Rosalie Prussing has painted all her life. She painted as a child and during her years as an art sturdent in Los Angeles. She painted in the spare moments she could find as a housewife and mother of four in Hawaiʻi, where she moved in1959 to follow her husbandʻs career. Even when she went back to work, as an art teacher and fabric designer, sheʻd come home, turn on classical music, tune out her family and paint. "I used to really agonize over those paintings," she recalls.But recognition eluded Prussing until recently. She retired and decided to paint only for fun. In 1985, she accepted a commission to do a painting of Hanalei for a magazine cover. "They wanted Hanalei Bay, the taro fields and all these other things. To get it all in, I had to break all the rules-me, the former art teacher. Finally, I decided to leave all the bad stuff out, and put in whatever I wanted wherever I wanted it."From the magazine cover has come a whole series of whimsical island landscapes. The landscapes leave out what Prussing doesnʻt like-signs of progress mainly-and are filled with things she does:colorful flowers; little Hawaiian girls in holokūs (originally used in Malia Sportwearʻs award-winning ad campaign in the ʻ60s); plus animalsand birds, especially her trademark mynah bird. ("I put one in every painting because people enjoy searching for him.")Her brightly colored, detailed paintings take months to complete, but she turns each one into a whole line of limited edition prints, calendars, note cards-"things people can afford."Best of all, she no longer agonizes over her paintings. "My work is not the kind of art youʻd enter in a juried show, but it isnʻt commercial art either. Its just me having a wonderful time. It amazes me how much demand there is for it."Rosalie passed away at age 87 in November 2011. Her family continues her legacy by sharing her art with many people around the world.