Charles Wakefield is one of our new, talented artists for Arts on the Credit 2015. Charles agreed to display his painting, “Rollers on the Beach”, in the lobby of the Waterside Inn. Drop in for lunch or just to pick up a complimentary ticket to the show and view the calming waves rolling onto the beach in Haiti. Below is the fascinating story behind Charles’ painting.

While many of my landscape paintings are painted Au Plein Air, this is a studio painting based on my photographs and memories of Cabarete, Dominican Republic. I walked on this beach and felt the water and sand run between my toes, the day after I returned from a humanitarian mission to Haiti in 2011. I had been working with some Canadian groundwater professionals testing community wells installed by charitable organizations in northern Haiti in the wake of a cholera epidemic. I visited this beach as a bit of R&R on my way home to Canada. I took the reference photographs while I was enjoying a relaxing walk on the beach as the sun set behind me. The rollers had a calming effect on me as I watched them roll in and break on the beach, then wash away.

More information about Charles Wakefield and his artwork can be found at www.charleswakefieldartist.com