Camile Fontaine Works

High above the Honolulu hustle and bustle, Camile Fontaine sips a chilled glass of rosé as she drums her pen to a distant jazz recording. "Malia," she says with a sigh, "we need to write something interesting for our new bio." Malia, like most cats, doesn't answer, and like most Persian cats, continues to snore peacefully on a fluffy pillow...

BORN: 1969 Sarasota, Florida to a couple of art students

EDUCATED: in the South with all the attending eccentricities one might expect

ISLAND LIFE: Yes, fully... can reasonably be imagined to have adopted some qualities of her host culture.

If the purpose of art is to provide what reality does not, wouldn’t we all want more? Sometimes described as “a little over-the-top,” the stylishly irrepressible Miss Fontaine makes it her business to see to that.

After 20 years of a colorful life on the beautiful Garden Island of Kauai and her little treehouse studio in the tropical rainforest of upcountry Kalaheo, Miss Fontaine finds new excitement and enjoyment in the light, space, and sea breezes of Waikiki. 

“The water is like silk which records the calligraphy of characters and clouds...and all framed by these impossibly perfect palm trees.“

Her years of residence in Hawaii, along with her “Deep South” heritage, have formed a backdrop of lush and sophisticated color-scapes on which she cultivates a very real sense of laid-back tropical fantasy. Her impressionistic paintings and highly-colored vinyl mosaics seem to come to life through the magic of dancing and laughter.