The sun borders on the horizon, while a sailboat floats in the ocean, water glistening around it. Sunset at Sea is one of the unique and majestic oil paintings Khai Ha (‘25) created for his Senior Art Exhibition. 

Starting from a young age, Khai had a passion for art and painting. He grew up in New York where he visited many museums and galleries. Khai recalled a memory from childhood when his art teacher took the class to the park to paint — from then on, Khai was interested in pursuing art.

Nowadays, Khai has found a love for painting nature using oil paint, a medium that can take up to a few weeks to dry. Most of his paintings use oil paint or a combination of oil and acrylic. 

One of Khai’s most recent pieces is Last Light, an abstract and layered painting. Khai used both acrylic and oil paints, playing around with conveying different times of the day. The focal point of this piece is a bare tree in the shade, contrasting the warmth reflected off of the snow of the mountain. The brushstrokes add texture, contributing to the overall image the painting is capturing.

Ms. Wepsic, Visual Arts Department Chair and Khai’s art teacher throughout his journey at Bishop’s, said that Khai’s “theme and style was very consistent, but he also continually demonstrated growth and sophistication with both the content and use of materials.” After watching Khai over the span of many years, Ms. Wepsic reflected that Khai “was never without an idea or inspiration.”  

Khai gets inspiration from his favorite artist JMW Turner, an 18th-century painter. Khai said that Turner painted landscapes and used his imagination, yet incorporated “a lot of realistic elements of nature,” something that Khai strives for in his own pieces. Similar to Turner, Khai explores with brush techniques and color, such as the bold blues in one of his pieces, Sanctuary.

In Khai’s Sanctuary, he wanted to experiment with colors and create a “large contrast,” he said. In this piece, he moved away from the realism featured in many of his other pieces to add more “colors and extremes,” Khai said. A woman, it appears, is crossing a bridge in the middle of the woods. Her dress is a slightly lighter shade of green, a moderate contrast to the blue hues used for the woods. The striking colors, lightness, and darkness paint a picture beyond just a moment — a story is captured. 

Khai also draws inspiration from the world around him, such as changes in his environment. Khai takes snapshots of Europe, Asia, and South America on family trips, translating them into art.

Loosely based on images from Khai’s visit to Italy, Sunset at Sea depicts a sailboat. Khai used a combination of inspiration, photos, and his imagination.

On Khai’s road-trip from New York to San Diego, his family visited many national parks where he gained lots of inspiration, impacting his “subject matter of choice,” he said. He would take photos of various places, which then translated to his large canvases. Beyond this, Khai has also created paintings of places that do not exist, creating images through his imagination.

In Khai’s Meadow, the inspiration comes from a concept rather than a picture. A person stands alone, looking out at the water. The sun seems to be either setting or rising. There is a certain tranquility to this piece. Khai based Meadow on a book that he once read about transcendentalism, “which is people being encapsulated in a natural environment–like solitude in nature,” Khai said. He continued, saying that he was experimenting “with different colors and trying to portray different times of day and moods.”

Khai’s Senior Art Exhibition, located in the stairway leading down to the lower level of the library, tells a story as he merges realism and imagination, creating unique pictures loosely grounded in the world around us.