Longtime Holualoa artist Shelly Maudsley White invites the public to a show of a new body of work titled “Horse of a Different Color” at her new Holualoa gallery.
The show opens with a sneak-peek reception Friday evening, starting at 5:30, coinciding with Holualoa’s First Friday Art After Dark celebration, continuing the next day for the Holualoa Village Coffee and Art Stroll. The show will be in place throughout November, and will be on display during regular gallery hours.
“Horse of a Different Color” features 17 new, original pieces in a range of styles that represent a new direction for the artist, although they still maintain a certain recognizable “Shelly” feel. Her subjects feature familiar subjects in horses, flowers, bamboo, animals and abstracts, but painted in a looser and more expressive style than her previous work.
White grew up in Kona, selling her first painting at 16. At 30, she opened her first gallery in Holualoa in 1993 in the old Meadow Gold Building, next to the Kona Art Center. A year later, she renovated the Kona Repair Shop in Holualoa where she had a gallery for 23 years.
White and her husband, Dave Lucas, who also own Koa Realty in Holualoa, were in a car accident while visiting California in 2016. She suffered severe damage to her neck and right hand, prompting her to give up her gallery and painting for a time. While working on her recovery, her children, Cassy White and Dylan Lucas, began dabbling in art careers of their own, including successful shows at a number of festivals. Together, they decided to reopen a small family gallery down the street from her previous gallery, across from the Holuakoa Gardens &Cafe restaurant, next to Bliss and Bloom.
“This show is extremely important to me,” she said. “The problems with my right hand are still ongoing, and I may need another surgery on my neck soon, so I am faced with giving up art or changing the way I paint. I had to change my style to lessen the pain I deal with on a regular basis. Though painting takes me a lot more time, I’m am grateful that I can share my art with the world again.”
Cassy White, who recently finished a well received show in Seattle with RAW, is also featured at the show.
The Shelly Maudsley White Gallery features watercolors depicting everything from vibrant florals, tropical fish, native birds, and barnyard animals, as well as whimsical images with a humorous theme. For the last 40 years, Shelly has created a name for herself creating instantly recognizable iconic images of tropical Hawaii.