Sailing series on a following sea

Once-upon-a-time-long-ago, when I lived a boatish life with a boatish family, I spent a lot of time on or near the ocean. Although I never really learned the actual techniques of sailing, I loved being on the boat, sliding along with the wind. Even the sea-sick ick couldn’t keep me at home. The pull of that spacious feeling in nature was too strong.

Sailing seems like such freedom.

This time of year brings back so many layers of memory. So when I needed to paint four 6 x 6-inch paintings for a show at Art on Main in Murphys, California, sailing glimmered in my mind.

While I painted these, I played the CSN song, “Southern Cross,” on heavy repeat. Do you find that certain pieces of music bring you right back to a certain time and place, as if you’d never sailed from youth on that great steamboat of age?

This song, now 42 years old, still resonates in my heart, even though parts of it, I admit, are problematic (“looking for that woman girl”? Really?). But the imagery of sailing, the words to describe the sea and nature and the joy of being outside are so strong.

The term “following sea” means the sea moving in the direction the boat is going, and as I painted these to the sounds of the past, I felt a strong current pulling me through.

What songs spur your creativity?