"Honolulu Bus Stop", watercolor on Arches paper

HONOLULU BUS STOP, watercolor on Arches paper, 5x8"
We had bought the Hop ON-Hop OFF bus tickets, so while we waited for the next bus, I had enough time to quickly do this watercolor at the bus stop. I was sitting in the shade of a building, I think it was a government building, with big columns and a pond with little fish in front. You could see a park on the other side of the street.

HAWAIIAN CHICKENS, watercolor on gray paper

HAWAIIAN CHICKENS, watercolor on gray paper, 7.5x10" (19x25 cm.) Painted during my recent cruise to Hawaii. Why would you paint chickens in Hawaii? you may ask. Well...

It turns out Hawaii is full of chickens running around, particularly in Kauai, and Maui, we saw lots of chickens everywhere! We were told that they are not good to eat since they are very tough, and hard due to what they eat all over the place. So there you have it: Hawaiian chickens!!

NAWILIWILI PORT , watercolor on Arches paper

NAWILIWILI PORT, watercolor on Arches paper, 11x14" (28x35.5 cm)
Painted aboard Princess Cruiseship, during my recent trip to Hawaii, Samoa and Tahiti. This port was fun, beautiful, and convenient,  because the beach is right there, about a block from the port, so you can enjoy the beach and water, then go back to your ship to shower and change.
Nawiliwili is the port in Kauai, one of the islands in the State of Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

RAINBOW FALLS SKETCH, ink and watercolor

RAINBOW FALL SKETCH, ink and watercolor in my sketchbook.

Painted during Dr. Sharon Faff's conference about Hawaii, the big island, aboard Crown Princess cruiseship. I love to write comments, a summary of something she said, and sketch some of the slides/photographs she was showing during her explanations. One of the best thing of Princess Cruises is the lectures on board, by excellent experts, who are well informed and fun.

LUAU, AMERICAN SAMOA, watercolor on Arches

LUAU, AMERICAN SAMOA, watercolor on Arches paper, 7.5x10".
Painted during my recent cruise from Los Angeles to the South Pacific islands of both Samoas, and the French Polynesia. The luau in Samoa is cooked ON the ground, while in Hawaii they cook the pig UNDER the ground, other than that, I think it is pretty similar. Delicious!!!

WORLD'S LARGEST BANYAN TREE, watercolor on Arches paper

WORLD'S LARGEST BANYAN TREE, 7.5x11 watercolor on Arches paper. Maui, Hawaii, October 2015. The day we visited this tree, near the port, they had an art festival. Here I represented just a few of the many branches and trunks and branches and trunks growing up and coming back down occupying an area bigger than a tennis court, all under the tree!!!!

PACIFIC SUNRISE, watercolor on Arches paper

PACIFIC SUNRISE, 7.5x10" watercolor on Arches paper, painted aboard Crown Princess, cruising the Pacific toward Hawaii, Samoa and Tahiti, three weeks ago.

On our way from Los Angeles to Hawaii, we were sailing west, then south to Samoa, then east from Samoa to Tahiti, and finally north-east from Tahiti back to Los Angeles. It was confusing at first, due to my ignorance of the exact location of the South Pacific islands. So we bought an inflatable globe, to be able to follow our own ocean path with the globe in our hands. The first few weeks I got up very early to enjoy the Pacific sunrise from the ship. Then I got lazy and just enjoyed the sunset, ha ha!

Nick Kolesnikow, painter, ink and watercolor sketch

NICK KOLESNIKOW, PAINTER, ink and watercolor sketch , 7x7 ".

My friend Nick and I painted often aboard Crown Princess cruiseship, in our recent trip to Hawaii, Samoa, and the Tahiti islands in the South Pacific. I kept a sketchbook of activities, views, lectures, visits, and books read during the voyage;  nothing escapes my pen and watercolor brushes! If you stand still for a few minutes, I get you!!!!

SAMOA BEACH SKETCH, ink and watercolor

SAMOA BEACH SKETCH, 4x10, ink and watercolor on a sketchbook page.
During my recent trip to Hawaii, Samoa, and the South Pacific islands of Tahiti, I sketched daily, sometimes a quick ink sketch with a bit of watercolor like this one, sometimes I did a more detailed watercolor. I will be publishing some of them on the blog in the next few days. Western Samoa and American Samoa are fascinating. The beach is white coral sand.

RAINBOW FALLS, HAWAII, acrylic on canvas

Rainbow Falls, Hawaii,  24x12 in.  acrylic on canvas. Available

For Ralph Waldo Emerson, the universe was composed of two parts: NATURE and THE SOUL. Being in Nature, accordingly, was an interactive experience. "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." says Emerson.  In other words, when we look at a landscape, what we see is a reflection of who and what we are. A landscape painting shows not only the spirit of the place, but the soul of the painter. --- loosely extracted from the past September issue of THE ARTIST magazine.

VIEW OF KONA, HAWAII, watercolor

View of Kona, Hawaii,  watercolor, 7.5x11in

The San Diego Watercolor Society has just published its first Quarterly. It is interesting, serious, informative, funny, and just plain fabulous! Check it out! Reading it, I was reminded of Julia Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY's description of the artist date: "Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration."

SURFING IN HAWAII FOR 1700 YEARS, ink and watercolor

Surfing in Hawaii for 1700 Years, ink and watercolor in my journal.

I learned in a lecture during the Star Princess cruise to Hawaii, that surfing has been going on there since the year 300 A.D. They used to carve their own board, from a tree. Then, when the missionaries appeared, they banned surfing, hula dancing, playing the ukelele, and many other traditional customs from the islands.

The legend of the Aumakua: your ancestors come back to you through birds and other beings that identify themselves to you. Creatures in nature embody the spirit of our ancestors, they believe. As Pope Francis recently said: "Who am I to judge?"

HAWAIIAN PARADISE, watercolor

Hawaiian Paradise, watercolor, 7.5x11 in.
Do you know that the Ohia Lahua tree is one of the main tree species in Hawaii? Its leaves can close if there is gas in the air! How cool is that? They bloom all year long. They develop flowers of different colors to attract different birds. I find that fascinating!

Hawaii has about 8,800 native species, most of them birds. There are only two mammals native to Hawaii: the monk seal and a tree bat. How about that? I learned this in the lectures of Dr. Sharon Faff,  the Star Princess cruise to Hawaii's lecturer. She was great! Thanks Dr. Faff!

Outriggers in Kona, Hawaii

Outriggers in Kona, Hawaii, watercolor, 7.5x11 in
Hawaii in January is lovely, I just got back. Kona is a lively port town in Hawaii, easy to explore on foot. Kona is famous for its coffee. There are whales and dolphins here! We visited turtle beach, where many sea turtles are lazying in the sun, on the volcanic rocks, and slowly get in the water when they feel like it, swim a bit, stick a neck out, swim some more. They are huge! The size of a car tire!

We had a lot of "le'a le'a"!! That means a lot of fun, in Hawaiian.