Hawaii Island Landscape Artist, helping people feel uplifted and ennobled.
ARTIST | TEACHER
My name is Moses Kealamakia Jr. I live in a mostly rural part of Hawaii island, for almost all of my life. I grew up in an area here on the big island of Hawaii called Waimea. Waimea is sandwiched between the Kohala mountains on the north, and Mauna Kea to the south. Also in the distance are the mountains of Mauna Loa, and Hualalai. You could say people of Waimea grew up always looking upward to the mountains, which I may add, gave us a sense of joy and satisfaction.
In addition to the mountains which gave us a sense of self confidence, I grew up in an artistic home with watercolor paintings, along with pen an ink drawings with washes on our home’s walls. These were done by my father. He was a very skilled artist, and was slated to attend the Chicago Art Institute. However, he was awarded land to ranch cattle. And so he turned his back on art to become a rancher, which he dearly learned to love.
For all of my life, I loved to draw. During my middle school years, my parents bought me an oil painting set. I loved it from the very beginning. However, I did not know how to paint, and my parents could not afford to send me to have art lessons. But i kept at it, and taught myself as best as I could by using books borrowed from the public library.
Eventually I would graduate high school, and attend college, on the island of Oahu, the Brigham Young University– Hawaii Campus., where I would major in art and education. College life was wonderful, and I learned many wonderful art skills. However, this was not enough! I desired that my skills to be better. I applied to the Masters of Fine Art program at another institution, and was rejected. So, I then became an art teacher for the state of Hawaii.
As an art teacher, I became acquainted with the art principles of artist Gerald Brommer, which would later influence me a lot. At this time I got introduced to famous landscape artists such as George Inness, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Moran. Their work, simply made me want to paint like them, and I loved their philosophy of communicating spirituality through their paintings. I desired to be like them.
