Aquamarine Opening Reception August 4

Artist Donia Lilly will have an opening reception for her new show Aquamarine at the Art Café Hemingway in Kapa`a on Saturday, August 4. Photo by Anne E. O’Malley

Aquamarine Opening Reception Saturday, August 4

An opening for Donia Lilly’s exhibit of her ocean-inspired pastels and mixed media paintings will take place at the Art Café Hemingway Gallery on Saturday, August 4 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The show ill continue through August 30.

Titled Aquamarine, her show will center around her Oceans and Evocations series.

“When curators Markus and Jana Boemer first insisted I include my Evocations series in the exhibition, I had to step back and consider how I could aesthetically harmonize an exhibition of these two different series,” says Lilly. “I decided to only show my Evocations in the violet-blue-green spectrum along with my Oceans and call the exhibition Aquamarine. The title plays on the name of the color as well as the roots of the word — water and sea.”

Lilly’s Oceans paintings are not portraits of the ocean — you won’t find rocks, waves and sea life in them. Rather, they are expressions of the visual and emotional effect of the sea and its many states on the artist.

“The colors of the sea are absolute favorites of mine,” says Lilly. “It was a pleasure to focus solely in this spectrum for the Evocations paintings — paintings of pure color and movement —included in the show.”

Lilly will also exhibit an ocean painting she did on a hand-carved Rarotongan vaka paddle while she was living in the Cook Islands.

About the artist

Donia Lily is an artist, writer and teacher who has traveled extensively. Her response to her environment and experiences profoundly informs her artistic process. She has lived in seven countries, a dizzying number of towns, and currently lives on the island of Kaua’i.

Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows throughout the United States, Europe, and the South Pacific and hangs in collections across North and South America, Europe, and Oceania. She has won awards and honors from various arts organizations and arts publications, such as Pastel Artists of Hawai`i and The Pastel Journal, and is included in the archives of the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.

Lilly’s travel and arts articles have been published in various magazines and newspapers, and she hopes to have some of her children’s books published in the near future.

While Lilly creates with many media, including acrylics, charcoal, and watercolor, pastels are her true love.

“Using pastels is to draw and paint in the same instant,” says Lilly. “It is a refined sort of finger painting — much more than messy children’s play.

The activity of drawing, of witnessing the textures and forms emerge from beneath my fingers in spontaneous choreography is much like dancing. With practice, the hands and the medium communicate silently with each other, responding, resonating, and enhancing the dance, the drawing. Watching it happen is never quite as satisfying as participating, creating.”

For information, call 647-0478 or visit online at www.DoniaLilly.com.