Starry Starry Night

Whenever I find myself standing in the lobby of the Volcano House on the Big Island, I’m drawn to the display of paintings by D. Howard Hitchcock. Long regarded as one of the most important interpreters of the Hawaiian landscape, in the late 1890s Hitchcock painted a number of works showing the active lava flows within both Kilauea and Mauna Loa craters. Then after returning from a night on the Halema’uma’u trail circling Kilauea’s crater, I’m motivated to create something Hitchcock might enjoy. This rendering is a composite of the Halema’uma’u crater, its glow against the sky and the Milky Way in the background.

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