Koa’e Kea playing in the Updrafts
oops - stay tuned. I started working on it again, so it is changing!
Koa'e Kea, or White Tailed Tropic birds, nest in the walls of Kilauea Caldera and play in the updrafts altogether too near active eruptions for my comfort! What a magnificent mysterious connection they have. It was my privilege to photograph them playing there and so to be able to share them in my painting. This is Episode 22, an earlier and more sedate display shortly before the dramatically tall and energetic episodes 23 and 24 that followed in June of 2025.
The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), also known as the Koaʻe Kea in Hawaiian, is considered indigenous to Hawaiʻi. This means the bird naturally occurs in Hawaiʻi and was not introduced by humans. White-tailed tropicbirds are found in a broad range of tropical and subtropical regions. The subspecies Phaethon lepturus dorothea breeds in Hawaiʻi.
acrylic 12 x 16 on gesso board
Koa'e Kea, or White Tailed Tropic birds, nest in the walls of Kilauea Caldera and play in the updrafts altogether too near active eruptions for my comfort! What a magnificent mysterious connection they have. It was my privilege to photograph them playing there and so to be able to share them in my painting. This is Episode 22, an earlier and more sedate display shortly before the dramatically tall and energetic episodes 23 and 24 that followed in June of 2025.
The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), also known as the Koaʻe Kea in Hawaiian, is considered indigenous to Hawaiʻi. This means the bird naturally occurs in Hawaiʻi and was not introduced by humans. White-tailed tropicbirds are found in a broad range of tropical and subtropical regions. The subspecies Phaethon lepturus dorothea breeds in Hawaiʻi.
acrylic 12 x 16 on gesso board