An email last week gave me a beach escape—right here in my studio.
It came from a camper who had taken home one of my postcard paintings from last summer’s beach holiday. She asked if I would draw her mum’s beloved caravan—and just like that, I was back in Golden Bay.
For over thirty summers, my parents have stayed a couple of weeks at the same spot: Pohara in Golden Bay, at the top of Te Waipounamu—New Zealand’s South Island. These holidays were a big part of my childhood. As an adult, I still join them almost every year. Camping in the summer is as kiwi as it gets.
When I’m there, I always draw lots. Usually in a sketchbook, but last summer, I took a stack of small pieces of nice paper to use up—mostly leftovers from the ends of sheets. Over the holiday, I turned them into little postcard paintings. Fellow campers took home mementos from the beach, and I had some beer money—a good kind of working holiday.
This summer, we’re staying home. There won’t be any beach postcards this year—at least not on location. Still, I got to live that beach holiday life a little bit from my studio. This caravan is really familiar to me—every January of my childhood, it was parked just down the way.
Here are a few more beach postcards from last year:
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