Where the Wind Takes You: A Painting’s Unexpected Journey

Sometimes, the most compelling creations surprise us. When I began this painting, I wasn’t envisioning a regatta or a breezy day at sea. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about boats at all. I started with an underpainting in soft pastel hues—lavender, pink, and blue—letting those colors blend and settle without a plan, simply enjoying the way they interacted on the canvas.

Next, I reached for my cloud stencils, laying them across the sky in playful clusters. The shapes took on their own life, and as I stepped back, something shifted. The arrangement of the clouds, their gentle push across the sky, stirred something in me—a feeling of forward motion, of quiet momentum. And from that feeling, the sailboats arrived.

It struck me as funny in the best way. I don’t live near water and rarely see boats in person. Yet here they were, confidently cutting across an imagined sea, their white sails catching wind that doesn’t exist in my daily life. But maybe that’s exactly what makes them unique. They represent something I didn’t know I needed—a reminder of freedom, of trusting where the wind might take me, even when I don’t have a destination in mind.

This piece is a good example of what happens when I let go of control and allow intuition to lead. The painting unfolded naturally, almost as if it had its own quiet plan. And in the end, I found a scene I wasn’t looking for, but one that brought me peace and a sense of motion.

Where the Wind Takes You, acrylic painting on canvas