Chef Mavro trades knives for brushes

Each summer, acclaimed Hawai‘i chef George Mavrothalassitis, aka Chef Mavro, heads with his wife Donna Jung to the south of France. Originally from Marseille, he generally enjoys good food, family and friends on vacation. Last year, he was also busy painting.

During the pandemic lockdown, the newly retired Mavrothalassitis started a project. A lifelong lover of French poetry, he hand copied his favorite poems, such as “Il y a” by Guillaume Apollinaire, into a notebook. He then sketched works by artists such as Picasso to accompany the poems. An engineer by training, the chef is a proficient draughtsman, and eventually wanted to add color to his book. “But I realized I had no clue about it,” he says.

So he took a HoMA Art School class. He started with two sketching-in-the-galleries sessions with instructor Mark Norseth. Then artist and friend Meleanna Meyer gave Mavrothalassitis a watercolor kit. He fell in love with the transparency of the medium and his wife, whose mother volunteered at the Art School years ago, signed him up for a 10-week watercolor class with instructor Anthony Lee. Now he is hooked.

Mavrothalassitis loves the class format. “For retired people like me, it is great to meet young people,” he says. “And it is always very positive.” He finds Lee’s demonstrations of technique to be “priceless. When Anthony paints, it answers all my questions. I am waiting like crazy for his next class.”

This past September to November was the first time he painted in France with all his equipment. “I am living my painting,” he says. “I like to paint something I love, somewhere I know,” he says, which is why he captures spots like Plage des Ondes—reminding him of when he would attend Antibes’ Jazz à Juan music festival as a teenager.

He has even converted his guest bedroom into a studio. “Painting is pure meditation,” he says. “I relax so much I don’t see the time flying. I stop when it gets dark sometimes.”

A longtime supporter of the museum as a chef donating time and talent to past fundraising events such as August Moon, Mavrothalassitis finally has the time to explore the galleries as a member.

“I have more and more pleasure visiting the museum,” he says. “There are a lot of fascinating things happening.” His latest discovery is the India Gallery, especially the 18th-century miniature watercolor paintings on view. “My god I love it. Suddenly a gallery that we didn’t notice much has become one of our favorites…until next time.”