Behind the Canvas: The Quiet Island

I bought this 15" x 30" canvas for a space near a window, and I had a very colorful sunset in mind. After a first spray, I stepped back, and it resembled the beak of Toucan Sam than a tranquil day's end :/ Displeased, I put it aside with my spray paints for another time.

The next time I picked up spray paints was nine months later, inspired by what was ahead for me. This was the first piece I made in my new studio back in Seattle and as a working artist. Six months prior, I had left my life in Portland, and as part of my "restart," I took myself on an impromptu five-day trip to Kauai, Hawaii. I had heard this was the quieter island where maybe I could find peace, reflect, and begin healing.

Without any plans and by myself, I pulled off the road to explore a beach and hike the nearby cliff. With no place to be, I sat on top of a cliff for hours. I watched the sun glide across the sky and whales breach in the ocean. I needed nothing else.

Kauai

Me on a Beach

Beaches and cliffs

I heard this was the side of the island to see the best sunsets, but as the sun sank and the sky exploded with color, I realized I needed to leave my post early in order to find my car before it got dark. Funny I decided I had to miss the sunset after waiting hours to see it, but the real joke was discovering in my moment of newly-single solitude, I had become surrounded by five newly-married couples getting sunset photographs... The universe has an excellent sense of humor :)

First spray in the spray booth

Construction

Back in Seattle, my brief January tan had faded, but that experience on the cliff stayed with me. Over the next few months, I got to work building a new future for myself. I found an art studio to call home, canvases got primed, and I began producing work.

With a new coat of blue primer, I restarted this canvas with a vision of my time in Hawaii. I sought to capture the sky's transformation as day started slipping to dusk. I wanted to bring back that sense of simplicity, calm, and peace I had tapped into on that cliff.

In every piece I'm doing something for the first time, and I get resourceful to achieve my vision. I wanted a spray-painted perfectly round sun, but how? I have a box of random materials and things I've collected, and I found a cylinder piece of a light fixture that was the diameter I was looking for. I needed to create a different color and texture for the water so I used purple latex wall paint from a previous interior design project to do so. I got really lucky after the woodworkers downstairs offered me this cliff-like wood veneer. It's a South African mahogany called bubinga, and it all fell into place resulting in this beautiful scene. Finishing my first piece for sale, I found the courage and confidence to keep making more art.

Like all of my pieces, I went in with an idea, but the final version surprised me. The more I gave up control, experimented, and allowed things to flow, the stronger the result. The further I moved from expectation and the closer I got to accepting what is, the more joyful my art became.

Get the Print

The Quiet Island , 2023, 15" x 30" Spray paint, acrylic, bubinga wood veneer

Life Lessons

• Timing is everything

• Try new things and trust the process

• As one sun sets, another will rise!