Windows With a View
By Margaret A. Haapoja

A. Kimberlin Blackburn’s colorful “The Flower Farmer” is constructed of glass beads, acrylic and wire on wood.

Most of us get two or three weeks of vacation a year, and live for those brief periods of escape from daily life. But what if your daily life was a tropical paradise?

For the four artists featured here, all residents of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the view from their bedroom windows reveals blue ocean waters, banana trees and endless raw materials for their next masterpieces. But relaxed living doesn’t mean that Kauai is lax when it comes to the arts—each of these artists also belongs to the Kauai Society of Artists (KSA), a supportive organization that sponsors juried exhibitions and workshops throughout the year. As painter and KSA board member Annabel Spielman says, “It was here in the islands that I got a good introduction into the ‘aloha’ spirit of art.”

M. Lea Ingram’s vibrant quilts depict scenes from land and sea. “Ka’loko Mourning” is pictured here.

A. Kimberlin Blackburn isn’t an artist who restricts herself to one project at a time. Her studio, overlooking the farm that has been in her husband James’s family for three generations, is filled with materials ready for immediate use—sorted beads, wood cutouts, six paintings in process on the wall, a soft sculpture and a tabletop for collaging.

“Nature’s duality of beauty and devastation always compels me,” says the artist, who is best known for her bead sculptures. “The water moving through the land, nourishing, carving, flooding. I imagine the farmer as the heroine or hero nourishing generations of people.” Somewhat of a free spirit, Blackburn, who was born on Oahu, returned to Kauai from New Jersey with a graduate degree in studio art in 1979. Hiking provides inspiration and respite after she sits hunched over for hours in her studio. “It makes me want to create something in response to all that beauty,” she says. “I’m not a literal artist, so I’m not trying to make a flower the way a flower looks, but I want to be in the game. I want to play with the spirits.”

Because Blackburn loves Hawaii’s mix of cultures, the figures in her sculptures often have green or blue faces so that anyone can identify with them. “I am blessed to live in a place my ancestors traveled far to come to, a place that speaks to me with intense beauty and grace,” she says.

Ray Nitta’s repertoire includes furniture, like this Japanese tansu.

Blackburn’s work is available stateside at Rupert Ravens Contemporary in Newark, N.J., or at Davison Arts in Kapaa, Kauai. Visit www.akimberlinblackburn.com for more information.

Annabel Spielman spent time in England and India before she married her husband, Stuart, in 1976 and followed his passion for warmer climates all the way to Hawaii. “I’ve lived on these islands for over thirty years,” she says, standing in her sun-splashed studio, “and I continue to find a source for inspiration everywhere I look. The color is so extravagant here. The flowers, the landscape and the people—I think my paintings will always have a Hawaiian point of view.”

Regardless of their subjects, Annabel Spielman’s paintings always reflect her locale. “Banana Flower” depicts one of Spielman’s favorite plants.

Street scenes, ocean views and vignettes seen through her kitchen window are equally captivating for Spielman. She carries a camera, and sometimes uses a photo as her starting point. Landscapes and tropical foliage figure prominently in her work. The banana f lower is one of her favorites, for the unique way it thrusts out from beneath a huge clump of leaves. The flower and fruit develop so quickly that she can catch them looking very different after only a couple of days. Spielman experiments with a variety of mediums: intimate watercolors that are “more like embroidery,” expressive acrylics that “do a dance with the paint brush and the canvas,” and juicy, rich oils that “blend so successfully.”

Spielman’s work can be found at the Kilohana Gallery in Lihue and Aloha-N-Paradise in Waimea. Check out www.annabelspielmanpaintings.com for more information or to contact her.