Hawaiʻi Island artist Donald Namohala Yuen (1931-2023) loved the island on which he was born, and often painted its many wahi pana – special places.
In the late 1940s he left Hilo, Hawaiʻi to attend the Art Center School, later known as Art Center College, in Los Angeles, California. While studying there, he was drafted into the United States Navy.
Upon learning of his art training, the Navy assigned him to paint murals in the officersʻ’ mess and enlisted mess’, as well as the dive training tank at Pearl Harbor.
After his discharge from the Navy, Don returned to school, but in Berkeley at the California College of Arts and Crafts which sadly closed in 2026. While there, he studied as well as taught. It was while teaching at CCAC that he met his first wife, Geraldine Wenker, an art student at the college.
While in the Bay Area, he was part of the Bay Area school of Abstract Expressionism, but with a distinctly Polynesian/Asian flair. His works often had the feeling of coral reefs, changing tides, or mysterious tropical blossoms.
The oil painting Waiwelawela was commissioned by the developer and tour operator “Slim” Holt. (Anyone with information about the original owner or other owners is invited to contact Don’s daughter, Leilehua, so that provenance can be updated.) The most recent sale price of the original was US$3,500.00.
(“Blue Lake” or “Kapoho Hot Ponds”)
by
Donald Namohala Yuen
Dimensions of original: 67.31cm X 174cm (26.5″ X 68.5″)
Waiwelawela was a freshwater crater lake in Kapoho on the island of Hawaiʻi. The painting was commissioned in 1959. In 1960, the pond was filled with lava during the Kapoho eruption.
Don was well-known for his sensuous paintings of Hawaiʻi. When training his daughter, he often would tell her, “make it juicy!” and demonstrate how to load the brush so that one sweep across the paper created a luscious, dewy image.
When the houses in Keaʻau Village were scheduled to be demolished, Don was commissioned to paint a series depicting them. He retained one for his private collection, which is still owned by the ʻohana. As he told the story, “I had my canvas set up on the back of the car and had sketched out the scene. I had started painting and a group of kids was watching me. Suddenly a white cat ran in front of one of the houses. The kids were yelling, ‘Paint the cat! Paint the cat!'”
by
Don Yuen
Don’s home at Kehena was one of the first in the Kehena Beach Estates subdivision, which had been developed by the Yuen and Loo families. A talented architect as well, in 1964 Don designed and built his home there, which remains in the family.
He also designed other homes in the area. At the time, articles about his innovative designs which integrated the houses into their environment, used natural airflow for cooling, and featured a Polynesian-Asian esthetic, called him “the Hawaiian Frank Lloyd Wright” and “The Frank Lloyd Wright of the Pacific.”
Ka Wai o Pele – Green Lake, by Don Yuen, is available in various print on demand platforms:
This version is designed for 54″ fabrics and is bordered so that you can easily hem it to make short pāʻū or pareu (Polynesian skirts), scarves, wraps, and other items. It also makes lovely valences or short curtains.