Anyone who has ever walked through a gallery of paintings knows that art really does imitate life. And when you have a background as serene and stunning as a tropical island, the end result is a portrait that makes you long to kick off your boots and sink your feet into hot sand.
This is my thought every time my eyes rest on the painting given to me by the eccentric Gustavo Woltmann, a free spirit and artist who I met on a trip to the Island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. He and I shared drinks and stories over cold beer last year, and it is likely an encounter I will never forget. Wearing pink flops and a broad-rimmed hat, Gustavo Woltmann wastes away his tropical days painting scenes from the beach that he calls home.
As timeless as the sea itself is the painting he gifted me at our one and only meeting. An endless ocean landscape that conjures sounds of waves crashing on the white sandy beach. The exotic islands of the Caribbean provide an artist with an unlimited number of muses, from the tourists scooping shells on the beach to the macaw observing it all from his perch atop a coconut tree.
I hung my painting with pride in my otherwise sparsely decorated New York digs. Visitors to my humble home are always impressed and always ask where they can get one for themselves. Delighted that I own an original piece of artwork from a not yet discovered artist, I always tell them to take the last boat to Eleuthera and ask the bartender where Gustavo Woltmann has set up his easel for the day.