January, 2020

We will be in Maui next week for a little over two months.  We have two condos, and will spend half our time in one and the other half of the time in the other, as we love them both.  We are really looking forward to the Maui Plein Air Invitational art competition February 15-23.  Plein Air means that the paintings are done outside, looking at the subject matter, not in a studio from a photograph.  We believe that this enables the artist to capture the play of light and shadow and also capture the energy of the locale.  This event attracts about 25 nationally known artists from all the Hawaiian islands, around the mainland, and as far away as Australia!  The event lasts 9 days, and has 3 paint-outs when the artists all paint in the same area.  We love to walk around, watch them paint, and see how different artists will paint the same landscape differently.  The artists are normally very willing to talk to us about what they are doing.  In addition, there is a free lecture by the event judge to teach us more about Plein Air painting and a free exhibition of work done by the artists during the week.  In fact, all events are free except for one dinner that is held at the close of the competition for awarding the prizes (but if you do not attend that dinner, you can still see all the work the next two days).  Of course, all the paintings are of Maui scenes, and you do get an opportunity to watch the artist paint the entire painting, from blank canvas to framed and ready to sell.