Tahiti and The Marquesas

My mystical voyage to Tahiti in the South Pacific begins early morning as the ship enters a lovely turquoise lagoon. Countless new adventures with watercolors are ahead as I take a motor launch out to Mota, a private island just off Bora Bora. I hold up my paints and a camera and wade knee-deep through the warm sunlit waves, carefully taking short swishy steps with my new rubber-soled coral reef shoes. The soft sand hides sharp shells and sea urchin.

Then, the launch glides away into the azure lagoon, leaving me alone to contemplate my first watercolor compositions of blues, greens, and soft crystal…(continued after images)

(continued from top of gallery)…white sand.  As I reach shore, my eyes search for inhabitants. Will they accept my intrusion into their isolation?

The challenge for my eye and my brush in painting is to follow French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin, who sailed in 1892 from France to Tahiti to explore his new art theories.

Like Gauguin, I sailed through the Tahitian Islands to project my own ideas of Paradise. I believe even now that thoughts of an exotic lifestyle inspire me to resurrect his revolutionary styles of painting.

I will search in every place he lived and painted in Papeete, Tahiti, and in Atuona in the Marquesas. I will look at his nature shapes and colors. I may find lilting lines on beaches and in the ocean.

In my mind and in my dreams, I long to meet Gauguin and ask him: How will you shape my watercolors and my view of Paradise?

MARQUESAS

 I mount the steep wooden stairs toward a replica of Maison du Jouir (his House of Pleasure). Gauguin’s second story atelier (studio) stands on pilings

Inside, I see a life-size mannequin resembling Gauguin. I walk up close to the mannequin that seems very lifelike with his dark hair and piercing brown eyes. He wears a white shirt smeared with oil paint, and his opened collar shows dark chest hairs splattered with black – dirt or paint.

“Bonjour, Monsieur Gauguin.” (I long to believe it is Paul Gauguin.) “Comment allez-vous?” He continues to swipe his brush onto a paint-coated palette, as if he is about to stroke a painting of a female figure. So, there I am, painting in Gauguin’s studio.

Gauguin grins and wistfully answers: “I create Paradise in my paintings using images I see in nature as a starting point. Yet where I end up is a mystery to me.”

I begin to believe Gauguin accepts and appreciates my presence as I spread my watercolor supplies like preparing for a séance. I place a jar of water, a paper pad, and brushes on the dark wooden worktable in the center of the studio. By sharing his studio, artistic magic can happen. Silently I sketch the standing figure, hoping to get a likeness without embarrassing myself.