Seeing Hawaii through someone else’s eyes can be enlightening, and Michal Abramovitz makes it easy by transferring her original artwork to practical items you can wear, carry with you or collect, in various forms.

Her paintings are available as wearable items such as crop tanks, tank tops and brilliantly hued pareos, art you can carry in the form of a clutch purse or tote bag, and as art with which you can dry yourself off, via microfiber towels.

Oh, her paintings, created in her Pupu­kea studio, also happen to be available for sale in their original form on canvas, wood or paper, or as "giclees," matted prints or postcards.

"I’m inspired by nature," she said, as well as by colors and light and how those and other aspects of what she sees make her feel.

"I look for the sublime," she said. "I feel the sublime, and I paint my feelings into the landscape."

Her depiction of Hanauma Bay on Oahu is a top seller, as is an image of two surfers looking out at a large wave. "I’m not the first person to paint surfers and a wave," but the cap bearing the image is nevertheless a hot seller, she said.

Kaena Point and Yokohama Bay are among her favorite spots at which to paint sunsets, while she also has been moved to paint other iconic spots around the islands including the double-arched Anahulu River Bridge in Haleiwa, Kauai’s Na Pali Coast, a red sand beach on Maui, many spots on the North Shore and Wai­kiki, and many others.

Abramovitz, whose first name is pronounced "Me-KHAL," has an engaging accent. She is originally from Israel and, at age 19, went to Paris to study fashion design. While there she started to paint. "I painted a lot," she said, and decided to change direction. She feels lucky to have been accepted into the famed Sorbonne University in Paris where she studied art and earned her degree.

While in Paris she was able to see original works by world-renowned masters "in front of my eyes," versus just in books or on the Internet, she said, singling out Frenchman Paul Gau­guin and American Cy Twombly as being among her favorites.

"When I go to see an art show, I’m forever changed," she said. It should be that when people see art that speaks to them, "you don’t need to talk, you just feel something," she said.

The styles of Gauguin and Twombly were distinctively different, leading to a question about what Abramovitz would call her style.

"I don’t know," she said. "Me?" She shrugged and laughed.

Items vary widely in price, from a few dollars for her postcards to $35 for trucker hats, $56 for the yoga medium-size microfiber towels, $68 for clutches, $85 for chiffon pareos and up to as much as $4,800 for her priciest original painting.

Her first retail account was at the Blue Hawaii store at Ala Moana Center, and she has expanded to nearly two dozen retail locations here in the islands and in Cali­for­nia, and her most recent retail account, a yoga shop in Finland. Yes, Finland.

Abramovitz’s website is e-commerce capable, and she has made sales via Instagram and etsy.com.

She is a regular vendor at the Hale­iwa Farmers Market Thursdays in Wai­mea Valley, and at both the Hale­iwa Arts Festival and the Made in Hawaii Festival.

"Buy Local" runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.