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Beverly Fettig "Pele: Hawaiian Goddess" |
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BIO
Taking a palette knife to her oil paintings, says Beverly Fettig, is as natural as "putting peanut butter on bread." Her oil paintings brilliantly capture the flavor of the rustic North Shore, O'ahu town of Hale'iwa, which has been her home for more than 30 years. When Fettig moved to Hale'iwa from Los Angeles in 1962, she immediately fell in love with the area�s beauty and character. "It�s a constant inspiration to me," she says. "When I see a composition that�s so natural, then it�s an easy thing to be an artist." Fettig prefers oils to other mediums such as acrylics because she likes their earthy look and feels they give her better control. The majority of her paintings are done entirely with a palette knife and often are completed while the oils are still wet. "I like the paint wet so my knife will glide easily over the surface of the canvas," she says. Her technique is just as smooth; it sometimes takes her only a few hours to complete a painting. "I�m very fast," she says, smiling. "Usually, I don�t have to go over anything a second time." Fettig�s artistic journey began shortly after she got married in the late 1950s. "I felt the need to do something on my own to keep my own identity," she recalls. She enrolled in art classes at San Diego State University and was immediately smitten with painting. When Fettig moved to Hawaii, she continued her art studies at Church College of Hawaii (now known as Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus) and the University of Hawaii. She earned the respect and admiration of Hale'iwa residents for preserving the town�s landmarks on canvas. "Many of the houses and stores in Hale'iwa that I have recorded are history�they�re no longer there," she says. "My paintings are a way of keeping them alive." A global traveler, Fettig also has captured the beauty of such locales as Taos, New Mexico, and Cadaques, Spain. She credits her extensive travels with giving her a new understanding of colors and lighting, and for helping her mature as an artist. "To grow, you have to change and move and do something different," she says. "[By traveling] I get a new perspective on familiar things. Gaining experience always adds to whatever you do." Although best known for her scenic works, Fettig also enjoys painting flowers, abstracts, and "anything that tells a story." She explains, "I really like to do large flowers and shells. And you can express yourself more by painting in abstracts. You�re restricted somewhat when you�re painting from life; when you�re abstraction from life, it frees you to be more expressive in the other elements of the painting, such as the color, form and balance." Fettig�s paintings have been purchased by various businesses in Hawaii and throughout the Pacific, including Bank of Hawaii, the Waialua Sugar Company and United Airlines. Her works, priced from $50 for watercolors to $15,000 for larger, more involved oil paintings, can be found at numerous Island galleries, including Hysell Galleries in Wahiawa and the Martin & MacArthur Showroom at the Aloha Tower Marketplace and Livingston Galleries in Ka'a'awa. Her paintings can also be viewed by appointments in her Hale'iwa studio. COMMENTS Pele, the fire goddess, is Hawaii's volcano ruler. She can be seen as a tall, beautiful young woman or an old, wrinkly woman with a white dog. When angry she appears as a woman made of pure flame. Her sacred spirit name is Ka-'ula-o-ke-ahi, which means "the redness of the fire." Some people believe that Pele is dead, and others believe she is immortal. Pele came to Hawaii with her little sister still in her egg. Her brother, Ka-moho-ali'i, the shark god, led her on a canoe to Hawaii from her homeland, Tahiti. Her older sister, the ocean goddess, met up with her. Every time Pele came to one of the Hawaiian Islands and tried to build her own fire ditch, her sister would ruin it by filling it in with water, for Pele could only be protected when the sacred fires surrounded her in her pit. One day, Pele and her sister had a battle near Hana, Maui, where they say Pele was killed by her older, more powerful sister. The hill where Pele died is called Ka-iwi-o-Pele, which means "The Bones of Pele." It is believed that on that hill lies the mortal remains of Pele. After Pele died, her spirit flew across the Hawaiian islands and made her home at the top of the largest mountain in the world, Mauna Loa. |
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