Land | Under the Influence of Mexico | Turtle Island

"Accross the lagoon to Tavewa"

2003 watercolour, 34 x 91cm

"Coral view, Turtle Island"

2003 watercolour. 55 x 60cm

"Evening swim on Blue Lagoon"

2003 watercolour. 19 x 69cm

"Sun umbrellas on Blue Lagoon"

2003 watercolour. 37.5 x 49.5cm

"The palm path to Dock lady"

2003. watercolour 57 x 128 cm

"The Turtle Boat at anchor"

2003 watercolour. 37 x 40cm

"The village boat from Matacawalevu"

2003 watercolour. 65.5 x 89cm

"View from Fat Albert's lair"

2003 watercolour. 58 x 74cm

“A brush with paradise” 2003

Commissioned by Turtle Island Resort, in collaboration with Lauraine Diggins Fine Art.

Who could resist such a commission, my catalogue notes say it all:-

“ My paintings are about memory. They usually construct a romance with my family history and an imagined Pacific paradise they inhabited.Now an opportunity to explore the reality of a true paradise in the South Pacific. The kind that fuelled my boyhood imagination. Perfect sand, turquoise sea and riding to long Beach at dawn to observe one of the most magical sunrises I have ever seen. An island unsullied by contemporary realities, stress free. Not the “overcrowded sublime” of a dawn “saluted by the clicking and chirring of thousands of shutters and motor drives.”
(Robert Hughes. ‘American Visions’, Harvill Press, p139)

All those blues. The lagoon, so clear; the seabed an entertainment that can occupy your attention for hours. Calmness to ponder the light, moving palms and the distant shores of other islands.

My mind returns to childhood. My parents are opening a case of exotic fruit that periodically arrived from the “islands” and I am reminded of pirates, adventures and imagined Pacific paradises.”

Mike Green

Tonga to Mexico - Turtle Island

“A brush with paradise” 2003