His attendance at Lahainaluna may have influenced his early interest in art. Lorrin Andrews, the first principal of Lahainaluna, had taught many of his Hawaiian students in the arts. He was also part of the late 19th-century Volcano School style of artists. Art historian David Forbes noted that Nāwahī may have been taught or influenced by the French artist Jules Tavernier, a strong proponent of the Volcano School movement in Hawaii. Nāwahī is considered to have been one of the first Native Hawaiians to paint in the Western style.