Dominic Tidmarsh is a Hawai‘i–based artist born in Trinidad, West Indies in 1964.
He was educated in the UK and also lived in Indonesia before moving to the USA in 1981.
Photo by Melissa Schelling
In 1982 he attended the Maine Photographic Workshops followed by the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC where he earned a BFA in Photography in 1988.
Dominic moved to the Big Island of Hawai’i in 1996.
In 2018, after 22 years living in East Hawai‘i, Dominic relocated to Waimea after losing his home to the eruption of Kilauea.
A self-taught painter, he has participated in numerous solo and group shows on the Big Island — most recently with a 2026 solo show at the Kahilu Theatre Simperman Gallery, Waimea.
Awards include three Purchase Recognition Awards from the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and back-to-back Juror’s Choice Awards in the Hawai‘i Nei 2015 and 2016 art contests along with numerous People’s Choice Awards.
Above all else, Dominic’s connection to Mauna Kea has formed the foundation of his work.
This began with a visit to the Big Island in 1986 which culminated in a transcendental dream involving Mauna Kea and Poli‘ahu, the Hawaiian snow goddess.
Subsequently he began experiencing near-nightly dreams involving Mauna Kea, leading him to write: In my dreams I am on a mountain, and the mountain is me. It is my whole life, it is my whole world. — Journal entry, 1988
Since moving to the Big Island, Dominic has also experienced a series of often inexplicable encounters with native wildlife that he has come to see as ‘Aumakua and Kinolau — physical embodiments of those who have come before, and of forces and entities that permeate and influence the fabric of our world. These encounters have often occurred at pivotal moments in his personal life.
Recognizable for its rich sense of color and meticulous attention to detail, his artwork developed within an interdisciplinary holistic approach to life. He draws from personal experiences of the dream world and the world of ancestors, as well as from the direct experience of place and time that is so vivid within the natural world in Hawai‘i. Additionally, disciplines such as Geology, Astronomy and Archaeo-Astronomy, to name a few, provide tools for the visual expression of experiences and concepts that are rooted, ultimately, in The Inexplicable.
