As a young family, we’d pack our camper with the bare necessities for life and, in the peak of our cold Canadian winter, head off for warmer weather in the south. Nothing was extravagant - hotdogs by the fire and fish and chips at road side stands were the norm. Some of my favourite times were spent in Fort De Soto Campground in Pinellas County, Florida. There, with the Gulf nearby, days would be spent building sandcastles. My sister fished with a stick, a string and a bit of bubble gum. She never caught a thing but it didn’t matter… we had oodles of time.
Evenings, we would skip dinner and head off to a local ice cream hut.
This series of paintings called “Road Trip” is reminiscent of those days when life seemed simpler and the days seemed longer. Each of the scenes is meant to evoke a sense of place. A line of laundry, a hammock or a pot of geraniums tells the story of staying put in one place for a little while; as though one might have the luxury of wasting time.
And, even though the life of a traveller is rather transient, once the Airstream or VW was parked, the awning pulled out or the tent staked, one had a home away from home; a sense of mobility without all the heavy weight of life and stuff can be quite appealing.
It’s my hope that these scenes bring to mind simpler times and perhaps even inspire them.