Artist: Wendell Kahoohalahala
Title: Pineapple Fields Burning
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size:24"x 26” unframed.
The burning of the fields in preparation of replanting usually took place at night when the wind was right. This moment in the 1980s, Pālāwai Basin was being burned during the day. The trade winds are blowing.
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.