Artist: Wendell Kahoohalahala
Title: Paniolo Thrownet
Medium: Original oil on thick paper
Size: 20” x 28" unframed.
Around 1912 these young Hawaiians are enjoying a nice long ride along the northeast coast of Kaiolohia, where many years later a navy ship will be abandoned on the reef and become famously known as “Shipwreck Beach”. One of the cowboys is about to throw his net on a school of moi.
Artist bio: Wendell Kahoʻohalahala is a native Hawaiian artist born and raised on the Island of Lānaʻi. Primarily self-taught, Wendell discovered the magic of fine oil colors at a very early age; since then he’s been committed to telling the story of Lānaʻi through that tradition. Wendell makes the most of what he has, studying at the only institution available: the public library. Each painting is the product of painstaking research and reflection. Wendell's aspiration? To faithfully render the unphotographed story of Lānaʻi in a way that his ancestors would recognize and approve of. Wendell’s art is a story as seen through a native lens. It links the past and present as seen through the eyes of one whose ancestors have lived on Lānaʻi since time immemorial. It is the art of a true kamaʻāina, a child of the land.