Most paintings have a story to tell. Sometimes we know those stores at the outset. Other times we learn the stories as the paintings progress.

My inspiration for Anuenue Ali`i Wahine came to me in a dream which I recorded in my journal.

Learning the stories behind the painting requires the art of listening.

Listening to what?

Listening to that still small voice within us all — the one that we don’t always hear, but that is always there.

Listen to your paintings.

Yes, it’s perfectly okay to ask your painting for direction. And when you do, be sure to listen for the answers — and then follow the directions given.

This is the "under painting" of Anuenue (rainbow) Ali`i (royalty or goddes) Wahine (woman) —right after the texture has been removed.

Yes, it's okay to NOT follow the directions too.

Think of painting as a co-creative act. You are not alone at your easel or table. You are working with the forces of creation that surround us at all times.

Getting closer, but not yet complete.

Painting is an interactive sport. Smile while you paint and when asking your questions. Be playful about your painting. Make it a game.

If you’ve ever watched someone start a painting, you have an inkling of what it means to really want to paint something.

Did you know that you are the most important tool in your toolbox?

Your painting comes through you: through your eyes, through your hands, through the filter that is YOU.

You cannot get it wrong.

Each brush stroke informs the next. You learn and relearn as you paint.

When one stroke or subject becomes easy (and it will), challenge yourself to do something different. Change your strokes or your subject matter.

I added more layers of "rainbow",  more dark hair, and gave her skin more highlights & depth before considering her complete. Anuenue Ali`i Wahine (Royal Rainbow Woman in Hawaiian)

When you're out in nature, look more closely at the world around you. What colors do you see?

If you squint your eyes, does your vision change?

Can you see red-violets in the shadows of the leaves, or orange in the dying parts of the red plants?

While the colors fade as the leaves and flowers whither and die, we can still see the beauty they once held for us. We just need look more slowly.

Beauty surrounds us when we look through our eyes with LOVE.

Good habits are golden! It takes 21–28 consecutive days to “deeply root” a habit into our psyche. If you’ve been doing something for 20 days and then you skip a day, you have to start over at day one!

I skipped two days of a new habit I’d hoped to make permanent this week. Darn it! 

I’d gotten into the habit of waking up at five a.m. and doing my deep writing and inner work before going to the gym or starting my day. 

I was so excited about this new habit that I even coaxed myself out of bed one day last week when I really wanted to stay put.

And then yesterday, I just couldn’t do it. 

Keanu and I had both worked so hard over the weekend at the Art Fest at Lanikuhonua in Ko`Olina that I needed the rest.

While it’s true, we did work hard, and I did need the rest, I’m still disappointed that I wasn’t able to push myself out of bed yesterday … or today.

To keep my newly restarted “wake-up-n-at-em” habit, I either have to change my wake-up time to six (which is easier) or start over at day one and wake up at five tomorrow.

I haven’t yet decided which option will win.

Two other thoughts are vying for my attention this morning:
“Do Less and Imagine More” and
“Intention is an Action Word”

Those thoughts are connected, and both are worthy of consideration.

When I fully intend to get myself up at five, it’s easier to do so. It’s also easy to imagine myself getting up at five and having the quiet house all to myself.

The house is still quiet at six and getting up then is easier.

The issue isn’t really when I get up, it’s more about what I do with my time once I’m up.

It’s about Clarity of Purpose and Singularity of Focus! Again! (Yay, I’m still on track!)

Setting an intention for the day, and then imagining yourself living your intention, is a great habit to start, no matter what time of day you arise.

When we set an intention and imagine ourselves acting on our intention, we pave the way for it to happen. We put ourselves on alert to see new paths or doors that open to help us accomplish what we’ve set out to do. 

Deeply Rooted, Rising Higher — Good habits, firmly in place, create a solid foundation and set us up for success!

What’s your intention for this glorious day ahead?

The more consciously we look for things, the more we see them.

Try it for yourself. Look for a specific brand and/or color of car on your next commute to work and be amazed at just how many you see.

I asked my class at Spalding House (aka The Contemporary Museum), to take the week between classes to look for faces — not in people, but in the world around us.

They found faces in the clouds, on slabs of marble and granite, on a wall of brushed metal, on a piece of wood paneling, in the lichen and moss on rocks, in trees. They brought a cornucopia of images to class.

My heart swelled; they’re expanding their vision, and their world, through the practice of art!

Creating art does that for us.

People often think of art as something “extra”, like an elective in our otherwise busy “life schedule”.

Art, the creation of it and the appreciation of it, can be much, MUCH more.

Art is a means of communication. As such it can “connect the dots” of all that we know to all the many things that we don’t yet know.

Art communicates to us on a mental level, and even more often, on a heart-to-heart level, a more powerful, and potentially subversive sort of communication.

Tree Diva

My friend Larry owns Art Attacks, a frame shop in Honolulu.

One day while working in an art gallery, Larry saw a woman put her hand to her heart and gasp while looking at the painting in front of her.

Thinking she was in pain, he rushed to her side, only to discover she was having an “Art Attack,” not a heart attack.

The beauty of the painting had evoked a gasp from her as she connected to it on a deep, visceral level.

Art comes in a wide variety of styles and subject matter. We decide which images we like and which ones we don’t.

Our tastes, our preferences are our own, for us to decide, and no business of another. Isn’t that great?

Today let’s celebrate art for its power to connect.

Art is ALL around us every day.

Art is more than what we see in a museum or gallery. Art, especially art well done, is so prevalent that it is all but invisible.

Let’s connect a few more dots …

Graphic Art creates ease of use and beauty in books, magazines, catalogs, advertisements, newspapers, and even the signs on our highways and in our libraries.

Textile Arts create clothing, fabrics, pillows, and more.

Decorators create beauty in homes and stores (have you looked at the displays at Whole Foods lately?).

Culinary Arts create amazing food for us to eat and see — we eat with our eyes first.

Art and Friendship connects you and me.

Heart Strings

It’s our connection to one another and to a greater wholeness that is at the heart of this holiday season.

Thank you from the depths of my heart, for sharing my journey through art with me. I truly value our connection and the many gifts we have to offer one anther.

I took just one painting class in college — oil painting. I loved it, but had more fun working in clay, and spent many semesters up to my elbows in “mud.”

Years after graduating, when I decided to paint again, I dug out my old oils. They still held magic.

Back then, I was working full time as Creative Services Director, and got up to paint before going to work. That gave me 20–45 min. of painting time about three times a week.

Each day I took a photo of my painting in progress. I liked seeing the painting develop, and knew that I could “blow it” with my next brush stroke. I figured if I had a record of what it looked like when I liked it, I could get back to that stage.

Opaque oil paints are “forgiving” because you can always paint over a passage you don’t like.

Watercolors are transparent, so there’s really “no going back”. Instead we continually move forward, adjusting our plans to make use of any perceived mistakes along the way.

I still take photos of my paintings in progress. I like to see the evolution of paintings — and so do my students.

I am both a “fast” and a “slow” painter. My motto is:
“Get in, Get Out, Step Back, Repeat…”

Basically this means that each brush stroke is done quickly, decisively, courageously … and then I STOP, step back, and look to see what’s happening with the painting.

If I know what to do next, I continue on with this “Get in, Get Out, Step Back, Repeat…” method.

Sometimes there’s a long pause between brush strokes. Sometimes it’s because I don’t know what to do next. Sometimes it’s because there is something else that must be done (dinner anyone?).

Most of my paintings take weeks to complete. Even when I think a painting is finished, I put it away for a day or two so that the next time I look at it I have “fresh eyes”.

This is one reason I like to have many paintings in progress at one time. I can easily switch from one to another if I get stuck.

My students long to see me finish a painting in class. Sigh. They want to know how to know when a painting is finished.

Alas, this is a subjective matter.

Robert Genn, a revered master painter from Canada once wrote: “it is better to under paint by 10% than to over paint by 1%.”

Keep painting. The more you do it, the better you get, and the easier it will be to know when your painting is finished.

It’s an unsatisfying answer, yet true.