"Kuilima Cove," 16" x 20" oil on canvas, by Rebekah Luke
My most recently finished oil painting — except for the lessons I’ve done with my students the past month — deserves a more visible place than the corner of the studio where I stashed it while waiting to varnish it, don’t you think?
I started it as a demonstration at the Hawaiian civic club convention at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore in October — my gosh, was it that long ago?! — and worked on it little by little with my weekly painting group. Okay, I can be a little pokey sometimes.
From the second floor window of the hotel lobby was the sunny morning view of the cove below and the shoreline in the distance. A cultivated tropical garden juxtaposed with a wild undeveloped coast.
In general, I’m less fond of my demo pieces, but I was determined to turn this canvas into something I liked. So I kept at it, correcting mistakes and bothersome spots, and accepting valuable constructive criticism from my painting buddies. Not wanting to overwork it, I put my brush down as soon as it finally felt right.
As I tell my students the same thing my teachers taught me, “Paint what you know [the logic of light], paint what you see, and paint what you feel.”
Rebekah’s Studio 
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