Michael Cromwell and Dan Young will be featured during a joint show at Harbor Gallery in Kawaihae from 6 to 8 p.m. today. Both artists will be in attendance with new pieces on display. Light pupu and refreshments will be served.
Young splits his time between his home in Pahoa and the mainland. He has been painting since the 1980s in various media, including watercolors, oils, alkyds, acrylics, etching, silkscreen, sculpting, mold making and monotype printing. His preferred media recently have been acrylic and oil on canvas.
“I love the light at sunrise and sunset. This is nature at its grandest,” Young said. “Colors are enhanced by filtered sunlight and dramatic shadows help define the shapes … watching the clouds turn from white to yellow to orange to lavender is an experience to remember for a lifetime. The Kohala Coast has some of the world’s most magical visual experiences.”
Young’s art education includes hours of private and workshop instruction with artists including the late Darrell Hill, John Cosby, Ken Auster and Cynthia Britain, Michael Oberneyer and John Budicin, as well as two years of instruction with Hal Reid, and classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, Idyllwild Art Institute and Mendocino Art Center. His associations include the Plein Air Painters of Hawaii, Laguna Plein Air Painters and Southern California Plein Air Painters. His sports images have been published by Panache Editions of Chicago and include the official posters for the 1988, 1989 and 1990 Los Angeles Marathons, 1989 Honolulu Marathon and the 1988 Bay to Breakers 10K Run.
Cromwell moved to Kohala a few years ago. He previously operated Cromwell Communications, a design firm in Detroit, creating campaigns and supporting artistry for automotive companies and airlines. His firm’s clients also included Kellogg Co. and Kmart Corp., Little Caesar Enterprises, the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Red Wings, as well as the Detroit Medical Center. Cromwell was educated at Western Michigan University and The Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts.
From 1983 through 1999, Cromwell taught design at The Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. He and his wife, Terry, now reside in North Kohala.
Since 2007, Cromwell has created a diverse body of work that includes abstract compositions, photographic collages, still life compositions and nature photography, as well as illustrative graphic images of textures and typography.
Cromwell said, “Since childhood, I’ve always been drawing, painting or taking pictures. Early on, my interest in nature was readily apparent and my creative efforts often included close-ups and details of subject matter. I enjoy capturing the images of nature and then combining them with images of manmade objects that are in the process of decay, thereby displaying the organic qualities of manmade objects.”
He starts with photographs, then combines, manipulates and enhances the images before printing them in a range of sizes on fine art paper, canvas or aluminum with archival inks.
Harbor Gallery is open from 11:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. The works of Young and Cromwell are displayed at the gallery as well as the neighboring Cafe Pesto and upstairs at Mountain Gold Jewelry. Contact gallery owners Gunner and Elli Mench at 882-1510 or visit harborgallery.biz for more information.
