“The Guardians”
Standing beneath the Kalalau Cathedrals, you feel the cliffs alive and breathing.
The inspiration arrived during an extraordinary moment in time. During the Covid lockdowns, the Department of Land and Natural Resources had cleared the Kalalau Valley entirely — campers, refuse, all of it gone. The valley sat empty for months. Pristine. Not even footprints on the sand. We boated in and arrived to find this magnificent cathedral valley completely to ourselves.
Standing on the beach, looking up at the spired peaks as clouds moved through them, I felt something that went beyond the visual. I could feel the presence of the mountains, see them breathing in the way the clouds intertwine with the mountains. To be alone with Nature of that scale and beauty is a mystical experience.
That feeling is what the painting chases — and what it took two years and more than four hundred hours to earn. The Guardians is many layers deep, built from countless layers and glazes: intricate detail in the rock faces, the particular way light moves through mist, the relationship between solid stone and shifting cloud. From across a room it feels alive and utterly real. Move closer and you find the language of brushstrokes that makes it happen — the interior journey of light, listening, intuition, and imagination that produced it.
The frame is handmade from local Koa and Curly Maple with a hand-rubbed oil finish.
The Guardians claims your attention when you enter the room.
Medium: Oil on Panel 72 x 24”
Frame: 80 x 32” · Koa and Curly Maple
Price: $65,000