"Mauna Kea" 2005, matted print
Overall size: 8.5" high x 16" wide
Image size: 4.25" high x 9" wide
Gerald Muri, a Hilo native, is a multi-award-winning artist with collectors across the United States and Europe. Since childhood, passionate about art, Murai has been painting for more than 40 years when he began to draw. Working primarily with oils—which he describes as the most sensuous medium—he excels at painting Plein-air, portraits, and still lifes, often with a distinctly Hawaiian flavor. Likening himself to a musician, Murai states that oils give him the ability to mix tones, portraying light and dark, warm and cool, creating a kind of symphony of color.
Gerald Murai has studied art at the University of Hawaii, the art center in Los Angeles, and under the renowned Russian impressionist artist Sergei Bongart, the major influence of his artistic style today. Other influential artists include Diego Velasquez, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, and Pierre Bonnard.
Murai has been featured in shows at the E. Hawaii Cultural Center. He won best in-show at the All Hawaii Juried Art Show for his watercolor painting Ewalina, won first place and an honorable mention at the Hawaii State Art exhibition, and was featured in the prestigious Schaefer portrait Challenge at Maui Arts & Cultural Center in 2006. Murai was honored when the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts selected his painting Opelu—a 46 x 46-inch oil—to be a permanent part of the state art collection in 2002
