Safely back home from Hawai’i, with unforgettable memories, tons of photos(for memories, paintings and snazzy shooting!) a heatlhy tan, fit as a fiddle, tired and dizzy with jet lag and hungry for french coffee!

Since Hartman spent his time with convention meetings, I had all the time in the world to selfishly do my own thing. I walked a lot, picked up things on my way and sketched them in our “room with a view”, when alone in the evenings. I carried my camera and sketchpad with me during the day, hiked long stretches up and down the coast and stopped every now and then to indulge in sketching some part of nature or the many art statues and animals around.

…findings along the way…

We were on Kona, the big island, still very quiet and undeveloped in comparison to the others and to me, up until now a world unknown. Taking about 6 hours to travel around the whole island, you travel through rain forests the one minute passing an empty desert the next, cows grazing fields follows shortly after, just to suddenly make way for dry volcano rock and finally ending in sandy beaches and tropical flora.

I found the trip very inspirational and came back home with some ideas for paintings. I’m not sure whether “island painting” is really me, but I am looking forward to the challenge of putting something different on canvas than what I’ve done up to now. Even if it is just for memory sake, because I don’t think I have the courage to go that way again…the long flight and stops are far too challenging for me!

Some sketches…seed pods and flowers picked up from the ground. Parts of a statue captured here and there. Up until the day we left, the coffee table was covered with findings from every day along with pens and watercolour pads and palettes and a note I left to the cleaning lady…to leave it all as it is. She was so cute – she would take the dirty glass I use for my watercolour and replace it with a clean one every day. She would also leave me a little pile of napkins next to my palette. By the last day, the leaves were dry, the flowers wilted, the napkins all used up and I felt quite emotional to throw it all in the bin. To me it was a story which came to its end. I’m always sad when a story ends, even when the end sails happily off into the sunset.

All  sketches were done in the aquarelle moleskine with rotring pen and watercolour.

We had the most beautiful view from our room with the sunset straight in front of us over the ocean. The doors to the balcony stayed open all the time we were there. We fell asleep with the sound of crashing waves in our ears and we woke up with the smell of the ocean whifting in through the open doors early morning. I could live a life like this – the tempo slow  and almost heavy with laid back pace, stressless,  nonchalant, with hips swaying and flowers bouncing in tied back hair.

…from early morning…

…to sunset…

See some more photos here at Myfrenchkitchen: Travel.

To be continued…