Humble Beginnings

During a week-long plein air paint-out on Kauai our group was invited to paint on the grounds of the historic and beautiful Grove Farm Museum in Lihue.  It was a very special opportunity with many possible subjects to paint.  I chose to focus on this original humble structure, the plantation office, across the great lawn, where much of the early action took place. Grove Farm today is the best remaining example of a sugar plantation homestead in the islands. One of 86 in its hey day, in what was then the kingdom of Hawaii, it was a 100-acre sugar plantation belonging to sugar baron George Wilcox who built his home and prospered here in 1864. The farm was called Grove Farm because it had been chopped out of a large grove of kukui trees.