A trip to the “Big Island” of Hawai`i is always exhilarating, and my July trip was over-the-top amazing!

Each of the Hawaiian Islands has its own personality. Like siblings in a family, no two are alike.

Hawai`i Island is the largest of all of the islands. In fact, all of the other islands would fit inside of it (as if that were possible).

Hawai`i is rugged, rural, majestic, and home to the most active volcano on Earth.

Two exhibits on the Kona side of the island prompted my July trip.

Tiffany DeEtte Shafto is doing a great job presenting my art to a wider audience. She hung my art at both The Four Seasons Hualalai and Henderson House at the Shops in Mauna Lani.

I stayed at the Four Seasons for one night and Ohmygoodness there are so many reasons it is consistently rated the BEST resort in the world!

The beauty, luxurious accommodations, sumptuous grounds, the happy, friendly people, the yummy food, much of which is grown on the resort and the island, are all top notch!

This is the view at dawn from our cabana at the Four Seasons Hualalai

It is paradise on steroids!

Teaching a watercolor class at the Four Seasons was great fun and very rewarding.

Me, Jeanette, & Mike in front of my painting, "Miles from Nowhere", at Henderson House

I am thrilled to have my abstract paintings hanging in the showcase design environment of Henderson House in The Shops at Mauna Lani.

Me and Rebecca Snow relaxing in the middle of a long, exciting day at the Four Seasons.

Rebecca Snow, my friend, fellow artist, and studio-mate, joined me on the trip. It was her first time to Hawai`i Island so we stayed a few extra days with my cousins Mike and Jeanette in Captain Cook.

Mike gave us a tour of their orchard of bananas, oranges, tangerines, mango, avocado, Kona coffee, Ulu, and Pamelo. Jeanette’s healthy meals gave us a delicious respite between the hectic exhibit schedules.

We rose at 2:30AM on Saturday so Mike could drive us to the southern tip of the island to see the glowing Kilauea caldera and watch the sun rise on Mauna Loa. It was breath taking!

The energy of life renewing itself is evident all over the world, in every backyard. That same energy feels amplified on the Big Island.

The contrast of birth/renewal and death happens simultaneously all around us. Our lives become that much sweeter when we realize it’s up to us to pick up the reins and make each path our own.

Putting things off does us no service. Living life is a verb. Creating a life that matters is actionable.

Let’s all take the action we need to take today to make the most of our time here on Earth!

We are meant to continue to grow, becoming more of our REAL selves here on Earth!

Those were the exact words running through my mind over and over again while I tried to sleep. I finally got out of bed and wrote them down. Obviously this was an important message.

I’m glad I did that! These words have continued to keep me focused the past few weeks and I’m expecting them to last me the entire year. 

They are my “words of the year.”

For the past five years, I’ve been following Christine Kane’s method of choosing a word for the year rather than making “resolutions.” You can try it too, just click on this link: https://christinekane.isrefer.com/go/WOTY2015/Patrice1

Last year my word was “risk” and my plan was to take more of them.

While I didn’t do any daredevil stunts, I did enter (and win) a contest from SCORE last February, which included an all-expenses paid trip to Phoenix to attend a small business conference.

Then, before I even sent my entry in, I saw a real, live Wallaby alongside the road in the Ko`Olau Mountains! I felt like a winner even before I’d won the official prize.

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This year of “Sweet Sixteen” calls for more. It’s time for me to “step things up another notch.” 

It’s time for me to be more up front about what it is that I do through my art and my teaching (clarity of purpose), and focus on getting my message out to you and to more people.

Clarity of Purpose: 
I paint the essence of living aloha; and I teach others to paint so they can more easily access their creative inner self to enrich their lives.

Painting is more than something to do or to see. Paintings can be a way to help people grow in their ability to connect with their inner being, and thereby become their very best self!

You can connect more to your inner self by feeling the energy in my paintings AND/OR by learning to paint using my methods.

Singularity of Focus:
That could be a little harder because I have at least four, make that FIVE, areas of focus: Painting, Teaching, Writing, Business, and PLAY. 

Play time and down time are extremely important to a “solo-preneur,” —and often the first to get cut from my schedule. Not good!

I’ve laid out my year in broad brushstrokes. The details will be filled in as the days and weeks progress. 

Paintings work that way too. 

We start out painting big shapes, with broad brushstrokes, and we fill in the details as we continue to paint.

“God” is in the details (many people say it’s the “devil,” but I disagree). While it’s true the details can trip us up, they are also where we discover the most information (this is a clue for me and for you).

Often we think that if we "felt better”, or if we "felt like painting", that our painting time would be more fun, or more interesting, or our painting “turn out" better.

Actually, we will feel better about painting (and the resulting painting) after we paint!

Rather than waiting to feel better before taking action (starting to paint), it’s important to know that our attitudes follow our actions. This means that we often feel better about doing something AFTER we’ve done it.

Whether it's painting or going to the gym or some other task, it helps to have a habit or practice in place so the decisions to act are made ahead of time. That way our resistance (fear) doesn't stand a chance of stopping us from taking action. 

When you hear the phrase “stand up straight”, whether it’s said to you or to another, do you “stand up straight”?

Did you just sit up straighter when you read, “stand up straight”?

How’d that feel?

Aside from the annoyance factor, did you feel a tiny bit better for having straightened your spine from the “I-didn’t-realize-I-was-slouching” position you’d been in?

When we don't use our creativity muscle regularly, it slouches. It goes slack. It goes limp, and gradually we “lose the juice”, the “fire in our belly” that fuels our creativity.

Nike’s famous slogan “Just Do It!” is a great start for any new action we want to cultivate.

“Just Do It Again!” is an even a better mantra to recite.

Doing something once is a start. Doing something regularly is the way in which we create a habit or a practice.

If you want a habit of feeling good or happy with yourself, figure out which of your actions produce those feelings, and then Do Those Actions Again and Again!

I took just one painting class in college — oil painting. I loved it, but had more fun working in clay, and spent many semesters up to my elbows in “mud.”

Years after graduating, when I decided to paint again, I dug out my old oils. They still held magic.

Back then, I was working full time as Creative Services Director, and got up to paint before going to work. That gave me 20–45 min. of painting time about three times a week.

Each day I took a photo of my painting in progress. I liked seeing the painting develop, and knew that I could “blow it” with my next brush stroke. I figured if I had a record of what it looked like when I liked it, I could get back to that stage.

Opaque oil paints are “forgiving” because you can always paint over a passage you don’t like.

Watercolors are transparent, so there’s really “no going back”. Instead we continually move forward, adjusting our plans to make use of any perceived mistakes along the way.

I still take photos of my paintings in progress. I like to see the evolution of paintings — and so do my students.

I am both a “fast” and a “slow” painter. My motto is:
“Get in, Get Out, Step Back, Repeat…”

Basically this means that each brush stroke is done quickly, decisively, courageously … and then I STOP, step back, and look to see what’s happening with the painting.

If I know what to do next, I continue on with this “Get in, Get Out, Step Back, Repeat…” method.

Sometimes there’s a long pause between brush strokes. Sometimes it’s because I don’t know what to do next. Sometimes it’s because there is something else that must be done (dinner anyone?).

Most of my paintings take weeks to complete. Even when I think a painting is finished, I put it away for a day or two so that the next time I look at it I have “fresh eyes”.

This is one reason I like to have many paintings in progress at one time. I can easily switch from one to another if I get stuck.

My students long to see me finish a painting in class. Sigh. They want to know how to know when a painting is finished.

Alas, this is a subjective matter.

Robert Genn, a revered master painter from Canada once wrote: “it is better to under paint by 10% than to over paint by 1%.”

Keep painting. The more you do it, the better you get, and the easier it will be to know when your painting is finished.

It’s an unsatisfying answer, yet true.