Susan's Field Study Journal

Tonight is my last night in Huahine and tomorrow I start the long trip (another overnight flight and most of two days) back to Olympia, arriving Sunday evening.  I’m sad to be leaving this bit of tropical paradise.  It’s evening here and kids are still playing in the lagoon, constantly laughing.  In three weeks, I’ve never heard an adult be grouchy with a child here, nor seen an unhappy child.  It’s a culture that feels very different from American culture.

Today I spent a good part of the day searching on-line sources trying to identify a few more fish.  There are still a large number that I’ve seen in the lagoon that I can’t find in any data base.  But I did realize that I was starting to be able to identify general groups by shape, for example the wrasses, the butterfly fish, the angel fish, the damselfish, boxfish, groupers and bassfish, etc.  That made it possible to find the names of one or two that I had seen that I couldn’t find earlier.

Yesterday, we had a sort of  Work Discussion, sharing our various projects.  I showed the paintings I’ve made, Marilyn Frasca showed the amazing pastel drawings she’s made, Lynn De Daanan read two poems and excerpts from the novel she’s started here (she’s already written five chapters in three weeks!), and Sally Cloninger showed a couple of short animated film sequences and still photographs she has made.  We took it seriously as a Work Discussion and it was very helpful to me to get feedback on my images.

Here we are looking at Marilyn’s drawings.

Despite being sad to leave the gorgeous, warm tropics, I’m looking forward to getting back and seeing what everyone’s done.  See you on Monday!

Susan

I’m finishing the paintings and still working on my field journal.  This morning we had a bit of a thrill with the tsunami siren went off!!!  It turned out, thankfully, to be a drill.  Had it been a real tsunami coming, supposedly ” a cute Tahitian” would come running down the beach to tell us.  Not all that reassuring!  I think we are going to check out the tsunami evacuation route later today. 

Other than that, it’s been quiet, alternately searing sun and downpours, with just enough breeze to make it comfortable to sleep at night.  Sally Cloninger saw a moray eel in out front in the water this morning and I’m going to go try to find it later this afternoon.  I also spotted two crown of thorns star fish, which are quite venomous and difficult to kill.  If you cut them up, they regenerate from each part.  They can also be out of the water for up to 16 hours then revive if put back in.  They are a menace on the reefs because they can kill large parts of the living coral.  But they are interesting to watch.  The information I read also noted that they can travel up to 20 miles an hour!  Who would have thought!

Here’s one of the paintings I finished yesterday. 

Take care,

Susan

Yesterday we had a real tropical blow with high winds and rain all day, including thunder.  It was pretty exciting!  Today the sun has returned and I’m back to work outside.  I’ve got nine pictures altogether in process, so I might get ten done after all, but adding the objects can take a long time.  I’ll try to post some more images tomorrow.

The time seems to be zipping by!  I’ve been working on six small paintings.  A couple are done.  Some I keep tinkering with and just need to let go of.  The air is so warm here (about 85 degrees) that the acrylics dry instanteously, and I’m wishing I had brought retarder with me.  There is no place here to get any art supplies, so I’ll make do with what I have and stop when I run out!  I’m enjoying working, but have to work, then jump in the water to cool down, then work more. 

Here I am working in a new spot, more sheltered than before.  It’s been so windy here, with gusts that threaten to carry everything away!

And here’s a more or less finished one.

I’ve also been having fun working in my Nature Journal.  I’ve been trying to do an entry every day.  The shells on the beach are scarce, so I’ve been working on identifying a new fish species everyday (Corey, you’d love it here!). 

Here is a picture of the market in the tiny village of Fare, where I am. 

And here are the school kids, some of the 600 on the island, at a rehearsal for an upcoming concert.  They were beautiful, like a tropical bouquet, singing in French, Tahitian and English, soft lilting songs that sounded like the sea.

Take care, everyone and don’t forget to keep your Nature Journals up!

Susan

This is what the sky looks like in the evenings, only with more intense color. 

In the morning at 7:00 the fishermen bring the fish to the local market, five minutes walk from where we are staying.  The colors of the fish are amazing!

Here’s the first small painting, almost done.  I’ll be adding small objects today.

Here’s another one nearly done.

See “More Week 7” link at top of page.

Thursday, February 17th

I arrived safely in Huihini on Monday and have been astounded by the lush vegitation, rich French-polynesian culture, smiling people and amazing skies and water.  It’s the cyclone season here, which means constantly changing cumulus, cumulonimbus and nimbostratus clouds against high cirrus clouds – in other words, big rain clouds against intensly blue skies streaked with high thin clouds.  Rain squalls come through (warm rain!) for five minutes at a time, several times a day, changing the sea to a purple color.  Then instantly afterward, the sun reappears and the sea returns to a luminescent acqua color streaked with deep cobalt blue.    In the morning and evening,  the skies soften to an amazing periwinkle blue, lit with rose and gold.  I’m already in despair about trying to capture anything close to the intensity and clarity of the colors here.   

I started working on Tuesday and have three small paintings in process.  It’s been a bit of a struggle to shift again to working in acrylics after painting in oils for the last few years.  It’s coming back, but I wish I had different brushes.  There’s no art store here, only a hardware store with house painting brushes.  So I’m making do with what I brought.  Here are some pictures of where I’m working  and of paintings in process.    I’m planning to add some small objects, such as shells, birds, etc.   Right now I’m just working to get the soft effects of the skies with acrylics. 

I’ll hopefully  post some finished images and pictures of local culture tomorrow.

Keep working and stay in touch!

Susan

First painting in process.

Week 6 Report

These images are several of the oil paintings dealing with sky imagery that I’ve been working on.  I’ll be continuing to explore this theme during my field study.