Tabora, Roy Gonzalez

Roy Gonzalez Tabora portrays the endless variations of Hawaii’s beauty in his beautiful seascapes. Tabora’s work is a masterful blend of spontaneity and precision. Never content with merely recreating an observed scene or copying a photograph, Tabora draws from his heart and his mind. Painting from a combination of memory and imagination, he creates realistic works alive with rolling surf, distant mountains and radiant skies. He is a keen observer of light, color and the continuous motion of the sea. Each element offers endless variations of nature’s dynamic design. In Tabora’s art, every composition becomes a masterpiece of harmony, a poem of lyrical beauty. “I hope my work represents something in somebody’s life that is able to stir his or her emotions … The painting should take the person to another level that represents something positive.” “I romanticize; the scenes I portray are memories I have imagined … memories of when the footprints of men were not so prolific and deep. Nature alone is the subject of my work. Its allure is exquisitely pure. That’s what I wish to convey. I see in Hawaii’s land and sea the essence of beauty itself. It reaches me with a richness of emotion that I simply must express.”

Born in 1956, Tabora emulates the generations of artists from whom he is descended. His lessons in the discipline of drawing began almost as early as he can remember. During his youth he apprenticed with a favorite uncle. He spent his days sweeping floors, cleaning paintbrushes and observing the creative process, as well as receiving expert training in the traditional techniques of the old masters. Already an accomplished Realist at the age of twenty, he opted to continue his education and received his degree in fine arts from the University of Hawaii. Tabora has since risen to great renkown as one of the finest seascape painters in the world. There is a magic in Tabora’s work, a remarkable glow that seems to shine from an inner light. His colors are at once subtle and intense. This is achieved through a long and painstaking process of layering and glazing. Tabora begins with a wash of turpentine and color. Then using oils, he under-paints the image. This is followed with five to ten applications of colors he calls transparent, each to bring out a greater sense of depth or tonal value. Each layer builds luminosity and light within the transparent waves. Highlights and glazes complete his paintings, resulting in works that enter our minds and become our dreams. His original paintings and limited edition prints are highly prized by collectors for their irresistible qualities of majesty, mood and meticulous perfection.