Is painting on your bucket list?

4 01 2012

Painting is on my friends’ bucket lists. They’ve inspired me to teach some fundamentals and techniques and offer a course. As promised, I will open my Kaaawa studio for Oil Painting Lessons starting February 2012. Registration is open now and enrollment is limited.

The “Painting I” course consists of 12 weekly lessons on Wednesday from February 1 to April 25. Class sessions will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include a lunch break. Tuition is $100 a month. Cost of materials is additional.

I just noticed it’s leap year, so you’ll either get a bonus or won’t have to feel bad if you miss one class.

Students will learn impressionistic painting in oil. Lessons will generally follow those taught by the late colorist Gloria Foss, my oil painting teacher, and as found in Foss’s guidebook How to Paint. I’ll add my own experience as a fine art painter and photographer to show you what to do.

I’ll teach you art fundamentals and the logic of light to give you a solid foundation to pursue painting as an avocation or a vocation.

What you’ll learn

Here’s just some of what you’ll learn in my Painting I:

• Basic drawing — perspective, shape, value, light and shadow
• The world in black and white
• Basic color theory—monochromatic, analogous, complementary color and full palette
• Using color charts and the color wheel
• Modeling of forms

Each lesson will consist of a brief lecture on art theory, a demonstration, hands-on still life drawing and painting in the studio, homework, and critique.

Each week we will build on the previous technique learned, and eventually we will apply what we have learned in the studio to the landscape.

Gloria Foss and me

I first met Gloria Foss at the Honolulu Branch of the National League of American Pen Women where she was an Arts member and I was a new Letters member. She was a UH Mānoa student getting her Master of Fine Arts degree. She wanted to teach. She said if all of her art teachers had explained some things from the very start, it would have been a lot easier. She was about 60. Teaching was on Gloria’s bucket list!

After I finished the black-and-white photography curricula at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (I didn’t complete color photography), I sought a studio class to keep my eyes trained. By then Gloria had designed her own “Gloria Foss Color Course” and opened the Foss School of Fine Arts in Honolulu.

Then I had the honor and delight of making the photographs of the studio lessons in her book How to Paint. It’s now my desire to share what I learned, then and since, with others.

Tuition, materials and supplies

Your investment will be the cost of tuition—$100 a month for each of three months for a total of $300—plus the cost of materials and supplies. When you register, you will receive a complete list of art materials to buy.

For the first two or three lessons, you will not need everything on the list. All items on the list will cost an estimate of $125-$150.

Easels will be provided for class use.

An optional text is How to Paint by Gloria Foss (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1991) that will be used for reference. It is out of print, but you can try to locate a used copy. Information on how to obtain a CD of the book will be given in class.

How to register

To reserve your place in class, send your correct name, mailing address with ZIP, phone number, and email address with a minimum $40 deposit to Rebekah Luke, P.O. Box 574, Kaaawa, HI 96730. Or, include the information in an email message to rebekahluke@hawaii.rr.com and send your deposit via PayPal with the DONATE button in the right sidebar. After your deposit is accepted I will send you a supplies list and information on where to go in Kaaawa for the first class. Happy painting!

PAINTING I February 1-April 25, 2012
Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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Happy new year! What’s on your plate for 2012?

1 01 2012

♥ LOVE, Love, love! ♥ We made it! A happy and loving new year to all. Muah! It’s gonna be a good one!

What’s new on your plate for 2012? Here’s what’s on mine: 1 lotus petal, 2 reunions, 2 books, 50 lei, and plenty of Skype.

This month I’m getting ready to teach my first formal course in Painting, to be launched in February at my studio in Kaaawa. Our kids and grand kids will be moving to Italy for their work around that time, and with a crib and other childrens’ things gone from our place, I’ll be rearranging the furniture to make room for a few students and floor easels. I can envision another petal of my lotus opening. Exciting!

As we have all noticed, I’m sure, this is a time of great change in our lives and on our planet. I look at these changes as part of the circle of life and events to be celebrated.

Of course, having one’s family move half way around the world is a big change, and we are helping each other adjust emotionally as well. My darling husband (DH), who was Miss Marvelous’s primary caregiver in her first year when her parents worked outside the home, and I will miss the two toddlers especially. It’s so much fun watching them develop.

Thank goodness for Skype. Thank goodness for a great reason to travel to Europe—I’m projecting in 2013—and thank goodness they will be back here in three years.

In June I’m partying and reminiscing with my Punahou Class of ’67 classmates for our 45th high school reunion. Yes, indeed, it’s been that long. Nearly everything is set for the six-day event, and I hope many will attend. We’ll have such a great time reconnecting.

In July I’m committed to welcoming the yachts of the Pacific Cup race to Hawaii, and my crew of lei makers will be on call once again.

Come August it’s a biggie. I’ll have published a new book and e-book about my relatives in time for a gathering. My cousins of my mom’s side and I are going to North Kohala on Hawaii island for a family reunion. Kohala is where my grandparents and their 15 children lived until June 1925 when they moved to Honolulu.

In 2011 I made two scouting trips there to find the old house (it had been moved, and I found it!) and to gather information for the trip. Our family is so fortunate that we can literally walk the land of our ancestors and experience the place of their birth.

And that’s it. Pretty full, huh? I’m sure yours is too. It’s meant to be. I wish you love during the transition. There still may be some bumps in the road, so take it easy. Thank you so very much for visiting, and check back often during the year. Reiki blessings to all. ~ Love, Rebekah

Copyright 2012 Rebekah Luke

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Tying a couple-3 important loose ends

28 12 2011

The average person spends the end of the year trying to tie up loose ends, I think, and for me they have to do with seeds some of my friends planted in my brain this week, between Christmas and New Year’s. What I mean is, each expressed an interest in something I have first-hand knowledge about, and I feel I should get back to them. But why not share it with visitors to the Rebekah’s Studio too?

One is a recipe, the next is a travel tip, and last is someone’s bucket-list item.

For my hanai brother Brian, here’s “Oven Kalua Turkey” from A Hundred Years of Island Cooking by Hawaiian Electric Co. Valerie, a sister member of Hale Kūʻai Cooperative some years ago, gave it to me. During the holidays she always has this on hand for guests, she said. I made it for Christmas Day (omitting the banana leaf because I didn’t have one) and Mom served it alongside a ham. I bought a frozen turkey and started thawing it in the refrigerator four days before cooking it. After Julia Child, I used butter.

OVEN KALUA TURKEY

12-lb. turkey
12 ti leaves or foil
1 banana leaf
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
2 teaspoons liquid smoke

Rinse and drain turkey. Line a large baking pan with foil. Wash ti leaves and banana leaf; remove fibrous part of the veins. Line baking pan with ti leaves radiating from center; place half of the banana leaf in bottom of pan. Place turkey on leaves. Rub remaining ingredients on inside and outside of turkey. Place remaining half of banana leaf over turkey; fold leaves around turkey. Crimp foil around turkey and cover pan lightly with additional foil. Roast in electric oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours. Shred turkey, adding enough of the pan liquid to moisten meat. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

For my Kaaawa neighbor Ted, who is more senior than I and who is curious about ship travel because as a member of his family has airline privileges he and his wife Dorothy have always flown, I highly recommend river cruising, and here’s the web link: http://vikingrivercruises.com. Go ahead, click on it. With the money you have saved on airfare, you can afford being pampered.

I booked a Viking River Cruise for DH and me on a whim when I quit my last job, and the trip became our 25th anniversary present to ourselves. I thought I’d better do it while I still had money in the bank. It was our first real cruise — the kind where you unpack just once — and we loved it. We rode on the Danube River on a 150-passenger longship across Austria in the December snow, stopping at the river towns and traditional Christmas markets between Germany and Hungary. Unlike us, you don’t have to go in winter.

For my alumni glee club sister Linda, who is newly retired from 9-to-5 and has painting on her bucket list, here’s a big announcement: I’ve decided to give formal lessons in how to paint, starting February, to you and a small group at my studio, following my teacher the late colorist Gloria Foss. Yes! 😉 Before I change my mind, I’m posting it here! Registration will open soon.

Linda kept whispering painting questions to me between songs in rehearsal every week, so I figured she’s serious. “I can teach you that,” I said. Teaching a course in painting will be a first for me. I’m not sure what took me so long to take this step in my journey, but I’m excited! Mahalo, Linda, for inspiring me to share what I’ve learned.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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Categories : About me, Fine Art, Food, Friends & Family, Travel

Making use of time and place

29 10 2011

Good morning! It’s Day 4 at the Hawaiian Civic Club convention at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, where I’m showing some of my paintings. It’s a hard sell against Aunty May’s banana bread, Kamakea’s colorful baubles, kulolo from Kauai, Makaweli poi, maile plants from Hawaii island, faux flower hair ornaments, yarn lei, and Aunty Phyllis’s Hawaiian print pillows — none of which are three figures like my oils!

My paintings

On Day 1 I spent the time making a wili lei for a friend’s father’s memorial in the Midwest, and delivered it to the airport in time. Day 2 and 3 offered a bit of down time when the convention was in session.

To make it more interesting I’ve decided to paint on location today with my French easel and oils, making use of time and place. Because this is the view from the window. Yeah!

North Shore view of inspiration

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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New mural is a big deal

19 10 2011

Miss Marvelous and I experience the new "Hawaiʻi Loa Kū Like Kākou" mural created this month by Native Hawaiian artists at the Hawaii Convention Center. This photo shows only a small section of the painting with the tip of an 'auamo (stick used on one's shoulders to carry things) that represents the concept of balance for the world. The entire ʻauamo image including the opposite end extends the width of the mural. The artwork will be officially presented to the public today, October 19, 5:30 - 7 p.m., street-level entrance. For a related article, please see my October 8 post. — Photo by Peter Krape


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Hawaiʻi Loa Kū Like Kākou mural

8 10 2011

Native Hawaiian fine artists Harinani Orme, Meleanna Meyer, and Kahi Ching work on the "Hawaiʻi Loa Kū Like Kākou" mural at the Hawaii Convention Center.

A mural painting in progress at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu is something for the whole community to see and appreciate. Hurry on down.

I watched the artists at work yesterday, intrigued with the program, the content, and the painting technique.

The mural is being created in response to the upcoming APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit conference here Nov. 7-10. The title “Hawaiʻi Loa Kū Like Kākou” means “All Hawaiʻi Stands Together.”

At this time five Native Hawaiian artists and kumu (teachers) — Kahi Ching, Solomon Enos, Al Lagunero, Meleanna Meyer, and Harinani Orme — and four alaka‘i (apprentice leaders) are working collectively on it following the ideas and insight from 22 haumana (students) of public, private, charter, and Hawaiian immersion schools and others. Many hands and hearts are touching this work. The mural consists of many layers of inspiration, thought, and paint.

Shad Kaluhiwa, who has a disability, holds his paintbrush with this teeth.

As the artists added the warm colors yesterday, and as I sat and continued to look at the painting, I kept seeing different things. The form of an ʻauamo (pole used to carry and balance burdens across the shoulders) was being visually turned. I noticed it curved, like the curvature of Earth, for then I saw the profile of continents and islands.

From there, Earth images, sky images, plant images, people images, spheres, fish, line and dot. Intertwined and intriguing. Beguiling in a charming way.

I mused, “I see.”

WHEN YOU GO: The mural painting is on the ground level underneath the escalators and next to the waterfall, through Oct. 11. It will be installed (I don’t know the exact location) Oct. 17-19, according to a printed fact sheet. Parking at the convention center costs $5 flat rate.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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Disney imagineers run with Native Hawaiian art and culture

6 10 2011

Congratulations to the “imagineers” of Aulani, the new Disney resort and spa in Leeward Oahu, for its Hawaiian theme, for doing the proper research, and for making art by Native Hawaiians so prominent in their design for this project. I took a ride out there today with my girlfriends, and we were impressed and grateful for what we saw. First off, we’re greeted by a lo‘i kalo (taro garden).

There was an obvious collaboration among local artists that has resulted in the largest showcase of contemporary Native Hawaiian art. This accomplishment is huge. From BIG architectural elements to the smallest details in interior decoration, we were pleasantly surprised at the thought and creativity incorporated into the design. Kudos, also, of course, to the artists!

I won’t tell you everything, and I’m not posting a lot of photos. I would rather you experience this venue yourself. Disney has managed to marry a family theme park with serious art and tasteful design. School’s out this week, and many Island families are “stay-cationing.” They’re really enjoying themselves. And it looks like Aulani becomes more magical at night with the Disney lighting effects.

Our Native Hawaiian artist friend Harinani Orme designed this architectural panel and two others of different images for the exterior. This is what I mean by BIG!

The ocean is right there, but there is so much to do within the hotel complex that you don’t notice it. It’s not the main attraction. Instead, guests can play with a sting ray, snorkel in a man-made reef pool, float around on a big inner tube, or frolic on the top of a man-made waterfall. I heard there’s a Menehune Adventure Trail that’s pretty cool to explore. Neat regular swimming pools, too.

There weren't too many people on the beach or in the ocean, but it was a pretty view.

When we got hungry for lunch we selected the ‘AMA‘AMA restaurant for its table service. We were aware the daily newspaper did not give the eateries at the Aulani a very good review last week. The food critic thought the menu was unimaginative and the food so-so. But I lucked out. I ordered the “plate lunch” that was a chef special of the day, and here’s what I got!

This "plate lunch" appeared on a tray like a Japanese kaiseki meal. Fresh locally grown field greens, including slices of watermelon radish, poke (raw fish), pork tonkatsu with curry sauce, and perfectly steamed white rice. $16.

My favorite place was Aunty’s Beach House, that is essentially a child care service. Aunty’s side is for ages 3 to 5 and was classic early childhood education curricula that I’m familiar with, and very well executed.

Uncle’s side includes the “garage” for older children and provides activities, computer games, movies, etc. of interest to them. When we were there, Aunty and Uncle had just left. I could hear through a key hole something about washing the dog!

In Aunty's living room, "cast member" Kawena (in green shirt) talks story with my friends Pi‘i, Gene, and Moeata. Our tour was delightful.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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