Wave Oil Painting: Inspiration & Time Lapse + Surfing 🌊✨

Wave Oil Painting: Inspiration & Time Lapse + Surfing 🌊✨ By Artist Christie Marie Elder Painting Title: Nalu me nā Nalu 🌊✨ — Meditate with the waves. The name of this painting actually found me in a wonderfully unexpected way. I’ve been learning Hawaiian on Duolingo for over 700 days, and while I was working on this painting, one of my lessons was teaching me how to talk about calming your thoughts and meditating. I already knew that nalu meant wave—but suddenly there it was again: nalu, connected with meditating, pondering and reflecting. It stopped me in my tracks. Here I was painting this painting of ocean waves that is intended to share some peace in this world and spending many hours immersed in its movement and rhythm, and I discovered that the Hawaiian word I knew as wave also carried this beautiful meaning of meditation and reflection. The serendipity of it felt almost like another gift along the journey of bringing this painting to life. And that is where its name came from: Nalu me nā Nalu Meditating with the waves. 🌊✨ There is something about the ocean that does exactly that to us. We sit beside it, watch wave after wave arrive and disappear, and somehow our thoughts begin to move the same way. We breathe. We listen. We reflect. In this video, I share some of the inspiration behind the painting along with a time lapse of its creation—from the early layers of color to the movement, depth and energy that slowly emerged on the canvas with the layering. I often feel that creating art is partly about making something and partly about listening for what wants to come through. Sometimes the inspiration arrives in ways I never could have planned. This was one of those times. ✨🩵✨ Thank you for coming along on the journey. If you enjoy the stories, adventures and inspiration behind my paintings, subscribe and join me here. I’ll be sharing more of my painting process, Hawaiʻi adventures, surfing, snowboarding, nature, and the experiences that find their way onto my canvases. Kauaʻi Christie’s Art - Original art inspired by the mana of surf, snow, water & nature www.KauaiChristiesArt.com #OilPainting #WavePainting #OceanArt #HawaiiArtist #KauaiArtist #PaintingTimelapse #ArtProcess #Nalu #OceanInspired #SurfArt 🌊✨