I always used to travel with paints and a sketch book. I thought I would keep things simple this trip and stick to photography and writing. I started to get the hunger to paint again in the South Pacific. Everything I looked at was waiting to be turned into an opulent piece of fabric design. A few days into my time in Rarotonga, I was resting to drink some coconut water, sitting in the shade talking to the young guy at the coconut stand (this was the start of that mistaken bike ride). Soon his sister Kimberly turned up. We hit it off immediately. She designs sarongs and I asked if there was anywhere on the island where I could buy art materials. 20 mins of chatting later she was driving me to her house, insisting that I borrow her paints. The next day Odette (who runs the farm I was staying at with Joey) overheard my story. While I was resting one evening, she knocked on my door and silently left two brand new canvases she had just bought right next to me.
It ended up being really hard to paint much with the crash to deal with, cooking was hard enough. So I did a bit, tried to paint a picture of the farm for Joey and Odette to put up in the small unit for guests. I made a start and decided I would have to let it go. On my way back from Aitutaki, I had about 30 hours in Rarotonga with a last night on the farm before my LA flight the following evening. I ended up with about an hour to finish some kind of picture but I decided it didn’t matter how perfect or cheesy it was. Joey and Odette were getting a painting using my one paintbrush, Kimberly’s paints and Odette’s canvas. ....here it is. It includes the farm and the hills behind it. Perhaps they’ll be more paintings to come from these islands?
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