Nearly 100 close-up paintings of marine life created by Maui High School students are now on display at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center in Kīhei.
The exhibit, titled “Our Ocean, Close-Up,” features detailed portraits of species found in Hawaiʻi’s waters, painted by 11th and 12th grade students in Lacey Brandt’s 2024–25 marine science class. The project aimed to connect science learning with artistic expression by encouraging students to explore ocean life through a creative lens.
To begin, students selected a local marine species, sourced a high-resolution image and zoomed in on a section that emphasized the species’ features. After practicing acrylic color mixing techniques, each student painted a scientifically informed close-up portrait of the animal.
“Our learning and our artistic expression became meshed together as an entire experience,” Brandt said.
Teaching artist Maggie Sutrov collaborated with the class through the Artists in the Schools grant program, funded by the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Sutrov worked one-on-one with students to refine their compositions and push their work further.
“One student kept thinking he was done,” Brandt said. “But she (Maggie) would keep giving him more ideas and point out details and make suggestions. In the end, he was blown away by his final piece and realized he had really not been done all of those times he thought he was.”
Earlier in the year, students utilized art as a way to deeply connect to and communicate their understanding of marine science. Students used art to visualize the first cellular life in the ocean, as well as to study the early complex organisms of the Cambrian Explosion 530 million years ago.
They also studied the fossils of extinct ancestors of whales and used this information to draw what they envisioned they looked like. Their whale ancestor drawings are currently displayed in the Maui High School Library.
The “Our Ocean, Close-Up” exhibit is free and open to the public on weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the sanctuary visitor center, located at 726 South Kīhei Road. The paintings will remain on display through early August.
According to Sutrov, who is a teaching artist from Maui, funding to continue this project next year is in jeopardy due to recent cuts to the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
