"Punalu'u Black Sand Beach" Poster, Best Beaches of Hawaii Series - Bill Braden
Image Height: 15"
Image Width: 15"
Paper Height: 21"
Paper Width: 17.5"
Bill Braden was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1958. He moved to Hawaii in 1970 (Kailua High ’75). Bill studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1976 and received a BA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island and Rome, Italy in 1980. Even though Bill studied at these top art schools he feels it was painting on location in Hawaii that taught him to be a land and seascape master. His first exhibition was called "Lanikai Perspectives" at a Kailua gallery in 1978.
Bill was selected from over 200 applicants to paint “The Best Beaches of Hawaii” for the City and County of Honolulu in 1990. This official recognition of him as arguably “the Best Beach painter of Hawaii” is his place in art history. The original oil on panels are the windows of a windowless lobby in the City of Honolulu Harbor Village apartments.
Since a 1984 commission by Architects Hawaii (Liliuokalani Gardens Condominiums), Bill has been creating art with a more international appeal than his land and seascapes of Hawaii. He calls it his “Reef/Water Series.” The series is much like Claude Monet’s “Water Lily Series” but of clear water, turquoise and dark blue seas with reef and often beach. By excluding the horizon, the work becomes a more “modern format.” Clients from Europe, N.Y., California, Japan, and many other places have these works and say that these paintings have a calming peaceful effect on them. After all, humans are mostly made of water.
Braden's commissioned work has ranged from the largest stretched canvas painting (15' by 22') in the state of Hawaii (Hilton Waikoloa, Grand Ballroom) to 5" X 7" notecards (Island Heritage Publishing since 1995). There have been 50' long paintings for lobbies of Waikiki high-rise apartment buildings (Liliuokalani Gardens) to paintings and crucifix designs for the Catholic Church (St. Pius X, Manoa). Other Catholic church commissions include 2 galvanized steel entrance features for St John Vianney’s in Kailua, a restored termite eaten wooden crucifix for Our Lady of Sorrow’s. A lobby centerpiece for KAHALA2, in Kawasaki, Japan (this is the 5th commission by this particular client in Japan), an entrance feature for Hanauma Bay Visitor Center, a 20’x 20’ oil on canvas “Pacific Sea and Sky” for the Main Chapel at Schofield Barracks, a 20’x 5’ oil on canvas “Waikiki, 1870, Royal Helumoa Coconut Grove,” amongst others for the lobby of Waikiki Banyan Hotel/condos, a 3 1/2 ton marble sculpture for the town of Harwich Massachusetts, a 100 ton natural stone entrance feature sculpture at the entrance to Waimea Valley are some of his other pubic scale works. His work can be seen at shops (T J Maxx, Marshalls), galleries, and other venues. Poster commissions include Kokua Festival by Jack and Kim Johnson, and the Haleiwa Arts Festival. Private commissions /purchases include the Sullivan Estate Spa, anonymous billionaires whose collections include works by Willem De Kooning, Joseph Albers, F. Childe Hassam, Thomas Kinkaide (internationally famous artists), Howard Hitchcock, Jules Tavernier, and Lionel Walden (Hawaii famous artists). Rock star Stevie Nicks bought a small piece too!
