The Kailua Village Artists is inviting the public to its featured artist reception for three member artists from 4 to 7 p.m. today at its gallery in the Kona Marketplace. In addition, the artists cooperative is celebrating its one-year anniversary at its new location with live entertainment and light pupu. The featured member artists are photographer Cynthia Hankins, mosaic artist and acrylic painter Kathleen Jaeger and oil painter Marilyn Koschella.
Underwater marine life photographer Hankins holds a bachelor of arts degree in biology. In 1997, she began diving in Monterey Bay, Calif. She said she was immediately captivated by the underwater scenery and marine life and started taking photographs to document and study this new world once above water. She is a self-taught photographer and turned her hobby into a full-time career when she moved to Kona in 2005.
Mosaic artist and acrylic painter Jaeger, holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in special education and is a registered art therapist. She spent her mainland career teaching art at public schools and primarily as an art therapist in alternative settings for special needs students. Jaeger divides her time between her art and her church and its young people. She creates unique, colorful, mosaic pieces that include masks, bottles and wall hangings and acrylic paintings. Her current work reflects on themes how “surfaces” in mirrored mosaic pieces or paintings show a glimpse of us in our world.
Oil painter Koschella’s love for painting started in college. She became serious in 1996, painting in oils after taking several classes and workshops in Carson City, Nev., and Mendocino, Calif. In 2001, she learned the use of the palette knife in her oils and also added watercolors to her repertoire. In 2008, Koschella retired and is now able to focus on working in oils, watercolors and plein air painting. She captures her favorite seascape scenes on canvas around the Kona Coast, and also creates colorful, crocheted lei that do not wilt.
The Kailua Village Artists Gallery is located at 75-5729 Alii Drive, Suite C-110 in the Kona Marketplace, across the street from the Kona Inn Shopping Village. The gallery is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 329-6653.