My earliest memories of being by lakes, streams, ponds have deeply impacted my life and inspired my paintings. I’ve had an affinity for water and sunlight from my earliest memories.
Growing up near the shores of Lake Michigan afforded opportunities to soak up inspiration on the beach, swimming, tubing, boating, and water skiing. When I was around four years old, my parents bought a 16-foot wooden boat with an outboard Johnson motor. It had two seats in the front and a bench seat along the back with vinyl upholstery.
My dad required that my brother and I learn to waterski. My brother picked it up that year, and I was on waterskis the following year.
There used to be a simple concrete slab boat launch in Kollen Park, directly across from where Boatwerks is today. I remember many times launching into Lake Macatawa from that slab.
We’d set out onto Lake Macatawa cruising west towards where Lake Mac let out into Lake Michigan. Through the channel past Big Red lighthouse.
My dad would drive the boat and decide if it was calm enough and safe enough to bring the little craft carrying the four of us onto the Big Lake. Lake Michigan, where the water was oh-so-clear and cool and pristine. So sparkling, reflective, inviting. It bubbled, foamed and splashed as our little boat cut through the chops.
My brother and I sported bright orange old-style life jackets. The kind that had one strap around the waist buckling in the front and nylon ties for securing under the chin. It was a challenge to turn my head.
Water skiing on the Big Lake: So memorable being out there holding a rope behind a boat on the vast, open, mesmerizing, deep blue waters. Being pulled along the coastline, gliding up and down on swells of pristine sapphire was something quite unforgettable.
We would head down the coast, anchor offshore from an uninhabited stretch of beach for a picnic supper. Then pack up and head back up the coast, through the channel back past Big Red as the sun set.
One summer day, though, without much warning, fog rolled in. The sky all around us was like a big cloud. The shoreline became hard to see. We had no navigation equipment, but made our way back to the channel opening as the shoreline disappeared in the thick fog. No wind, just spooky thick fog, and sunlight fading fast. Somehow my dad maneuvered the long stretch from the channel back slowly to the boat launch.
At one point, we came upon a lone sailor in a small sailboat who was overjoyed to take a tow back to his home dock. It was late and dark by the time we made it back to the launch and loaded the boat on its trailer. A memorable Big Lake adventure indeed.
The Lake Michigan shoreline still captivates me and influences my artwork. Observations of water are consistently represented on my canvases. Fragmented snapshots of lake life affect my choices of color and content. Sunlight interacting with water is one of my most continuous sources of heartfelt inspiration.
I hope to connect with you through sharing my art and stories of lake life. Are any lakeside memories that you hold speaking to you?