Molokai Arts Center’s Art Bar Season is upon us. MAC Art Bars will be held the first Tuesday of each month from October through February. Art Bar gives participants an opportunity to learn and create while enjoying a beautiful view and no-host pupus and drinks at Hiro’s ‘Ohana Grill.

The first Art Bar on Tuesday, October 1 from 4pm-7pm, welcomes back guest artist Patrick Ching. Many may remember Ching, whose shows in the ’80s and ’90s taught Hawaii’s school kids how to draw animals in five minutes. His shows aired for 25 years. Others may know him as host of the “Painting In Paradise” TV show on Spectrum OC16.

Ching is known as Hawaii’s Nature Artist. He has spent a lifetime teaching people about nature through his art. Ching started painting at age sixteen. He received a scholarship to attend Otis/Parsons Art Institute in Los Angeles, then attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where he studied print making, and Leeward College where he majored in ceramics. Ching volunteered for many wildlife organizations and eventually became a ranger for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Kīlauea lighthouse on Kauaʻi. He also lived for extended periods of time among sea turtles and monk seals on the remote North Western Hawaiian Islands. His photographs captured the natural environment he had grown to love, and his paintings became known for its detailed likeness to his photos.

In 1984, Ching wrote his first coloring books on Hawaiian animals and the success of those books launched his publishing career which includes many award-winning books including Sea Turtles of Hawaii, The Hawaiian Monk Seal, and The Story of Hina. His latest book entitled “Honu and Hina” was illustrated with the help of many children, teachers and parents. It received the Hawaii Book Publisher’s Association’s “Ka Palapala Po’okela” award for the most excellent children’s book of 2015. Ching’s business name, Naturally Hawaiian, was also the name of his first art gallery in Waimanalo and his gallery in Kauai. He now travels internationally doing art projects, painting workshops, and live painting shows at resorts and events to raise money and awareness for various wildlife organizations. “My mission in life is to help people to express their inner artist, and in doing so make the world a more beautiful place.”

When Ching was last here on Molokai in 2017, he filmed a Painting in Paradise episode at the MAC. You can view that video here.

Cost is $30 for non-members, $24 for current members.