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Maui Upcountry Jacaranda



(I had to remove the original because the size was too large and it didn't have a watermark) 
Here's my latest painting inspired by my trip to Maui. The Jacaranda trees were just starting to
bloom. There were so many beautiful farms, it felt like a storybook. The colors really are this vivid there.
The only thing missing is a rainbow. If you love rainbows, there's always one
somewhere on the island; it's magical!

Sharing on Show and Tell Friday with Cindy from My Romantic Home


I also did a smaller cropped version of this one for a challenge on Dailypaintworks





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Susan said…
Your painting is magical, too. Just lovely. Would love to see that lavender tree in bloom. Thanks for sharing. Susan
May 19, 2012 at 4:41 PM
Jennifer Beaudet Zondervan said…
Thank you Terra and Susan! Thanks for taking the time to comment:)
Jenniferxoxo
May 19, 2012 at 7:55 PM
Lorrie said…
We had jacaranda trees in Ecuador (where I lived for some years). Their bright blue colour never failed to cheer me. You've done such a great job with this painting.
May 19, 2012 at 9:28 PM
Erika said…
Wonderful! Wish you a nice new week.
Erika
May 20, 2012 at 1:07 PM
Vicki said…
Happy to hear you had a fun time in Maui! I've mountained biked on the downhill all thru that upcountry; loved the farmhouses with those pitched roofs, driving rain clattering on them (is it tin?), and there's nothing quite like that tropical green you've captured in your painting. I'm nuts over jacarandas. Here in SoCal, only a few jacarandas have popped out...such a lack of rain, you know...and I've thought they've actually all strugged the last two years of drought...but I'm hopeful by early-to-mid June we might get lucky to look down upon town and see a sea of purple. Jacarandas are possibly my most favorite tree, although eucalyptus, palms and swaying pepper trees are close runner-ups; it's what's familiar here where I live. Thanks for showing this newest work of art; brings back memories of the islands to me. You captured the essence of old Maui...up, up and away from the tourists and the beach but, naturally, still with incredible ocean views...and, in my opinion, where the "real folks" live!"
May 21, 2012 at 12:02 PM
Jennifer Beaudet Zondervan said…
Thank you all for your comments!
Vicki- This was my favorite area on the island probably for the reasons you've stated. My absolute favorite dream place to live would be on the The Big Island in Waimea. It's a dream of mine. We visited there about 8 years ago and saw the whole island in one day! We stayed the rest of our time on Kauai but as soon as I saw Waimea I knew I had to live there; it's like I had been there before.
May 22, 2012 at 8:03 AM
Vicki said…
Hi, Jennifer. I've never been to the Big Island; I've heard it's so diverse, like its own world, with the interior being wild and untamed, and then there's that black sand beach, etc. In those earlier travel years for me as a young adult, I left Kauai to the honeymooners; just wasn't able to see every island (something to still look forward to, so thanks for your observations!). A little story...when I was a kid, a neighbor's mom had a bunch of preteen books (from her own youth), which we'd thumb thru for summer reading (remember the days of being off all summer, with nothing to do but enjoy hobbies, swim at the neighbor's pool, "suffer" thru vacation Bible school, or any summer school, because our parents wanted us to do something constructive...when all we wanted to do was be outside!...read and work on our tans...ahh, they never come again, do they, those kinds of summers?!). From the neighbor mom's book collection, I chose one (had to be !940s, "Pam's Paradise Ranch") which was all about a girl my age who lived on a huge, working cattle ranch, I think on Hawaii (I seem to remember mention of Hilo...the story might have been based on the Parker Ranch...isn't it the Parker Ranch which is the gigantic cattle empire in the islands, just like the King Ranch in Texas, or do I have it mixed up; memory is sketched out at the moment!). From the time I finished that book, I became infatuated with Hawaii! My father was stationed for three years in WWII on Oahu, not a bad gig. I have a lot of b&w snapshots of him and his early-20s-something buddies, R&R-ing on Waikiki Beach, in the best shape of their lives, with some pretty obvious bronzed and toned abs! The only hotel was the old Royal Hawaiian you can see in the background. It took him 45 years, but he finally got back there in his old age, and it was very cathartic for him; war sucks. Anyway, can't wait to see your new drawings of this beautiful, magical U.S. state! (Isn't it creepy-wonderful, when you go somewhere and do feel like you've been there before, or it hits you deep in your soul that you belong there, some sort of instant connection; instinct. Lahaina is touristy, yet I got the same feeling; I didn't want to leave.)
May 22, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Jennifer Beaudet Zondervan said…
HI Vicki, I'm going to have to find that book! Your father was lucky for that but not for the war; at least he was able to go back. Kauai is so lush and quiet. I really love it. Lahaina was great! Even though it was very touristy I felt like I could definitely live there. It had a comfortable feeling about it. I love hearing about your stories about Hawaii. I could talk about it for days!
May 22, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Susan said…
Wednesday....Thanks for your visit and comment to my blog. Coming to YOUR blog is like a fresh spring breeze in my day. Love, love, love your work. Susan
May 23, 2012 at 8:05 AM
Jennifer Beaudet Zondervan said…
How sweet Susan! Thank you so much. Your's and everyone's comments make my day that much sweeter:)
May 23, 2012 at 8:20 AM
Vicki said…
Jennifer...craziest thing. Crazy! Once I drummed up in my memory about those childhood books of Hawaii, prompted by your exquisite upcountry painting, I couldn't get it out of my mind. On a whim, I googled and, lo and behold, those books in large part are reprinted now as paperbacks and you can buy them inexpensively, directly from Amazon! It led me to Wiki to read about the author, Armine von Tempski, which is all coming back to me now from decades ago, and she was actually born on Maui in the 1800s and is one of Hawaii's best-known authors. Wiki says, her "autobiographies and novels were based on her early life among the Hawaiian cowboys (paniolos) on the (get this!) Haleakala cattle ranch atop the Haleakala volcano. The Haleakala Ranch, which (the famous) Jack London first visited in 1907, was his fave of the Hawaiian ranches which he enjoyed on several extended visits with his wife." (Wiki says about Jack London, "he was an American author, journalist, and social activist; a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.) Wiki goes on to say, "The young Armine, then age 16, asked him to read some of her stories and give his opinion...her first published writing in the early 1920s was about efforts to restore the island of Kahoolawe after years of drought and overgrazing." She died in Fresno, in 1943, having married a realtor in Ventura County. Some of the reviews on Amazon talked of how her writing is simple (in a good way) and easy to read; obviously, her autobiographies must be also written for adults, whereas my old book called "Pam's Paradise Ranch" is classified for "younger readers" (I was a kid!). Anyway, as it turns out, it's all about wonderful Maui; go figure! No wonder I felt such a kinship with Maui. I'd read those books over and over, but just hadn't made the connection until now, almost 50 years later. Wow.
May 26, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Jennifer Beaudet Zondervan said…
That really is amazing and so interesting Vicki! I really must read it. My dad likes "Honolulu" and i think the new one is "Molakai" I need to read more! I usually am painting so the most I read are magazines and art books:)
May 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM
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