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Fourth Annual Maui Masters Show - June 1st through July 5th, 2015. At the Old Courthouse Gallery in Lahaina Maui. An artist reception will be held June 6th from 6pm to 8pm. The Maui Masters art show features 22 well known Maui artist. The artist in this show are by special invitation only. This years list of artist are as follows; George Allan Shawn Boen Michael Clements Rob Decamp Joe Fletcher Anna Good Jack Hamilton Al Harty Joel Heinz Julie Houck Rich Kenny Jim Kingwell Vladimir Kush Ferd Lorenzo Cheryl McElfresh Darice Machel McGuire Susie Monroe Nisla Jamie Roth Koana Smith Michael Sweet Sue Thomas

Have you seen my other website lately http://www.art-e-studio.net ? Did you even know I had another one? Art E Studio is my art school business name. I've been building that website for about 7 years. As you go through each page you will discover a lot of information. I'll be adding more shortly. You see, I was contacted by a company in NY who has created an activity booking website for travelers. The CEO of Vimbly came across my Art E Studio website and thought it would be a good fit for their website. They are building an activity page for Maui travelers and are on the hunt for things to do in Maui.

I've been working on creating a series of paintings I can teach to vacationers in a three hour class, art supplies included. The students can pick from one of these paintings to create as the perfect Maui keep sake. The cost of these classes will vary depending on the medium, oil or acrylic, and the painting they choose.

My studio is small so I'll be limited in how many students I take. I'm excited to see how all this works!

When I started out painting miniatures some 25-30 years ago, I did so as a way to fill in the drying time between my large oil paintings. My miniatures became popular almost right away. Living in Lake Tahoe at the time and working at my family owned gallery, Lakeside Gallery, these little gems were perfect for the Tahoe loving tourist looking for an affordable original keepsake. When I moved to Chico California in 2002 I continued painting miniatures to fill in my time between painting large oils and teaching. My miniatures did as well in Chico as they did in Tahoe. I gained quite a few collectors who came into the shop I sold them in monthly to see and buy what was new.

Fast forward to today, 2 1/2 years after moving to Maui, these little paintings have taken over my painting career. I now sell them in 4 galleries and gift shops around Maui. Which keeps me pretty busy. My most popular sellers are Roosters, Koi, Turtles, beach scenes with palm trees and Churches. The most popular sizes are 3x5 and 4x4 inches.

When I first started painting miniatures I did them with oil on Masonite boards. My dad cut the boards and made frames to go with them. About 10 years ago I switched to using acrylic paint on tiny stretched canvases that sit on tiny easels. My dad is still helping me by making all my stretcher frames and easels and ships them to me from California. I stretch the canvas by hand and then paint them. Because I'm not bound by buying ready made products, I get to experiment with various sizes you can't get in stores. Some of the new sizes I'm now working with is 4x5, 3x6 and 4x8. I also get to control the quality of my product and I pass that fine craftsmanship on to my customers. It gives me peace of mind knowing they will have one or more of my tiny works for a very long time.

When looking through my "Sold" art work inventory I noticed I have sold a lot of pineapple paintings and prints. It seems the "Symbol of Hospitality" is quite popular. What is it about this sweet, succulent fruit that attracts people? Is it the shape? The color? Or is it just the meaning that us humans have given it. Should I over annualize these questions, or just go with the flow?

In my quest for answers I decided to do a search on the history of how pineapples became the symbol of hospitality. It all started in 1493 when Columbus saw his first pineapple on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. He described the pineapple in his journal by saying "They are like an artichoke plant, but four times as tall, which gives the fruit the shape of a pine cone, twice as big, which fruit is excellent, and it can be cut with a knife like a turnip, and it seems to be very wholesome.". Columbus brought the pineapple back to Europe, which was devoid of sweet foods, including fresh fruit. The popularity and curiosity for the pineapple became a coveted commodity for two centuries after it's arrival in Europe.

The pineapple captured the imagination of both the Old and New World. Seafaring captains used them like trophies to signify a triumphant journey home. They would impale the pineapples in front of their homes to symbolize "Visitors Welcome". Architects started working the shape of the pineapple into entrance columns, stair-rail finials, gate posts, weather vanes and door knockers. In the Americas innkeepers added pineapple to their signs and advertisements. Bed posts and headboards with pineapples carved on them became a common sight. Pineapples were being woven on welcome mats and intricate needlework on fine linens. Hostesses would set a pineapple in the center of their dining table when entertaining guests. Hostesses of affluent homes would try to outdo each other by creating memorable displays.

Captain Cook introduced the fruit to the Pacific and Hawaii islands in the 1770s. However, commercial cultivation did not begin until the 1880s when steamships made transporting the perishable fruit viable. James Dole started canning pineapples in 1903. By 1921 the Dole Hawaiian Pineapple Company was booming, making pineapple Hawaii's largest crop and industry for 40 years.

Well now, there you have it. A short history on how the pineapple became the symbol of hospitality. It's symbolic image of welcome, good cheer and warmth and affection is still used by the hotel and restaurant industries and homes around the world. I no longer wonder why my Pineapple paintings are so popular. I'm just glad they are.

Here is a mock set up of my display for the opening reception of Maui Open Studios. The reception is tomorrow at the Maui Tropical Plantation from 5pm to 8pm. I will be tweeting it a bit at the venue. There will be 60 out of the 90 artists participating in this year's reception. In years past, the opening reception would bring crowds of people in to see the samplings of art and meet the artists. It's their chance to pick and chose how they will conduct there own personal tour of the artists studios. This year I'm artist #2 both in the guidebook and at the opening reception so I will be very easy to find.

The 2015 Maui Open Studio guide books just arrived! This year I'm in a very good position in the book, I'm number two! How cool is that! I also have an ad that my wonderful boy friend and partner created for me. This event is fast approaching. Just 4 weeks away! I'm working on painting lots of extra miniatures for the event. I also have 6 new oil paintings, the four paintings featured in my book "The Art of Painting in Acrylic", which I have copies available for sell and 21 new acrylic paintings done in a new style all ready for the show! My next chores are rearranging the art on my walls and sending out post cards as soon as they are printed.

I'm really looking forward to this year's event. Hope to see you there!

Yesterday was the first day of 2015 and what an adventurist day it was. My significant other and I decided to go to the top of Haleakala. I packed a pic-nick lunch and we loaded the car with lots of coats, most of them for me. We started out early, leaving the condo by 8:30AM. Our first stop was the visitor center headquarters at 7000 foot elevation. at this point we put on our tennies. I haven't worn shoes in a very long time so my feet were feeling a bit cramped. We purchased a couple of books on native plants and picked up a map of Haleakala National Park. We reached our next stop, Hosmer Grove by 11:30. We hiked a short trail that led us through pine and eucalyptus trees. This area is a great place for bird watchers. Plenty of native birds make their home. I saw only a few but heard many. We spent about an hour exploring this area before we moved on. As we headed up the road we took advantage of a few pull outs to photograph the seen. The views were quite picturesque but the wind was getting quite strong. At elevation 9740 feet we reached Haleakala Visitor Center. It became very clear I was going to need more then just the one jacket I had put on at the last visitor center. So I layered the lightest one first, then the fur ( fake fur) lined one I borrowed from my neighbor and lastly put on my boyfriend's coat he had been waring. No, I didn't let him freeze in that 42 to 47 degree wind, he had brought his heavy down parka for this occasion. We eat our pic-nick lunch in the car, out of the cold and wind. Then headed to the shortest of the two hiking trails we wanted to do. At the top of the first trail the wind had picked up and was to strong to spend to much time photographing. The second trail called keonehe'ehe'e Trail ( Sliding Sands Trail) takes you down into the valley where the colorful cinder cones are and leads deep into the wilderness. We only went a short distance do to the cold wind. Going down the trail was not bad be cause the wind helped push us. Coming back up was another story! We had to stop ever 25 to 50 yards to catch our breath and to rest. I made a short video of the top of the trail and posted it on my facebook, but the wind was so loud it drowned out my narrative. Once we got back to the parking lot we headed farther up the road to the top of the Pu'u'ula'ula summit, 10,023 feet elevation. There was a protective, enclosed viewing area that allowed you to see the Big Island of Hawaii and the West Maui Mountains. We didn't stay long because sunset was getting close and we wanted to head down the mountain for a different vantage point to take sunset photos. We managed to get about half way down to a nice pull out just as the sun began to set. We were rewarded with a spectacular one as you can see from the photo posted here. I'm really happy with how the first day of 2015 started and ended. I'm now looking forward to making the rest of the year adventurist and exciting.

Friday night we went to Village Gallery in Lahaina. Charlie surprised me when he unrolled the banner for the "Small Works Show". My painting of "Sunset Santa" was the featured image on the banner along with my hibiscus flowers I painted. The image was by special request by gallery owner, Lynn Shue. He did a great job keeping this secret. I was turely surprised and very honored to represent the "small works show". I'm also excited to have sold three of the six small works I entered in the show.

Village Galleries Holiday Show featuring small works by gallery artists Rich Kenny, Virginia Pearce, Shauna Morrison and Darice Machel McGuire, opens with a festive reception on Friday December 12th at 120 Dickesnon Street in Lahaina! The show runs through the Holiday season.

On November 23rd 2014, Maui Unighted Way, Target and the Surfrider Foundation sponsored a beach clean up. As Board President of Lahiana Arts Asscoiation (a grant recipient of Maui United Way) I and my partner, Charlie Osborn, volunteered to help out. Everyone on the clean up crew received a t-shirt, water bottle and lunch. We also each received a raffle ticket. Charlie and I were known as the LAA team. We went farther and longer then the other participants. Filling bucket after bucket with all sorts of trash. Charlie found a fish ( shown in photo) that was smelling very ripe and asked me to hurry up to take the picture. You can see by the look on his face he was more them ready to get rid of this piece of trash. Charlie and I both received an extra raffle ticket for the "above the call of duty" efforts we gave. And as luck would have it, I won a $25 gift card to Target from the raffle. Now all I have to do is wait a few months for the new Target store to open here on Maui, which we are both excited about.

Being President of Lahaina Arts Asscoiation has given me lots of new opportunities to meet and connect to Maui community members. In the short two and a half years of living on Here we have become very known in the Lahaina area and, in some cases, beyond. I'm often amazed at how fast we were excepted into our new community. Maui truly is a welcoming, loving place, full of Aloha.