As part of this painting course, Rose had us work on a Keystone painting. This was the final painting of the class. The concept behind this is that it is the pivotal center point of a cluster of paintings that work together as a cohesive whole. There are many ways in which this can work, which include, just to name a few; color scheme, subject matter, and style. I chose to do a series of paintings of the Ka’u area with this as the first painting of that series.
I decided to finally work on this painting because I fell in love with this mountain, Makanau, years ago when I first moved to the Big Island in 2006. I had never seen a tabletop mountain, and the difference between the raw lava on the highway and the lush fields and mountain top were fascinating to me.

Here’s the painting partway through the process. There’s a he’eiau, a holy place to the Hawaiians, on the crest of this mountain. It is challenging to me to pick and choose where to put detail because I want to put it everywhere. It’s my job to find a path to lead the viewer through the landscape. That means limiting, or at least choosing where to put the detail to achieve that goal.

Here’s the final painting. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I wanted it to be a tribute to the beauty and majesty that is this part of the Big Island of Hawaii.
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