Michael Stark’s works on display include “Bali Hai Reef” and “Island Embrace” (top).

LAHAINA – Maui artist Michael Stark will be featured in Lahaina Arts Society’s Banyan Tree Gallery in November.

The show, featuring new oil paintings done with brush or palette knife, is called “Impressions of Maui” and runs through Nov. 30.

New works displayed feature both marine fantasy studio works and plein air works alive with vibrance and texture painted at a few celebrated places around the island.

One of Lahaina Arts Society’s artists for over 20 years, Stark creates his art to share the primal beauty of natural and traditional island life.

A self-trained artist, he began his career by painting sand dollars collected while diving in Florida and selling them in his native Oklahoma.

As a teen wandering the South Seas, Stark became fluent in traditional Polynesian culture and was eventually honored with a Polynesian chief title in Samoa. His primitive lifestyle was a major influence in his art.

After a journalism career as managing editor of the Samoa News in Pago Pago and Associated Press correspondent, Stark returned to school in the U.S. Mainland briefly to obtain a degree in marine biology.

Afterwards, he became the Science Department head and teacher at Iao School in Wailuku and opened the Artists of Maui Collection, which enjoyed five display locations. He later was a partner in the Blue Water Gallery at the Hyatt Regency Maui as well.

Stark is now based at a home studio and displays at Banyan Tree art fairs most weekends and in Lahaina Arts Society’s galleries.

Call LAS at 661-0111 for information on when Stark will be demonstrating in the gallery.