"Bottled Secrets" from my Nautical Art Series
I have always loved beach combing. To this day, I can walk along a beach forever, finding little natural treasures that have potential to create something enchanting. Worn smooth cobalt glass, shells, coral and driftwood. Shapes, textures and subtle colors I can add to my "palette" to paint with. What a dream, I often pondered...if I could make a shimmering castle hideaway on some tropical shore, made completely of found treasures from the sea.
One morning several years ago, I was walking early along the shore in Hawaii. In the waves, was a bottle...with a crude broken off driftwood cork, and I could see stones and paper inside it. I waded into the breakers and got a hold of this bottle. It DID have something inside! My mind raced to the classic story that maybe a castaway sent this into the sea with a note to be saved! My imagination is easily seeded. I worked and pried, got the bottle open...and dumped out the contents after some diligent shaking.
I unrolled the paper. It was a bit soggy on the bottom edges....and low and behold, it was a note! It wasn't a long message from a castaway or map to sunken treasure. The message read, in ballpoint pen:
"Hi…Your wish has been granted..."
Well I could go on and on saying it was some kid playing around...most would smile and move along. I don't care who wrote it...I want to believe something else. This inspired me! It inspired me to combine my love of finding things on the seashore and building my castle and place to paint and create. So I made a story in my mind, that this bottle had some powerful magic in it. The magic, along with the creative touch of a passionate artist, brought to life, a very grand structure to rise from the sea. I thought of the architect who lived in the mid to late 1800's in Spain, Antoni Gaudi'. He used shimmering tile and glistening glass in his creations...architecture, yet sculpture at the same time.
Out of all this, came a painting. It shows this castle built from coral, glass bottles, shells and slabs of sand stone. You have to look closely and you will see all these things. Also, the place I paint...perched above the breakers, and filled with the spirit and inspiration of the timeless sea. I also painted the bottle in the shore breakers that started it all. I titled the painting, "Bottled Secrets."
I hope you can travel through the light of the shimmering glass wall stairways, and find your way to the top where you can overlook the vast, azure blue horizon...for this wish has, indeed, been granted.
~~ Aloha, THOR