Harbour Town: Hilton Head Island from the Oyster Beds in 1881

This painting reflects my affinity with skies perhaps more than any I have done in recent years. When I emigrated to Canada in 1957, the one thing I found disappointing amid what was otherwise a proliferation of excitement was the rather uninspiring spectacle of the Montreal skies. Perhaps it is all the moisture in the air, or maybe because the Gulf Stream hits the southwestern tip of England, but the skies in England are quite often breathtaking. It was a thrill, therefore, to find upon visiting Hilton Head Island, initially in 1974, that the skies were so impressive. It surely must have something to do with the humidity, but in any event, it is often apparent in the case of any shoreline that cloud patterns over the ocean will differ from those over the land.

One of the delights on the South Carolina barrier islands is the presence of oyster beds at low water and the resultant banks of white oyster shells all along the edge of inshore wetlands. Looking for a viewpoint from which to feature Harbourtown's lighthouse and the entrance to the harbor, I wandered off down the beach in rubber soled shoes to discover that the shells, may of which were stacked tight in vertical position, were cutting into my soles just like razor blades.

I had caught a six pound drum from the beach just below the arriving schooner the day before. I now set up my easel on the oyster shells at low tide and quickly began work. To my right at this viewpoint is the eighteenth hole of the Harbourtown Links, with the harbor extending still further to the right behind the reeds. The familiar red and white lighthouse is the only building in Charles Fraser's Sea Pines concept to rise above the island's trees, all other structures being carefully conceived to blend in with the flora when viewed from offshore. But this was a perfect composition to allow for a major sky, the significant landscape elements being mostly distant and therefore permitting the maximum attention to sky and water. This sky is very little altered from that done on site that day, which was quite exciting. The tide, however, was licking around my feet and forced me off the beach in no time, and even then I had to wade through incoming water with the big load of gear before reaching dry land.

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