Coastal Inspiration

From a young age I would take my two sons on a yearly overseas adventure. As a parent I think travelling to other countries and experiencing different cultures is paramount in their learning and life experience. The other reason for yearly travels is that is breaks up the every day to day existence and routine we live in our home towns allowing an inspired adventure to not only look forward to, but experience with all that comes with travel. 

Upon our return I found that we settled back in to our daily life with ease and contentment knowing that another adventure was on the horizon. We would plan, research and book in between trips and that was half the fun! 

For my son’s teenage years, we lived in the coastal surfing town of Byron Bay in northern NSW, Australia. Since I can remember they have both surfed, the ocean was their time, the calming beautiful ocean, it was their exercise and their love, so it was no surprise to me that when it was time to look for new travel destinations the ocean and surfing featured for many years, I loved that they were enthused and looked at the world in this way

I had always wanted to take the boys to Italy and Spain, so as a “detour” they both suggested we take their boards visit France to the southwestern town of Biarritz on the coast of France. Biarritz is a major surfing destination, with long sandy beaches, where the surfing culture is alive and well and is stunningly beautiful. 

The architecture, the tiles on the buildings, the coastline and the elegant boutique hotels and cafes lined the esplanade and streets, there was a feel of coastal cool meets luxury and the art of good living. While the boys surfed for hours at a time, I strolled the streets and lingered in sidewalk cafes watching this part of the world go by, I found inspiration everywhere. 

The two designs inspired from this beautiful town actually come from one of the surf shop purchases the boys had made, the paper bag a new wetsuit top came in had this brushstroke type writing on it, I loved how free the writing looked and how the brush strokes could be an incredible print if translated onto fabric. 

I played around with Indian Ink and brush strokes to achieve this coastal inspired print, I think there’s actually an element of a coastal beach house to the design, casual and cool. 

I painted about six different designs and left them on my work desk for a day or two until a couple really stood out, I often sit with designs for days until one resonates and I keep coming back to it time after time. The end result was a bold brush stroke type design that really reminds me of the wonderful few days we spent in this lovely seaside town. 

Much more than just a surf town, Biarritz totally won me over.