Oil painting of Wai Welawela, which was overrun by lava.

Wai Welawela

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.

Image shows Don Yuen, in his early 20s, standing in front of his painting of a torch fisherman. The painting was for many years in the Pearl Harbor mess. Images shows a painting of a Hawaiian man holding a fishing spear in his left hand and a torch in his right. A young Hawaiian man, shirtless and wearing dungarees, stands in front of the painting.
Don Yuen as a young man with one of his first major commissions.
While serving in the US Navy, he was asked to paint murals in the Pearl Harbor mess and in the dive training tank.

Oil painting of Ka Wai o Pele - Green Lake, a small lake in Puna Makai which was overrun by lava.
Wai Welawela
(“Blue Lake” or “Kapoho Hot Ponds”)
by
Donald Namohala Yuen
Dimensions of original: 67.31cm X 174cm (26.5″ X 68.5″)

This post has been updated with new and corrected information.
29 July, 2024

This oil painting, Wai Welawela, is believed to have been 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.

Wai Welawela, also called Blue Lake and Kapoho Warm Springs, was a freshwater crater lake in Kapoho on the island of Hawaiʻi.

The moʻolelo that Yuen’s family learned was that the lake was created by Laka, a younger sister of Pele, an elemental embodied in the magma and eruptive forces of the volcano. Laka had made the lake for Pele to enjoy and soothe her body.

Shaded by lush vegetation comprised of hau, hala, and other tropical plants, the beauty and warmth of the spring made it a popular relaxation spot for local people. Portions of Bird of Paradise, starring Debra Paget, were filmed there. In the 1950s, Slim Holt and others began to develop the area into a resort. The developers built stairs down the slope into the warm spring, and landscaped it with exotic plants. In January of 1960, a lava flow covered Kapoho and the springs.

Written pre-code, it is worth watching to see some of the conflicting ideas, prejudices, preconceptions of the time. Here you will see an origin of the fantasy of the blue-eyed white man who is immediately revered by Polynesians as a king.

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.

“Keaʻau 1968”
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. In 1964 Don designed and built his home there, which remains in the family.

The Don Yuen home is currently being restored by the family.
View from the foyer. The zabuton chairs seen here are original to the house, and are being restored.

Painting of Halemaumau by Don Yuen
The home is built into the collapsed portion of a lava tube, into which the interior stairs lead.

Sketch for “Lihi Kai,” the home Don designed at Kehena for his parents.

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 being digitized and will become available in prints on metal, canvas, and paper, as well as other products such as greeting cards, pareu, coffee cups, and fabric.

The original is 68.5″ (174 cm) wide by 26.5″ (67.31 cm) high. Prints/giclees will be available on stretched canvas, metal, and Pura Velvet archival paper.

For shipping, please contact Leilehua Yuen at YuenMediaServices (at) icloud.com

Stretched Canvas:
68.5″ x 26.5″ – $1200.00 (this would be about the same size as the original)
26″ x 10″ – $290.00
31″ x 12″ – $410.00
47″ x 18″ – $760.00
62 ” x 24″ – $995.00

Metal:
68.5″ x 26.5″ – $1490.00 (this would be about the same size as the original)
26″ x 10″ – $210.00
31″ x 12″ – $305.00
47″ x 18″ – $695.00
62″ x 24″ – $1220.00

Archival Paper:
26″ x 10″ – $60.00
31″ x 12″ – $85.00
47″ x 18″ – $195.00
62″ x 24″ – $345.00