"I can't remember a time when I didn't paint watercolors", recalls award winning artist Clytie Mead. She was raised in Pittsburgh, where she studied painting At Carnegie Mellon University. Clytie has lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for 20 years and has been deeply inspired by the beauty and variety of her adopted home. She paints both lush tropical exotics and rare native plants, often enlivening her paintings by incorporating tapa patterns, Hawaiian Quilts, and native birds.

Although most of her work is done in the ancient Chinese technique of watercolor on silk, she also paints traditional watercolors on paper and sometimes tapa. Recently she has been experimenting with a new method for painting dye directly on silk. Her work has been shown in Japan and Taiwan and is included in many private collections here in Hawaii and on the US Mailnland.

If you visit the Big Island you can see her work at Volcano Art Center at Volcanos National Park and Big Island Glass Gallery in Honokaa.