Hawaiians describe sacred places as wahi pana, a phrase that can also be translated as “places with a pulse,” or living spaces.

Artists Mealaaloha Bishop and Nanea Lum describe the islands’ wahi pana as “land markers of Hawaiian ancestral histories,” and have created a series of plein air paintings that evoke “the recollection and experience” of the wahi pana of Koolaupoko — a district reaching from Kualoa to Waimanalo, along Oahu’s windward side.

The artists incorporate the waters of Waiahole and Heeia with acrylic ink wash to depict these markers, understanding that their paintings create a context so that the landscapes can be revisited and remembered. They also recognize that the landscape changes, or “disappears,” as Bishop notes, when the land and memories of it change or are lost.

In her artist’s statement, Lum says she has taken this as a challenge: “to capture on a permanent surface, the water-soluble materiality of ‘aina so that its truth and meaning are preserved for people in Hawaii.”

“Meala and I have a special bond and connection with this body of work,” Lum says. “It reaches outward, back to land and back to people, communities of Oahu and Ko‘olaupoko.”