Thursday, December 22, 2011

Sketches from a Maui Christmas


As I look forward to a chilly Christmas again this year, I remember with fondness the two Christmases our clan spent on the Hawaiian paradise island of Maui. See more great photos of our trip here. Memories have a way of being distorted in our minds sometimes and as I looked back at my sketchbook from that trip, I decided to see how closely, my sketched impressions matched the photos that I shot.


We trekked the infamous Hana Highway, a winding sometimes one lane road that is not for the faint of heart  (or stomach for that matter). I was driving, and you could not stop at many places along the road so the sketches were done after we reached our destination at the state park. My photos somehow did not include the above scene, so I found this one online.


There were little villages scattered along the coast that could be seen from the highway above. It is interesting to note how my eye edited the scene to include much more than the camera lens captured, including adjacent fields and the curve of the shoreline. I think my sketch more effectively captures what I felt in that moment.


The most interesting contrast came from comparison of my sketch from the Black Sand Beach at Wainapanapa State Park. I got up before sunrise and tried to capture the essence of the place in photos and with a sketch. I noted my thoughts in the sketchbook as well:

The Drive to Hana was amazing, nothing short of spectacular. To think of the variety of terrain and plants on this one island is mind boggling. The Lord certainly created a masterpiece here. The Black sand beach was very cool. When the waves rushed out, the tiny black rocks in one section would clatter along the shore toward the water only to be pushed back in with the next rush of sea. When a big wave hit,the force could be felt through the sand like thunder.
Black Sand Sunrise- Wainapanapa State Park, Maui

I think as an artist it is essential to not only observe and photograph what we see but that making location sketches and studies cement our reactions to a scene more effectively and accurately in our minds.

2 comments:

Amy said...

It's great to see these sketches again...you'll have to do a painting someday! Maybe you'll have to go back to get more reference. Wouldn't that be terrible?

Unknown said...

I'd go back in a heartbeat. Maybe we should start planning...