GALLERY
On View In The Islands

Paul Nagano says he's learned that he "can't fully understand the process" through which his Bali watercolors are created. They are a merging of surrender and thought, he says. "Glimmer of Hope," above, is one such work.

Spiritualism takes hold
of Bali painter’s works

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EVERY summer, isle-born painter Paul Nagano traveled from his home in Boston to a different place in Europe to work on his landscape watercolor paintings. He describes himself as "an itinerant painter" in his former incarnation. Then, in 1984, he visited Bali for the first time, and "thought it was time to settle into one place."

Bali, Nagano says, is one of the most intriguing places he's ever lived. It's sprinkled everywhere with the temples and shrines that speak to its Hindu culture.

"Bali is a very spiritual place. Hinduism is engrained into the people's lives," he says.

The appeal of the country's beauty and culture kept Nagano returning year after year to paint the temples and rice patties that sculpted the island.

One of Nagano's photographs, titled "Lotus."

"Basically, I was a painter inspired by landscapes," Nagano says. "My mode of working was to make a small sketch of a scene on location, then go back into the studio and paint an enlarged version. The paintings came out exactly as I had sketched them."

Then one day five years ago, Nagano's work took a sudden turn.

"I sketched the front of a temple where a festival was taking place. I brought the sketch back to my studio and tried to work on it. But it refused to be enlarged. I couldn't get it to do what the sketch did," he says.

"The images seemed to lose gravity. Parasols couldn't stay rooted in the ground. A black dog entered the picture, a symbol of night. It seems as though the painting was coming from something or somewhere else.

"The painting turned out surreal. I was very excited," Nagano says. "All those years, I had been recording Bali; now, I was inventing it. My internal landscape took over."

Nagano has brought some of his latest Bali works to bibelot gallery. The exhibit, titled "Lotus Potpourri," includes not just watercolors, but photographs as well -- recording and invention side by side.

The show runs through Jan. 31 at bibelot gallery, 1130 Koko Head Ave., Suite 2. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Call 738-0368.

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By Joleen Oshiro

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