed, Hawi’s howling winds, or the strong “squalls” and rain soaked trades that constantly buffet my little cottage all night till it feels like it’s gonna lift off and fly to Kansas, people who live here just grin and say, “yeah, it’s God’s country!”
I moved here a month ago to the north end of the Big island, but am only now just finally getting“settled in”. After 12 years in Kona, I said good-bye to my cozy little rental (with the big yard that I will NEVER have to mow again!) and my thirty foot palm trees that I planted from baby coconuts (that needed their fronds trimmed) , and my sweet neighbors whose (often spicy!) conversations would waft through my house like bar-b-q smoke. I knew their kids. I knew their kid’s kids. I knew their cats, for Pete’s sake!
I bid adieu to “vog” and my daily itchy eyes and morning cough and sinus “stuff”.
And now I drive home with spectacular ocean views of the Kohala coast. I come home lush green landscape where i don’t need to lift a finger , to a porch railing lined with bananas, papayas and a pomelo that the owner of my cottage picked from the “orchards” that morning near my house. I cozy up on my little front porch and watch the evening violet sky as the clouds carry the sun west. The fish pond filled with lilies below my porch simply sits lovely. Of course there would be a fish pond here - water baby that I am!
Feels good, it does. Feels like home sweet home to me.

TANGO ALOHA

Simply put, I love to dance!

As I stumble through my Tango lessons, it all comes down to that "happy glow" I feel ...the excitement when the first strains of a song make me want to move and the silly grin on my face when I realize "I'm dancing! this lovely dance.

What if everyone danced?! Ahhh...What a sweet world it would be....

"

"umikumamaiwa"

"What a day for a daydream"...snippets of that old John Sebastian song were playing in my head as I headed toward Pu'uhonua O Honaunau (Place of Refuge) to spend the day. The drive there was breathtakingly lovely as I wound along narrow roads beneath flowering purple jacaranda trees...ahhh...spring on the Big Island! I found my favorite "refuge" in the picnic area to the south side of the park, and painted for hours. Heaven.

"umikumawalu"

To quote the poet Neruda, in "It Is Born"

"Here I came to the very edge
where nothing at all needs saying,
everything is absorbed through weather and the sea,
and the moon swam back,
it's rays all silvered,
and time and again darkness would be broken
by the crash of a wave,
and every day on the balcony of the sea,
wings open, fire is born,
and everything is blue like morning."

Two years have passed since I wrote my last entry. Two years full of challenges.
A serious boat accident in which I was injured,... my precious daughter flew out of the nest (to California!), ...the passing of my beautiful mama ...and finding a new job.

Breathe.

Today I am thankful.
For the laughter of friends ,..beloved family, ...good health and having a job I enjoy, ....being blessed with the ability to paint,... joy in a Tango turn, and sunshine on another luscious wave.

C'est la vie.

14. umikumamaha


I have been listening. This morning it was a chorus of birds at dawn, dwindling down to one lone and probably lost hen who is clucking merrily about two houses down the street. The other night when I went to bed, it was late, around 11 or so, I heard a cowboy! They're called "paniolo" here, and he was rounding up his cattle, whistling and calling the strays until at least midnight, moving up the mountain, and getting fainter and fainter as I began falling asleep. I was enchanted by the sound, and by the idea that we live here not a quarter mile from the heart of this small town, yet in the hills and dense trees on the borders of yards are roaming animals and cowboys. Four years ago I could hear the cattle close by "mooing" at night. The "amorous cows", I called em, and told my daughter, "they'll be gone in 5 years time." You don't hear them much anymore. I still remember the day I was heading into town when this HUGE big black boar came bursting out of the trees, ran lickety split along with all the cars for about 50 yards, then disappeared back into the thicket. love it.


Oops. The "hen " is now crowing. Ok, it's a rooster. Just hoping he stays two houses away, ....I had one cocka-doodle-dooing right out side my bedroom window once... all night long!!

Now on to art! Lotsa changes, in jobs, my schedule, my art! I "jumped ship" and went from working days on the sailboat to afternoons and evenings on a small dinner cruise boat. And found the change in my schedule meant adjustments in my time, my habits, my painting. Had a commission in January that proved challanging- I always find it difficult to paint "for someone else." But here's the finished piece,- a wedding gift for the daughter of my client, and so a bit stylized to make it romantic. You know..."love birds"...

The next piece, my "pole bendin", has been reinvented several times...sigh...I am "only the brush" and this was a restless painting that would not leave me alone till this last image. It started out as a plein air piece I did on location at the Old Airport. Not happy to be "just another landscape", oh no! it begged me to redo it.
And on and on ...it was such a relentless nag! "Build me a frame!" it demanded! "Now paint it another color"! Boy... I was so tempted at times to sneak it into my pickup and over to the local landfill, but hey- how many times do you have a talking painting? "Now repaint the whole dang thing!" It was not happy until the final image you see here. 32" x 48".


I've not heard a peep since. Only the moonlit cowboys...

Hot on the heels of that one (hey, wait-what about my hammock?) is my "tribal whale". Been building in my mind for a coupla months, till I put charcoal to paper then brush to board and this is the result. Inspired by my gentle brethren in the sea, we saw some beautiful breeches on the boat this season before they headed back to Alaska. The background is a panel of ground plaster mixed with blue and green acrylic on wood that I made a few years ago as part oof a 60 piece "Sea Wall." 24" x 48"










Thar she blows!
hmmm....I'm feeling an octopus coming on soon...The next thing ya know I'll be reading Dr.Doolittle again.
(Ok...., ok, I loved that book.Just don't tell anyone...)

and **news flash** I have a new online art shop at lcapell.etsy.com ...go ahead and take a peek! Hope to keep on top of it and updated frequently

peace and aloha,
lynn

All photos and art are copyright lcapell and my not be reproduced without permissin. Mahalo

13. umikumamakolu


New year, new blog... Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! New resolves once again to be the best person/mama/daughter/artist I can be....to not waste a precious minute of this amazing life (well maybe I can cut myself a teeny bit of slack there cause lying in a hammock IS where I do my creative thinking) . Ahhh how I love the "1st" and always consider it a clean slate.
To ring in the new one, I am replacing my "nom de plume" -"ellecapell" -with my true name, (or at least initial) L.Capell. No I was not "on the lam". It seems I was only confusing my friends, family, cats (yes they read this too) and immigration authorities with my attempt to be witty by spelling out my first initial as "elle". Some of you caught on , but the votes are in- and since I do sign my art work as "L. Capell " ...well,,,, c'est moi (French for "silly me").

I'm turning over a new leaf in painting as well. Starting with "remaking" a painting I did last year. It's a seascape, plein air, painted on location at the Old Airport...nice but not "NICE with the exclamation points" (my own thoughts) . So I sanded it down, left the ghost image, and am now repainting it to a much more exciting, and "arty image"!! Never content to do things "the easy way",... oh no...I struggle with those inner "painting demons" until I feel that I have done a truly new take on an old theme. Either that or messed it up completely. As it is still a work in progress, I won't have the piece posted till the next blog (this is just a teaser) ( and I really am working, and NOT in the hammock!)


Till then, I shall warm your lil hearts with some snaps of snowy Mauna Kea. Absolutely gorgeous, especially when viewed from the sunny and palmy (is that a word?) beaches of the Big Island.
Wishing everyone blessed health, happiness and peace.
aloha,
Lynn (my real name, I promise)

Pics are copyright of L.Capell and my not be used without my permission. Mahalo!

12. umikumamalua
(now say that 5 times, AFTER two mugs of eggnog!)

A wild week of torrential winter rains and lightening bolts! The big bad storm dumped 7 inches of rain here in Kona! That's makes for a lotta green grass in this yard. So no boat trips this week, I spent it on the boat in dry dock (now there's a lie-! Ha! "dry" dock indeed) glancing nervously at the gathering black clouds all around us and muttering charms to keep the lightening bolts from kissing our mast (and my ***!)
I heard Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa have slopes full of snow - I'll have to run out and shoot some photos soon as the clouds blow away a bit. I love the image of snow in Hawaii!
Christmas is just around the (stormin) mountain, and so not having any Christmas paintings this year (yet) I'll post one I did in Panama a few years back, that I used as my Christmas card at the time.
We lived in this small village on the Island of Taboga, and as in most Catholic pueblos in Latin countries, much of the center of the village revolves around the church. Well this was a 400 year old church with an old bell tower, and a huge old bell that was missing a clapper. So to ring the bell, the local kids would go up the winding stairs and beat on the bell with sticks. And stones. The result was usually akin to someone shooting at a gong or a trashcan lid with a potato gun. A godawful-stopyouinyourtracks (so you could cover your ears) kind of noise . Some of the more talented ones would make an interesting rhythm, not that much more pleasant but at least with a catchy little beat.
I climbed up there myself (I'm a sucker for an unusual perspective) and found this charming view of the staggered little houses encircling the plaza, and was enchanted by the "looking down" view of the rooftops of the church and the village. Seems "Christmas-y" to me, with the cross, the rusty tin roofs and the red clay tiles, and makes me smile smile to remember this scene and the "tolling" of the bell. Peace to all.

Mele Kalikimaka,
Lynn

all photos are the copyright of L.Capell and may not be reproduced without permission. Mahalo.

11 umikumamakahi
"There's a kind of hush..." (Remember that song?) The power is out, ...funny how that tends to send people in a tizzy. Makes em wander around on the streets in the dark and talk to total strangers, wondering “what’s going on?? What do we do with no tv, no computers, no music, just darkness and quietness.” Wow...sooo very quiet and so nice. I can hear a dog barking far away. Hmm.....kinda makes me want to pick up my guitar, or howl at the moon! Course I might get something thrown at me, (either way-ha!)
So-typing the the dark- a perfect excuse ahead of time for any typos I may make.

Did a little snorkeling today, midday off the boat (of course I was working!) and you can feel the “nip” in the water... temperature’s dropped a few degrees, everyone was shivering and a lovely shade of blue, but still “wet heaven”. Speaking of blue, there are a couple of patches of blue rice coral that are found only on this island, and it’s as if somone painted it, the color is such an unbelievable vivid lapis blue. I also saw an amazing creature...an "ocean angel!" Well, that was my name for it anyway. Imagine this...a delicate transparent pink body, about 1/2" long, with two symmetrical transparent pink "wings", it was so tiny and ethereal, just drifting along in the current. It probably was some kind of jellyfish, but it DID resemble Tinkerbelle! (the Captain said I just must've held my breath waaay too long....!)

Went to Maui in August, flew in a tinnny - (typo, but it WAS tinny -and tiny!) 6 seater. Smooth hop over but appearantly that’s not always the case, judging from the sigh of relief from the other passengers when we landed. I had a two week art show at Sargent gallery in Lahaina, with three evenings of painting in the gallery for folks on Thurs, Fi and Sat. With food poisoning, no less! I shoulda been an actress for that performance as a painter! Spent a day sightseeing -we even drove the famous “Road to Hana”...hoo boy....you drive and drive and DRIVE , and not only that but the road curves and curves and CURVES , then you get to the end and you have to TURN AROUND and go back! Shoot....It’s like a bad joke! Turns out last October’s earthquake messed up the last part of the road, so even if you don’t want to go back, you have no choice. Try that on top of food poisoning! There must be a moral here somewhere, but if you want my advice skip the road to Hana and go for a beer in Makawao.

Ok, enough about me... art time!! A little bit about these plein air pieces I have done on location around the Big Island: the first is of Kealakekua Bay, in the picnic area late afternoon, looking south. Oils on board, 11" x 14". The second is the same place, painted when I was teaching a class there, and wanted a different perspective. I love that purple "vog" in the afternoon, over the mountain. Oils on wood, 9"x 12" Then on down, the third is NOT the road to Hana, but a view of an Old Hawaiian Battlefield here in Kona. Locally called "the End of the World". A powerful place, even the waves there are strong!
And the hammock.
I included this one for fellow artists Bill Jones and Lisa Towers (wonderful blog btw,take a peek- http://onpainting.wordpress.com/ ) (hey Bill the cats run the hammock concession, but said they can work something out!)
Oils on wood, 9" x 12"

Saw this on the back of a pick-up truck here -
"Silly boys, trucks are for chicks!"

(ya gotta know the Big Island- we love our trucks!)

aloha,
Lynn

All art and photos are copyright of Lynn Capell and may not be reproduced without permission. Mahalo!