Hawai`i Watercolor Society

335 Hahani Street Kailua, HI, 96734 United States

 

The Hawai`i Watercolor Society was founded in 1962 by Hawai`i Artist Hon Chew Hee. Our aim as an organization is to nurture and stimulate interest in water media through education, exhibits, and collaboration with other organizations, associations and individuals.

The Hawai`i Watercolor Society sponsors two juried exhibits every year as well as a biennial curated show highlighting the work of our signature members. In addition, we host periodic sales, themed shows and community events.

In conjunction with our exhibits we offer two week long workshops each year featuring nationally recognized teaching artists. On an intermittent basis we sponsor shorter duration workshops on a variety of art-related topics.

 

Dawn Yoshimura

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dawnyoshimurastudio.com

Dawn Yoshimura was born and raised in Hawai'i and is a passionate watercolorist who also works in alternate media. A fourth-generation kama'aina Japanese American with homes in Hawai'i and Sweden, her work is infused with a powerful connection to her artistic, cultural and spiritual heritage from which she draws inspiration. 

She left the islands at 17, one of six invited to study with renowned textile artist Rudolph Schaeffer. Although she has formal art training, her watercolor work is self taught.

Her work has been exhibited at the Bay Area World Trade Center, Denmark's Hornbaek Civic Center, Dubai Art University Gallery, Swedish Lutheran Masthugget Church, the Gothenberg Main Library, Honolulu Hale City and County Hall, State of Hawaii Capital Entrance Hall, among other juried and invitational exhibits in Europe.

Social activism is also an integral part of her practice with education, volunteerism, and collaborative projects embedded in her practice. In 2019, she designed and installed two shows at the Honolulu Museum of Art School Main Gallery, Wahi-Pana: A Sense of Place and Chemistry of Water, working with arts organizations and the community to engage them in story based art. Another project brought together glass artists and transparent watercolorists in a virtual exhibit. Transparency in Translation was her brainchild proposing to the museum a show that explored similar physical properties of light and color expressed through different medium. Her current projects focus on the intersection of story, family, history and culture. Her work all have a story connected to it, just ask her about it!