Frigate bird

Had a few minutes to duck into HiSam (the Hawaii State Art Museum) and have a quick look around.  This wonderful painting hangs alone on a wall.  This is the bio:

Entitled: "Kinolau", done by Dominic Tidmarsh.  He was born in Trinidad and received a BFA from Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D. C.  He moved to Hawaii in 1996, this was done in 2015.  This was inspired by a direct encounter on Mauna Kea with a frigate bird or 'iwa in Hawaiian.  The bird is painted full size, with a wing span of 77 inches.  Mauna Kea is mapped out in the background using white gridlines to depict its form.  The gridlines emanating from the sun are too faint to show here.   The curving horizon line gives the overall composition a feeling of movement, both in terms of flight and the rhythm of the ocean.  Tidmarsh recalls, "Hiking with a friend atop Pu'u Hoaka at 12,000 feet, we found ourselves suddenly face to face with an enormous female 'iwa, emerging from a cloud and flying right at us.  The 'iwa caught the thermal on the pu'u (hill) rising rapidly in a vertical spiral to reveal the crescent moon of Ku Pau (sixth day of the lunar month) high overhead.  Turning, she then raced off towards the sun and the west. "