I was lucky enough to get to go to Hawaii for a few weeks. It came about suddenly, and I am enjoying every moment of it. It is our first time here, and coming straight from Guam, we were expecting the climate to be the same. Wrong! Hawaii is much less humid, the breeze i
s comfortably cool, and NO insects! Very nice indeed. I am spending a lot of time just walking around, watching people, looking at stores, sitting on the beach, reading, listening to the waves and the breeze ...And of course I have visited a few local art galleries as well. I can’t help but stop and check it out - whether I like it or not, and whether I find it interesting or not. I am always curious. And not surprisingly I see a lot of Hawaiian land - and seascapes, flowers and hula girls. Guam is different, yet similar. The heritage naturally is different, yet the nature and flowers seem alike, to me, anyway. So in a lot of ways, the art here reminds me of the island I just left for a few week
s.
Thinking back - where I grew up on the Danish West Coast, it was the same thing: people painted what they were surrounded by. Most of my fellow artist were mainly inspired by the rugged Nature around the Northern Sea. The tall, freezing waves, the violent wind and the rough beaches. A differently beautiful landscape (-and about as opposite to this tropical setting as you can get). Every time I go home to visit, I see the same motifs and the same cool blue color schemes. And over time (perhaps because of not living there anymore) it has become quite nostalgic to me.
I guess it is a natural thing for your surroundings to rub off in your work to a certain extend. I have found that myself, even though all my environments have been extremely different. I think I pick up something from each place, and carry it with me in my work from place to place.
