Two of my recent posts dealt with imaginary islands made up of pieces of real places. This post will be a sort of coda to those discussions, wrapping up the invented island theme (for now at least) by sharing a few more worldviews based on some of those same locales.
One of the works in those earlier posts was Pearl Islands, inspired by coastal northwest Australia and so titled because the pristine, precious quality of the islands it depicts (with glimmering white sands) was reminiscent of the pearls that the region is known for. That got me thinking more generally about portraying priceless, endangered islands like gemstones, each with a particular dominant hue, maybe even incorporating materials that I’d never otherwise consider using like gold leaf and ornate metallic frames. That last part fell by the wayside, but the gemstone idea did produce three worldviews that I informally call my “Jewel Series.” All are only 10” square in order to underscore the themes of preciousness and vulnerability.
Below are those three islands, each one following some additional photos from the real-world places that inspired them. For more detail on those places and how I re-imagined them, check out my earlier posts on Ecuador and the Kimberley region of Northwest Australia.
Darren
Mangroves and tidal flats south of Broome, Western Australia.
Coastal hues north of Broome.
Baobab (Adansonia gregorii) in Keep River National Park, Northern Territory.
Pearl Isle, watercolor on paper, 10”x10.”
Sandstone “beehive” formations in the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park), Western Australia.
Another baobab near Kununurra, Western Australia.
Livistona victoriae palms in Keep River National Park, Northern Territory, Australia.
Amber Isle, watercolor on paper, 10”x10.”
Primary (virgin) cloud forest in Los Cedros Reserve, northwest Ecuador.
Flowering “ceibo” (Ceiba trichastandra) in dry forest along the central Ecuadorean coast.
Ceiba trichastandra—not quite as “emerald”-like as painted, but still strikingly green. Except for the buttress roots it looks a lot like a green baobab, and is in fact in the same family.
Emerald Isle, watercolor on paper, 10”x10.”