This sand painting is framed in a 20 x 24 inch gold frame and the
sand painting itself is 11 x 14 inch.
Done in 2007 by Hina Gauthier.
Walking through the Papeete market, looking at the wonderful craft, it looks like I am not the only one who thinks that the uru is a great source of inspiration. The uru is found on bed covers, pillow cases, paintings, carvings, you name it, it is everywhere. I like it too. I could not help myself but to do a sand painting of one. The leaves growing on the uru trees are just so unique in their shape and color. I probably will be doing a lot more of them!
The leaves are glossy, thick and the fruit, eventhough it feels kind of sticky like the tongue of a cat, once cooked, leaves you wanting for more.
STOP! Fresh air, outdoors, a river running nearby, an open fire on drift wood, and the uru as king of the meal. That is all it takes and you will fall in love forever with the uru.
That is the best picnic ever!. Uru, poisson (fish freshly caught by the fisherman that same morning), une boite de punu pua toro ( that’s the can of corn beef), some citrons (lemon-lime), sans oublier la baguette de pain (that’s french bread) and voila. Every time maman ask me what I want to eat… that’s what I want!
Biensur some people can recognize ma fille Vaite and her brother in the back ground goofing around and their cousins. Vaite is being introduced to her first time ever uru.
An example of a pillow case with the uru design.
There is a sense of majesty when looking at those giant trees.
The uru tree does not produce just one or two fruits. It gives generously to all, enough to feed everyone. There is a legend of the uru, and sometime do take the time to look it up.
This time I did the back ground first. I remember thinking it was going to be hard getting all those details I wanted to include, without using too many kinds of sands or it would just be too busy and too much.
2 dark colored sands from 2 different beaches of Tahiti were used: Mitirapa and trou souffleur. If you have followed some of the other paintings comments, then you know about the trou souffleur sand!
For the fruit I used 4 different sands: Venice, Kauehi Tuamotu, Tubuai island, and Manganui New-Zealand.
There is many reasons why this painting is special, not counting all the things that I have mentioned before…
AH! Jaden could’nt even write his name yet, but he sure could hold a paint brush. He followed directions, and was so careful to cover what needed to be covered, picking up the small cut outs, separating the sands and not mixing them up. I don’t know about anybody else but my heart melts when I look at those pictures.
As soon as he would see me sit at the desk, he would come and beg “I want to do it, grand-ma”. I just could not refuse, he was so good!
The rest of colors used on the leaves were whites, in different shades and thicknesses: Atimaono Mataea, Paea PK 18, and Fakarava island.
The painting is done. It took second place at the Pinellas park art society last year. Kind of cool to have a ribbon!