Spanish

Steps

2016

5″x12″

Private Collection

I was so busy with my career as communications director for California Rangeland Trust, working 80-100 hour weeks, that I hadn’t painted since I finished my last commission in June. It was now Christmas and I was spending the next few weeks with my sister in Guam. The one thing I was committed to doing on this vacation was paint. My first painting was terrible. But I was painting again.

For the next two weeks we snorkeled and hiked and scuba dove in the mornings and afternoons and I painted on location and in the evening. This painting is of Spanish Steps on the Navy base in Guam. After a hike through the rainforest, the foliage opens into a small, rocky cove on a coral reef. The underwater scape is pure magic but it looks pretty good above water too.

— Jessica Kong —