Cowboy celebration

With the annual Makawao Pani­olo Parade and Rodeo coming up over the Fourth of July weekend, Upcountry Maui residents are beginning to feel their inner cowboy whether they’re at home in a saddle or have never set foot in a stirrup.

That makes "Paniolo Country," the current show at Hui No‘eau Vis­ual Arts Center, just downwind of Makawao, a timely addition to get the festivities off to an early start. The exhibit, a celebration of paniolo and the ranches that define their lives, runs through July 11.

"The Hui is the perfect place for this exhibit," said Judy Bisgard, one of three judges who selected the 56 pieces on display. "We’re Upcountry, and the ranches are all in our backyard."

Exquisite paintings by such renowned artists as George Allan, Betty Hay Freeland, Macario Pascual and Kari McCarthy are interspersed with works rarely seen in galleries: chaps made from deerskin, handblown glass cowboy hats and, just to remind us that ranching isn’t all romantic, a ceramic cow pie with a couple of flies.

"We tried to pick pieces that represented the look of ranching and the lifestyle," said Bisgard, who grew up on Maui. "We wanted a mix of media, and as you go around the show, you’ll see superfine art as well as pieces that are more like folk art."

All the Maui ranches joined in as exhibit sponsors: Haleakala Ranch, Kaonoulu Ranch, Kaupo Ranch, Piiholo Ranch and Ulupalakua Ranch. Their lush green vistas leap from the various works.

Ninety pieces were submitted for the jurors to consider, reflecting the many visions of ranching on Maui. Among the pieces were oils, complex lithographs, etchings, photographs, two paintings on cigar boxes and one well-used horseshoe. Some works were wistful, others abstract and a few so real you could almost feel the rope in your hands.

Judges were most impressed by Darrell Orwig’s ethereal scene from a forest, all foggy umbers and soft browns with a faceless rider on horseback among trunks of trees so massive their tops were too tall to include on the canvas. Orwig, one of Maui’s more inventive minds, did not title his painting, but explained how the image came to him.

"I dreamed I was riding in a deep forest when I saw the ghost horse," he stated in the caption accompanying his work that hangs over the gallery’s fireplace.

Bisgard and fellow jurors Kris­tina Lyons Lambert and Inger Severson Tully were captivated by the ghost horse, too, presenting it with their Juror’s Choice award.

"This was a very unexpected piece; it’s got an Old World feel to it," Bisgard said. "You can always count on Darrell to do something out of the ordinary and have such beautiful composition."

Offering more of a New World feel of today’s modern paniolo — and art itself — is a video of Lilo­aeomakalani Akoi-Reber, a recent graduate of Seabury Hall who is an accomplished rodeo athlete and champion roper. The segment was created by Seabury Hall Middle School students and reminds us that young women can be just as tough on the range as the guys.

A nice companion to the show is a smaller exhibit honoring the 125th anniversary of Haleakala Ranch. Set off in a room near the gallery’s entry, the display was designed by Orwig and McCarthy and features a timeline of events in the ranch’s history along with photographs and belongings a paniolo can’t live without. Orwig indulged his humorous side with a "bust" of a wide-eyed steer peeking out from a faux barn. The Haleakala Ranch exhibit will remain on display for the rest of the year.