What allowing brings

“Red Trunks” © 2013 Rebekah Luke, 16″ x 20″ oil on canvas board

Learning to relax, accept, and allow has opened an intriguing period of Creativity for me, both in and outside of the studio. I feel like I’m on top of a wave, and I don’t want to reach the shore. I’m going with the flow, and I like it.

Nine canvases are in various stages of completion for a show scheduled for August. (The oil paint needs the time to dry. ) I’ve gone out with my plein air students every week, sometimes twice a week, to paint at different locations on O‘ahu. Every time I say, “I have an idea,” DH says, “Uh-oh,” but this idea’s pretty good!

I’m revisiting some spots that I painted 20 or so years ago and repainting the scene. At first I thought my earlier work was better than my current work, but, after a little reflection and some feedback from friends, I now think the current work shows clearer intent and inner perspective. Sort of like when listening to music; you can tell the difference between someone who is reading the notes and a musician who already knows the piece and is playing it by heart.

Still, it’s all about the Light. Recently I’ve met other artists with a lot of Light — oh, so brilliant! We’re starting to explore the idea of collaboration. “It’s a hui thing, never just yourself,” a former colleague Lono points out. For this show, I’m sharing the billing with a talented 3D artist. We’re having fun planning it, and I’ll be sure to let you in on the details when they are final.

Next, I’m allowing the idea of providing reproductions of my art at affordable prices lower than that of an original painting to occupy a place in my product line. I can’t wait to see what the proofs look like, printed on both on art paper and canvas. Then it will be fun to take them to market.

Teaching is going well. Painting I and III finish up this week, and I plan to start new classes in June for children and adults. I’m encouraged by parents of youngsters who’ve requested more art lessons, and by my adult pupils who manage to come to class despite challenging issues with family, at work, and at home.

Art and making art is healing, and it is a gift to me to witness the progress. The folks in Painting III, who are coming with me to Italy in September, are so enthusiastic that they are organizing their own show and suggesting subject matter and locations that they want to paint this summer.

One of the pleasant surprises is my return to music. Since my teenage years, my parents, teachers, choir directors, and DH noticed I had “some musicality.” The path has always been available to me — beyond music lessons, performing in a group, playing instruments, study in college. While painting is on my students’ bucket list, arranging and composing music has been on mine.  But until last Christmas I didn’t really know where to begin to learn how to do it, and I was too shy to ask.

I’ve been encouraged by thanks from the performers in my glee club for my help in teaching them how to read music and hula dance, for sure, and I love the strokes. As for the melodies and lyrics that are coming to me at dawn right after my dream time, that’s a whole ’nother vibrational level. Stay tuned! I am so very grateful.

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“Red Trunks” pictured above will not be in the new collection. I’ve framed it for this coming weekend’s Bluegrass in the Ko‘olaus Festival at Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden. I’m taking my easel to paint by music and a couple of finished canvases, including this one, to show folks what a finished painting will look like. My painting group comes here to Luluku regularly. I enjoy painting the mountains and the trees.

Copyright 2013 Rebekah Luke

Rain from Kaua‘i

From the beach this morning, this is what rain coming from the direction of Kaua‘i looked like. We have flash flood advisories. The wind has changed and big raindrops are starting to fall at the studio. The clouds are hanging low and down into the valley, not moving, covering any views of the waterfalls. I bet it’s raining already in the middle of the island. I cancelled my class en plein air in favor of everyone staying indoors to work on some unfinished paintings. I love the light of stormy weather, but I and my oil paint prefer to stay dry. Here’s hoping for a fairer-weather day tomorrow!

Copyright 2013 Rebekah Luke

At Byodo-In

Orange koi black swan

Turtle kolea Buddha

Poems on the wind

 

Copyright 2013 Rebekah Luke

Kudos and thanks to my foodie friends Linda and Lori

Two women I am lucky to have as friends each reached a milestone in their lives and careers in the past few days, and today’s post honors them. Both happen to be foodies. Both have Hakka “blood,” as do I.

Author Linda Lau Anusasananan’s The Hakka Cookbook received the Best Chinese Cuisine Cookbook in the World for 2012 award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards ceremony in Paris. It’s a crowning achievement following a full career as a food editor at Sunset magazine, where we met, and many years researching around the world the “cuisine” (if you can call it that) of her ancestral Hakka roots.

Linda Lau Anusasananan

Hakka Chinese people descend from Han people who emigrated and still emigrate from their original land for a variety of reasons. Where they ended up in the world—in China it was mostly in the south in an area known as Meixian—they were not the first, therefore were known as “guest people” who did not get the best land. They were farmers, and their food was humble and of peasants. The book’s subtitle “Soul Food from Around the World” announces the good eats the reader can learn to make from the recipes Linda tested and fine tuned for the home cook. I guarantee they will work for you.

This is what Hakka families everywhere have looked for. The recipes show how regional cuisine influences basic Hakka food. Linda’s work fills a cultural need as well as explains what “Hakka” is with added stories and historical notes. Ultimately, it is a universal story about food, families everywhere, and how the world has gotten smaller.

Lori A. Wong

When I left the magazine test kitchens in Menlo Park, California, those many years ago, Linda became the person I would call when I had a question about food science. Then I met Lori on my island.

This week Lori A. Wong, with her mother Marian, closed Byron’s Drive-In, the last remaining of their 17 or 18—it’s easy to lose count—restaurants on Oahu, ending 58 years of feeding islanders. Old-timers will remember Leon’s tavern, Andy’s Drive-In in Kailua, Orson’s Restaurant, Orson’s Bourbon House, Wong’s Okazu-ya, The Chowder House, Byron II, Andrew’s, Coral Reef, The Chinese Chuckwagon, Fishmonger’s Wife, Oinks, Big Ed’s, Andy’s Ebb Tide, The Little Red Hen, Henny Penny Chicken, Orson’s Chowderette, and The Seafood Emporium.

The landlord is planning to redevelop the land near Honolulu airport where you could get a good meal before boarding your plane. On Feb. 28 it was bye-bye Byron’s Drive-In. The rummage sale starts tomorrow, March 5, through Friday in the parking lot. Everything must go.

Now that you know of the Wong Family restaurant empire, and as you read the list above, most started by Lori’s father Andy Y. Y. Wong who died in 1985, and others by Lori and her mom, you are probably thinking, “They owned that restaurant, too?!”

Yup, and Lori’s first thought is that they had a really good run and that the restaurant business is pau (finished, over).

I became acquainted with Lori through our mutual Reiki teacher and friend Alice Anne Parker. Both Lori and Alice Anne certified me as a Reiki Master. Lori is a healer and was working with hospice patients. Over time I figured out Lori was a foodie. She’s taught in the Food Service department at Kapiolani Community College and now teaches cooking to middle school students at Punahou during the summer. She free lances as a food and beverage consultant.

She loves to try new restaurants with friends—as does Linda (the more dishes foodies can taste and disect, the better; lucky for me), but she rarely mentioned her family’s restaurant empire. But now that it seems to have ended, the word’s out. Bob Sigall wrote a nice column in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Both Linda and Lori deserve a crown and a long rest, but I doubt they will rest on their laurels. These are my friends for a lifetime.

Copyright 2013 Rebekah Luke

Mountain panorama commands a diptych

There’s something about the Ko‘olau mountains that draws painters to this landscape again and again. Besides their obvious lush and weathered volcanic beauty, they challenge us plein air painters to capture their form in the ever-changing daylight. I spent a lot of time studying the ridges and valleys in my most recent diptych of Lanihuli as viewed from Luluku. Together, the panels measure 60 inches by 22 inches, unframed. Oil on canvas board.

Lanihuli Diptych, left panel

Lanihuli Diptych, right panel

Update 2/2/13: I am please to report that “Lanihuli Diptych” was sold to a buyer at the Punahou Carnival this past weekend. Half of all sales are donated to the student financial aid program at my alma mater. ~RL

Copyright 2013 Rebekah Luke

Art and architecture where Hotel and Richards intersect in Honolulu

The charming gazebo at Hotel and Richards streets that caught my eye.

After lunch downtown last week with Becky at Café Julia, that got the vote for best downtown place for “breakfast and lunch only,” I strolled up the street, intending to visit the Hawai‘i State Art Museum (HiSAM). Becky suggested I take a look at what happened to the old Armed Services YMCA swimming pool.

Approaching the intersection of Hotel and Richards, the loveliness of dappled sunlight through the monkeypod trees stopped me.  Pause for photos.

I saw four familiar buildings differently than before, and I reflected on their noteworthiness, all in proximity in this small area. Later, it occurred to me that on my little walking tour, I had focused on the historical architecture and fine art of these buildings, making for a very pleasant afternoon by myself . . . while Becky went back to her office to work.

Hawai‘i State Capitol

Kitty corner to the gazebo is the Hawai‘i State Capitol designed by Belt, Lemmon & Lo and John Carl Warnecke & Associates. Its columns represent coconut palm trees, and the two cone-shaped legislative chambers represent volcanoes emerging from the reflecting pools that depict the Pacific Ocean.

In the courtyard floor is a round artwork “Aquarius,” an Italian glass tile mosaic by Tadashi Sato. There are two noteworthy statues at the Capitol: one of Father Damien of Moloka‘i on Beretania street, and one of Lili‘uokalani, Hawai‘i’s last reigning monarch, on the opposite side facing ‘Iolani Palace.  Inside the chambers there are large tapestry weavings by Ruthadell Anderson.

Looking makai (toward the sea), notice ‘Iolani Barracks (1871) that housed the Royal Guard on the royal palace grounds. Hawaiian kings and queens lived in the ‘Iolani Palace (behind the Barracks in my photo) until 1893 when Lili‘uokalani was overthrown and imprisoned in her room. Today both buildings are museums worth touring.

‘Iolani Barracks, moved to this site in 1965 to make room for the new State Capitol.

When I was in my twenties, I came to the Armed Services YMCA once a week to rehearse with the Honolulu Chorale. In 1927-28 that building was erected to replace the second building of the original Royal Hawaiian Hotel (Hotel Street was named in 1850; the original hotel was demolished in 1882 and rebuilt). I thought it was grand as a functioning Y and imagined what it must have been like in its heyday. Today the building is renovated, housing State offices and the Hawai‘i State Art Museum on the second floor, my destination.

No. 1 Capitol District Building is the former Armed Services YMCA built in 1927-28. The former swimming pool and deck  in the middle of the U-shaped building is now a sculpture garden with a pretend swimming pool.

“Visions and Portraits of Hawai‘i” in the Ewa Gallery (toward Chinatown) contains representative work of Hawai‘i’s well-known artists, as defined by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. This display is eclectic, in that there is generally one work per artist. But Hawai‘i, since settled by non-natives, is eclectic!

Two stand-out works for me on this visit were the main piece as you enter the area — a painting of Waimea Canyon on Kaua‘i by D. H. Hitchcock (1861-1943) whose impressionistic works I admire greatly — and the painting of women, thickly painted Madge Tennant.

The theme of the exhibit in the Diamond Head Gallery opposite is “Recent Acquisitions.” What I remember most is the nature photography of Wayne Levin. Three stunning images: an underwater shot of a diver chased by an ulua (I think), one aerial of Hawaiian monk seals at the tidal line (“Monk Seals and Surf, Derby’s Beach, Nihoa”), and one straight-on of birds and clouds (“Approaching Sooty Terns”). Classic clouds for my painting students to study!

Both galleries display impressively large wooden ‘umeke, or calabashes, turned by Robert W. Butts.

On the ground level, passing by the museum gift shop and through Downtown @ HiSAM restaurant, doors opened to the Sculpture Garden in the former swimming pool area. Artist Doug Young created a glass marvel in 2D with such visual depth that it seems as a 3D pool. I got dizzy staring down at it! Interesting. The restaurant staff began setting up for an outdoor garden party, and I moved on . . .

. . . Back to the Richards Street YWCA, half a block toward King street where Becky and I ate lunch. This attractive building was designed by architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle at San Simeon, California. Before I headed home, I revisited a Lau Chun painting hanging above the grand piano in the lobby. It was of the YWCA building as viewed from the palace grounds, and with the street and cars edited out.

His strokes of thick paint are of every color, you’ll see when you examine the painting closely. It’s as Miss Marvelous’s mother, when as a youngster she looked at my oil paintings, said: “I can’t figure out how, when you look at it close up, it’s just paint, but when you step back it’s a picture.” Lau Chun’s painting is an example that value (shades of light to dark) is more defining than hue (color) in a painting.

It can be useful and educational to look at other artists’ work. But more than that, I can pick out those things that are inspirational. Often, looking at other artists’ work usually frustrates me, and I’m only inspired to return to the studio to make my own creations. This time, I enjoyed the things I selected to see in a new light.

Looking north on Hotel street. Ali‘i i Place, primarily an office building, has a convenient municipal parking garage with cheap rates. The lobby and Alakea street pedestrian entry feature several fine, large paintings by John Wisnosky.

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

Is painting on your bucket list?

Painting is on my glee club sisters’ bucket lists. They’ve inspired me to teach some fundamentals and techniques and offer a course. As promised, I will open my Kaaawa studio for Oil Painting Lessons starting February 2012. Registration is open now and enrollment is limited.

The “Painting I” course consists of 12 weekly lessons on Wednesday from February 1 to April 25. Class sessions will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include a lunch break. Tuition is $100 a month. Cost of materials is additional.

I just noticed it’s leap year, so you’ll either get a bonus or won’t have to feel bad if you miss one class.

Students will learn impressionistic painting in oil. Lessons will generally follow those taught by the late colorist Gloria Foss, my oil painting teacher, and as found in Foss’s guidebook How to Paint. I’ll add my own experience as a fine art painter and photographer to show you what to do.

I’ll teach you art fundamentals and the logic of light to give you a solid foundation to pursue painting as an avocation or a vocation.

What you’ll learn

Here’s just some of what you’ll learn in my Painting I:

• Basic drawing — perspective, shape, value, light and shadow

• The world in black and white

• Basic color theory—monochromatic, analogous, complementary color and full palette

• Using color charts and the color wheel

• Modeling of forms

Each lesson will consist of a brief lecture on art theory, a demonstration, hands-on still life drawing and painting in the studio, homework, and critique.

Each week we will build on the previous technique learned, and eventually we will apply what we have learned in the studio to the landscape.

Gloria Foss and me

I first met Gloria Foss at the Honolulu Branch of the National League of American Pen Women where she was an Arts member and I was a new Letters member. She was a UH Mānoa student getting her Master of Fine Arts degree. She wanted to teach. She said if all of her art teachers had explained some things from the very start, it would have been a lot easier. She was about 60. Teaching was on Gloria’s bucket list!

After I finished the black-and-white photography curricula at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (I didn’t complete color photography), I sought a studio class to keep my eyes trained. By then Gloria had designed her own “Gloria Foss Color Course” and opened the Foss School of Fine Arts in Honolulu.

Then I had the honor and delight of making the photographs of the studio lessons in her book How to Paint. It’s now my desire to share what I learned, then and since, with others.

Tuition, materials and supplies

Your investment will be the cost of tuition—$100 a month for each of three months for a total of $300—plus the cost of materials and supplies. When you register, you will receive a complete list of art materials to buy.

For the first two or three lessons, you will not need everything on the list. All items on the list will cost an estimate of $125-$150.

Easels will be provided for class use.

An optional text is How to Paint by Gloria Foss (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1991) that will be used for reference. It is out of print, but you can try to locate a used copy. Information on how to obtain a CD of the book will be given in class.

How to register

To reserve your place in class, send your correct name, mailing address with ZIP, phone number, and email address with a minimum $40 deposit to Rebekah Luke, P.O. Box 574, Kaaawa, HI 96730. Or, include the information in an email message to rebekahluke@hawaii.rr.com and send your deposit via PayPal with the DONATE button in the right sidebar. After your deposit is accepted I will send you a supplies list and information on where to go in Kaaawa for the first class. Happy painting!

PAINTING I February 1-April 25, 2012

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke