Koa’e Kea playing  in the Updrafts
acrylic 12 x 16 on gesso board
$500

Oops - stay tuned - started working on it again, so it will change!

Koa'e Kea, or White Tailed Tropic birds, nest in the walls of Kilauea Caldera and play in the updrafts altogether too near active eruptions for my comfort! What a magnificent mysterious connection they have. It was my privilege to photograph them playing there and so to be able to share them in my painting. This is Episode 22, an earlier and more sedate display shortly before the dramatically tall and energetic episodes 23 and 24 that followed in June of 2025.

 The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), also known as the Koaʻe Kea in Hawaiian, is considered indigenous to Hawaiʻi. This means the bird naturally occurs in Hawaiʻi and was not introduced by humans. White-tailed tropicbirds are found in a broad range of tropical and subtropical regions. The subspecies Phaethon lepturus dorothea breeds in Hawaiʻi.

Koa'e Kea at Laupahoehoe
11 x 14 acrylic on board
$400
janewtaylor@icloud.com

 

Mana Show 2025. (Hilo at the Wailea Center April 2025)

 

Tiny Pictures

 

These are 5 x 7 inch paintings, created mostly en plein air (on site). Please see the other website for details:

https://www.janewordtaylor.com/carousel.php

Waialea Storm Surf
11 x 14 Acrylic on 
Ampersand fine board
$500
This painting was at the Mana Invitational Show at the Wailoa Center in Hilo
from April 4 to May 5th, 2025

A place of many moods, this favorite beach is often calm and perfect for snorkeling, but not today! I actually got tumbled a bit by the wave while I was painting and almost lost my paint bag. It was a triumph that I caused no mess!

 

Hapuna Sunrise - The Wedge
acrylic on ampersand board 14 x 11
$375

 This was  based on  a serendipitous webcam moment! I was checking the surf on the Mauna Kea Beach Resort webcams at https://www.maunakearesort.com/play/resort-happenings/webcam and was lucky to catch the sun just hitting the tops of the wave and the edges of the trees. I called to ask and was told a screen shot from the live cam doesn't have copyright issues - so pleased as this was a grand moment and I really wanted to paint it! The bird is probably an egret - there were several on the webcam - but in another age it might have been a koae kea.  I don't know if they are seen here but I have seen them in Kohala, so not far away. As always, I used other references as well, including my many years of memories. I recall swimming in that wave as a child. Now a popular surf spot, it has acquired the name "The  Hapuna Wedge"

 

Kolea at Wawaloli
Acrylic on canvas board, 14 x 11

 

Walking at Paniau
Acrylic on  Gallery Wrapped Canvas 
12 x 16

$440

 At the end of the road at Puako is a shoreline access area. The ocean is directly behind us as we look back towards the road. When I was a small child in the early 1950s, a house very near this spot belonged to friends and I remember spending the night with them and seeing the tide-pools for the very first time, glowing in the early morning light. Someday perhaps I will paint that recollection!   Also in those days there was no television reception in Waimea, but you could watch TV down in Puako, so that memory emerges in this spot as well. Note the Hawaiian quilts hanging to dry in the background. The houses have all changed since those days, so there is no real accuracy here, but I do remember amazing quilts.

Wave at Kohanaiki
12 x 16
$440

 I began this painting on location sometime over the last year but cataracts intervened and it has been languishing unfinished. It now rises to the surface to be touched up and completed. 

Old Airport Garden
Acrylic on watercolor paper adhered to hardboard
9 x 12
Sold

I enjoyed painting this on location and meeting some of the hard working people that make these beautiful gardens. The place is bursting with life, so look for the dog and his person, the cat, and the mongoose. I have mixed feelings about all the animals here  - much as I love each of them, there are practical reasons not to feed cats in our environment - they eat a remarkable number of birds even when they are fed, and they carry diseases to some of our native animals. 

I enjoyed learning about the Golden Arrow Plumeria. What an interesting variety!

janewtaylor@icloud.com

 
 

Paniau Trail
Acrylic 8 x 10 on gallery wrapped canvas
$250

 Begun en plein air and then finished at home.  A steady stream of dog walkers and people seeking shade or snorkeling sites frequent this trail. The  near tree is a Beach Heliotrope.

A'eo at Kalokoa Fishpond
acrylic on Aquabord
12 x 16
$440

One of several paintings begun on location  prior to cataract surgery and finished months later in the studio after several more visits to this favorite spot, this is another "transitional" painting.  I find painting with my changed vision both exciting and challenging and am not yet sure where it is leading.