The Blue Sea Artisans Gallery featured artist for the month of September is new member pastel artist Mitch Hurst.
Mitch Hurst grew up amid rich tropical flora and fauna of South Florida spending countless days on the inter coastal waterway, inlets and ocean shores between Jupiter and Key West. Fishing, water skiing, and camping werecommon activities in his Huckleberry Finn -like childhood. He quickly developed a passion for the natural and raw beauty of the tropics and would sketch scenes during his mostly barefoot experiences.
After graduating from college in 1981, Hurst bought a camera and focused on photography for a number of years and then transitioned into a career in computer animation. After retiring from the Seattle tech industry in 2017, he returned to the visual arts advancing his drawing skills by adding water color washes to his ink landscape and still life renderings.
In 2018, Hurst signed up for a pastel painting workshop in Croatia taught by Steve Hill and quickly marveled at the flexibility and painting efficiency of the pastel painting medium. He reflects
“Pastel paints provide a means to recreate not just the rich colors and wide-ranging values of nature, but also the complex textures of flora, land, sky and sea. Pastel papers have teeth which allow the artist to create multi-colored layers with 3D depth. Pastels are also a power medium for creating bright impressionistic paintings where neighboring saturated colors generate the needed contrast within a composition.”
In 2022, Mitch moved to the Big Island of Hawaii with his wife and cat. Their goal is to soak in the delightful Hawaiian lifestyle and enjoy each and every day. He adds
“Landscape painting provides a fantastic means for falling into the plein air moment. It allows one to focus on observing the natural world and then finessing your materials to strive to recreate the essence of the things that move you.”
To meet Mitch Hurst and learn more about his pastel art, he will be working at the gallery on Mondays, Sept. 11, 18 and 25 , 2023 from 2 pm – 6 pm. The Blue Sea Artisans Gallery is located in the Keauhou Shopping Center, Courtyard, 78-6831 Alii Drive, Kailua-Kona. For more information please call the gallery at 329-8000 or find us on FaceBook: Blue Sea Artisans. The Gallery is open daily now: Monday through Saturday 10 am – 6 pm and Sundays 11 am – 3pm.