THE MAKING OF PAINTING IN PARADISE
"Teaching folks about art and nature on television, exactly what I want to do with my life."
The idea of the Painting in Paradise tv show was born in the late 1990's. At that time, myself, along with musician Jerry Santos, Hawaiian Language teacher Caroline Silva, and hang-glider David Goto, began filming a pilot to the show called "Naturally Hawaiian" which was also the name of my gallery and art school in Waimānalo.
We filmed Jerry playing music at Correa Ranch, Caroline telling us stories about the place called Makapu'u, and David soaring, with me in tandem, in a hang-glider over Rabbit Island (that flight ended by missing the landing zone, and landing right in the middle of Kalanianaole Hwy. But that's a story for another day).
The show never made it into production and got shelved for almost twenty years. Fast forward to 2015, I was then living on Kauai and was determined to get the show on television by the end of the year. Before I started, I had good conversations with some friends who already had tv shows on OC16, which at that time was owned by Time Warner Cable.
Cal Hirai produced the long running Outside Hawai‘i show, Blaine Kaneshiro produced “The Champ Show”, Ron Darby produced The Pet Hui, and Mark Jeffers produced “Russel the Rooster”. These four people helped me understand what was important to the audience and the tv station I was about to approach.
After some proposals to the station, I finally got a call from the Director of Programming, Lianne Killion, who suggested I make a short teaser clip of the show for them to consider. I decided to take it a big step further, and with the help of the Kauai Visitor Channel production team, filmed the entire first episode.
Just as I had proclaimed through positive affirmations, the pilot was accepted in December of 2015, and we were set to premier in January of 2016.
I was comfortable in front of the camera by that time, having been on numerous news interviews as an artist and environmentalist, and also as a rodeo clown for Hawaii’s largest rodeos.
The Kauai Visitor Channel consisted of owner Jim Metha and camera man/editor Ryan Pointer and along the way we got more professional help by Bruce Smalling and Robert Zelkovsky.
After the third show, I really began to feel the weight of the production costs so decided to hire my editors to teach me to edit using Final Cut Pro. I decided not to spend my energy chasing sponsors, but instead, the Painting in Paradise production costs are paid for by the money I make teaching and selling art.
Now, every show I produce takes about eight days of very hard work. Those who know me see what I go through each month as my delivery date gets closer. As the deadline approaches there is no sleep, no surf, and tense nerves from all the delicate adjustments that must be made in editing. I get my team to review the shows, and a final editor makes sure I didn’t miss or misspell anything.
After the show is turned into the station, I need a nap, some surf, food and a massage. No matter how beat I am from producing each show, I am so thankful that I am doing exactly what is important to me in life.
My real reward comes when people tell me that they love following my show and the noises I make, and especially when they say that they now do art with their keiki and mo‘opuna. I’d say that the main goal of the painting in Paradise show is to make art a fun and bonding family event.
Mahalo for reading this and aloha from me,
Patrick Ching