30 paintings in 30 days, American Samoa, Day 26

 

Aiga Buses, after the rain

 

My friends Mickey, Dottie, Bill and Richard came to American Samoa for the first time from Molokai, Hawaii. They stopped by the painting project at the library. Dottie asked;

“Does the climate affect your painting?”

Good question, the answer is a resounding yes. I’ve painted in a lot of places and find that humid air is the best for acrylic paint since it dries slower. Hot dry air is the worst. I was snowed in once and the heater just wrecked the paint, if I turned it off I froze so that didn’t work. I’ve tried painting outside a few times, but the paint dries too fast in the wind and bugs get stuck in the paint. Humidity is great. I’d say American Samoa indoors with a little air-conditioning is the perfect climate to paint. 

The question I want to answer that nobody has asked is;

“Why are you doing this?”

It is a huge challenge to come up with a new painting day after day and since it is difficult it is never boring. Another good reason is that practice is the only way to get better, just like going to the gym. If you work out you get results. When I did 90 paintings in 90 days and posted them on my blog a lot of people looked at the posts, which surprised me. It’s not easy to get artwork in front of an audience. Online though people can look at the paintings at home so the audience is larger than if you all had to drive to a gallery. The director of the library invited me to come to American Samoa for this project and I had many months to think about what I wanted to paint. I rejected a few ideas, like portraits of faces because they are too difficult to do in a day. I looked through many thousands of pictures I’ve taken in American Samoa and chose the images for graphic appeal, color and subjects that you would see if you toured the island. It is a visual record of the beauty, daily life and scenery from a visitor’s perspective. I have always loved being here and I hope that comes through in the paintings.