BLUE JADE BLOOMS IN MY KAUAI GARDEN

My garden here on the garden island of Kauai, has been a true sanctuary and inspiration for me especially during these times of Covid-19.

Being born and raised in The Netherlands, gardening and flowers are in my blood.  My first job as a young girl was in a nursery transplanting little seedlings.    And as an artist, I continue to be drawn back to painting flowers.    They are such metaphors for life and death.  They bring solace and joy.   “Earth laughs through flowers”, said Ralph Waldo Emerson.    “Zeg het met bloemen”, say the Dutch, which translates to “say it through flowers”…

This year, the Dutch tulip farmers have had to destroy or plow under their endless fields of bulbs because of the lack of trade.   Even the world’s most photographed Keukenhof gardens were closed to visitors this year and only visible digitally. 

Not so in my Kauai garden!   Years ago, by chance, I found a blue jade vine at the local Home Depot.   And, to my amazement it took off and loved its spot in my backyard! 

Strongylodon macrobotys, more commonly known as the jade vine, originates in The Phillippines.  It grows from a woody trunk and its vines can grow as long as 18 meters or more.  Needless to say, it keeps me pruning so as not to overtake everything else.   However, the vine is not invasive!    The flowers are an amazing turquoise to emerald to mint green, therefore the name:  Blue Jade.  

Take a look at my latest Blue Jade paintings!

You will find them under the gallery heading:  Blooms of All Kinds.  

 Their titles are:  MY GARDEN PATH, SEEKING THE GOLDEN LINING, JADE DANCE and EDEN.

Available through my website www.liedekebulderart.com or through www.hashisfineartgallery.com

ORCHID MANIA

                               SKYWALKER   2010,  original mixed media work by Liedeke Bulder

Almost spring on Kauai. Winter winds and rain are still pounding our rock in the middle of the grand South Pacific but soon it will be time for the annual spring orchid show. This feast for the eyes is put on by the Garden Island Orchid Society  at the United Church of Christ in Hanapepe, Kauai.

The title this year is SPRING FANTASY SHOW. Show times are on Friday, March 30 and 31, 2012.  Hours are from 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday the 30th and 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday the 31st.  There is no entrance fee.

I am pleased to have been invited to share an art booth with the society's resident photographer Ada Koene.   Ada will be selling her magnificent orchid photography.  I will be offering cards and prints of my Orchid series especially created for this occasion. It will be a great opportunity for you to purchase images of my work at very affordable prices.

In addition to the show, there will be orchid plants for sale, and, of course, great food!  Part of the proceeds from all sales go to support the programs of the Garden Island Orchid Society.

There will be an Orchid Doctor, Dennis Olivas, on duty on Friday the 30th at 1:00 and 4:00 p.m.  Bring your sick plants!! There will be no charge for this service. 

May the weather gods cooperate and bring us dry and sunny weather by then!

Mele Kalikimaka!

MELE KALIKIMAKA / MERRY CHRISTMAS / HAPPY HANUKKAH

From my home and studio to you and yours!

Greetings to all of you near and far away friends, in cold and warm places.  I think of each and every one of you and hope this finds you well as I am writing this from my computer corner in my studio looking out over the ocean.

More rain is pouring down outside. We are truly experiencing a Hawaiian winter here in the Kalaheo hill country! We have even had our fireplace on in the evenings more than once to ‘take the damp out of the air’ … Thinking back on all the sunny winter vacations we were fortunate to have on Kauai before moving here, I would say to the doubters out there: yes, I do believe in climate change…

Christmas on Kauai is a special time. Last week we attended performances by the Kauai Community College Jazz Band and the Brass Symphony. The evening went from Glenn Miller In the Mood  to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker!  Never mind the clarinet section was a little weak…the charming little ballerinas made up for it as well as the spirit of community and aloha here, the like of which  I have not experienced anywhere else ever before. No room for pretense, I believe, or big city rush. The island will spit you out, back to where you came from, if the go with the flow way of island life does not sit with you…

It has been an exciting and busy year. In May our home was hit by lightening and we truly lost all our electronics! We were glad to not have had our house burn down. And, we were fine, even after the spaceship landed in the bedroom experience! The studio has been busy too. After shows this year at Halele’a Gallery in January and at Alley Kat Art in July, I am concentrating on playing with some new media. I am also doing some personal from the heart pieces processing some of the stuff that has happened in my life this year. I do hope for nine lives: too many exciting possibilities out there! 

My moth orchid originals are - since last week - represented by Amy-Lauren’s Galleries in Hanapepe and Hanalei.(www.amylaurensgallery.com) and I am very pleased.

My spider orchids are now also found at Cedar Street Galleries in Honolulu. (www.cedarstreetgalleries.com). 

Gicleé prints of my work are available through my studio.  Check out my listing in Kauai Dining Art Shopping, page 20-21. And, of course, my website www.liedekebulderart.com.

Sending you love and best wishes for health and happiness in the new year to come!

With aloha,

A hui hou!

EPIPHYTIC

Spiderwoman, mixed media on paper, 7" x 6"

I am back after quite a few months away from writing any blogs.  Sometimes life gets too overwhelming and dear friends, sorry, but I am not that much of the digital age that I can pour my heart and soul out on line for all to see…

Yes I am back and opening a new exhibit this coming Saturday at Kat Cowan’s delightful little place in the alley at downtown Kapaa on the East side of Kauai Island on Kuhio Hwy. 

The name of the show is EPIPHYTIC.  I have been asked by a number of people:  what is ‘epihytic’??

Epiphytic means:  not drawing nourishment from other plants or ground but from air/moisture in the air and therefore not parasitic.  I felt that to be a wonderful description for my orchid pieces.  For me orchids are  metaphors for us humans.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  We are earthbound with all our ego frills, vanities and needs yet spiritual  beings on a journey to a higher dimension.

In this exhibit I am still on my orchid binge. Not necessarily only moth orchids like before but EPIPHYTES for sure. The majority of orchids grow as epiphytes on trees where suitable regimes of light and humidity occur.  Most of the critters featured in this show are free floating, suspended in air, no roots.  There will be a few of my moth orchid images as well.  But the featured orchid is the spider orchid.  And, yes, I did have someone in mind when creating some of the new, smaller pieces.

Opening reception should be lots of fun with live music by the New Old School band, refreshment, pupus, fire dancing.  Kat throws a great party! 

Hope to see you there.  If not, the show runs through the summer and comes down 9/29/11.

Gallery will be closed, however, last week of August and first week of September!

A hui hou!

http://www.alleykatart.com/          http://www.liedekebulderart.com/

Shipwreck Beach

It is in the blood.. Born in a country where so much of the land has been reclaimed from the sea, I now live in a place surrounded by ocean and equally threatened by the elements of wind and water.

One of the gifts of having visitors come to see us here, is that I get to see the beauty that surrounds me with fresh eyes. While winterstorms rage all over, we walk barefoot in the sand.

Recently my 'baby'sister and husband came to visit all the way from the Netherlands. I took them on our favourite walk from Brennecke's Beach to Shipwreck's Beach along the ancient Hawaiian  fishing grounds.  There is so much mana in those old rocks..  We see a glimpse from days of old in a local fisherman throwing his net or casting a line...  Much has changed but the smell of seaweed, the salt and the wind surely remain the same...

I painted this location once shortly after moving here. I wanted to capture everything there was to see in this beautiful place in a painting then. Something you can take home and say, I was there.. The people who own the original loved it because their girls grew up surfing on Shipwreck Beach.

I remember being inspired to paint the location: it was a late afternoon and kind of overcast. Black mountain mostly in the clouds. It was fun to try and capture the force of the surf in acrylic paint on canvas. I am not a plein air painter per se. So I sketched and photographed and then made it my own in the studio later on.  
The prints of this work continue to bring joy as as a memory to take home.  You can find it on my website, http://www.liedekebulderart.com/. in the gallery 'Kauai Skies and Stuff'.

I am trying to learn from the sea turtles swimming around the coves of the sacred fishing grounds at Shipwreck Beach.  Moving on. Going with the flow of life. Once wanting to capture it all in a pretty picture. Now letting go of certainty and definition. Oh my goodness, do milestone birthdays have something to do with that??