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!

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??