When we go to Hilo, we don’t care if the weather’s wet because the view from our friend Suzanne’s house is incredible and we’re happy to just watch the surfers all day long. This trip, I was obsessed with capturing it.

Sure, we went snorkeling (which was fantastic) and even watched manta rays devour plankton (more on this later) but my focus was, and has continued to be, capturing the magic of Honoli’i. I wanted to create and blow up patterns and textures.

I started three paintings plein air and finished them using the photo above as reference.

I started another one very much like it, which I brought home and proceeded to work on further.

The first two are very similar and I didn’t achieve what I wanted so I continued pushing a more stylized version.

But I still wasn’t totally happy with the results. I decided to further simplify in an ink drawing, adding aquarelle pencils.

This piece is much smaller than the rest and I endeavored to further push the stylization. I’m still learning how I want to paint scenes like this. Each situation is different and even though I’m having fun, it can be uncomfortable. Actually, it’s frustrating. The good news is that the opportunities are infinite.

I wasn’t as obsessed with the smaller paintings I created at Richardson Beach Park, where we watched a turtle nibble on seaweed for a half hour. The snorkeling was pretty great there too.

I painted two plein air pieces. It’s much easier and quicker to paint on a small piece of paper.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to paint water and used acrylic white on the above test. But finally realized that my stye isn’t photo realistic anyway so I can do it however I want to. It would still be good to know some techniques but for now, I’m okay with messing around.

One day, we enjoyed the sublime beauty of Hapuna Wailea for snorkeling and sunset.

The critters in the water were splendiferous.

And the sunset was brilliant.

After the beach, we drove to Keauhou, south of Kona, for a night snorkel with manta rays. The tour operators motor a short way into the harbor, set out long, thin rafts outfitted with lights shining down into the water and handles on the perimeter. Participants swim out and hang onto handles in the Super Hero Pose (with a noodle under our feet) to stay flat. Since the plankton is attracted to lights, the rays glided RIGHT UNDER US, like inches away (rather startling). They eat 20 pounds of plankton a day.

They came at us with these cavernous maws. There were around ten of the creatures, some of which were 12′ tip to tip. Yeah, it was exciting and unnerving.

The trip back over the saddle road was a kick, as we were fortunate to find this radio show on KHPR1, Blues from the Basement, which kept us rockin’ for the challenging drive. Thanks Jon Alan!

Just a few more doodles.

And mahalo Suzanne, Gabriella, Alex and Keaton for a sublime, sweet visit. A hui hou! Seia tatou toe feiloai!