Nalu me nā Nalu

Nalu me nā Nalu’s inspiration came to me when I wasn’t looking for it.

I have loved being by the water and fishing since I was a child, and even now I enjoy watching fishing adventures and discovering places I would someday love to go and fish myself.

One day I was watching a YouTube catch-and-cook video filmed by a couple sailing around tropical, uninhabited islands in the Southern Hemisphere. After catching their fish, they climbed the seaside cliffs, built a fire, and cooked their dinner. While enjoying the view from above, they noticed something moving through the shallow shoreline below.

It was an enormous moray eel — they estimated it at nearly six feet long — swimming through the clear water beneath them.

The eel itself was a wild sight, but what stayed with me most was the bird’s-eye perspective.

Looking down from above, I could see through the moving surface of the ocean into another world beneath it.

That image sent energy through my heart, and I could imagine a beautiful, peaceful yet powerful painting emerging from it.

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From Mano to Nalu

I first explored that idea in a small watercolor that eventually became Mano Niho — Shark Tooth.

That earlier painting included a tiger shark moving beneath the surface and became the first finished expression of the perspective that had intrigued me.

But I knew I wasn’t finished with the idea.

I wanted to explore it much larger and in oil on canvas — not simply enlarging the watercolor, but going deeper into the water itself.

Then something happened that changed the direction of the painting.

I was learning to surf, spending time in the ocean and learning to move with it.

The rolling energy of the waves began to feel almost alive to me.

My inspiration grew along with the waves in the painting.

And what began as a painting inspired by ocean life slowly became a painting about a relationship with the ocean itself.

 

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Learning to Move With Water

I grew up surrounded by snow and Lake Tahoe, spent years as a professional snowboarder moving over and through snow, and spent summers swimming and wakeboarding on the lake.

Throughout my artistic life, I have painted water in many forms.

Learning to surf is giving me another humble relationship with water altogether.

 

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Nalu me nā Nalu

The title arrived just as I was connecting with this new relationship with the ocean.

The Hawaiian word nalu can refer to a wave or surf. I had known this word for many years, but it was only while painting this piece that I learned it also carries meanings connected with pondering, reflecting, and meditating.

I was blown away by that beautiful double meaning.

It felt like a gift of knowledge arriving at exactly the right moment — and I knew I had found the painting’s name.

Nalu me nā Nalu —

meditating with the waves.

Not meditation as complete stillness —

but the kind that can happen while watching water move, listening to its rhythm, surfing, breathing, and allowing yourself to become fully present inside something much larger than yourself.

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Artwork Details

Title: Nalu me nā Nalu
Artist: Christie Marie Elder
Created: 2026
Medium: Original Oil Painting on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas
Dimensions: 48" H × 36" W × 1½" D
Presentation: Unframed
Price: $18,000
Original: One of One

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Presentation

Nalu me nā Nalu is painted on a substantial 1½-inch-deep gallery-wrapped canvas and is presented unframed for a clean, contemporary appearance.

The frameless presentation allows the vertical movement and saturated ocean color to remain the focus while giving the painting a strong architectural presence on the wall.

At four feet tall, Nalu is large enough to command a room while remaining comfortable in a residential setting.

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Artist Signature & Documentation

Nalu me nā Nalu is signed, titled, and dated by Christie Marie Elder.

The original includes a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) together with an artist biography for provenance and collector records.

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Copyright

© Christie Marie Elder. All rights reserved.

Purchase of the original artwork transfers ownership of the physical artwork only. Copyright and reproduction rights remain with the artist and do not transfer with the sale.

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Shipping & Delivery

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