A little while ago, I got an email from a woman who had spent her honeymoon on St. John, USVI in the 90s and over the years had collected prints from my pastel series “The Seven Beaches of Caneel”.

I had originally done the series years ago, at the beginning of my “second” career as a fine artist.

She had 6 of the 7 in the series I had produced in 2002, but was unable to find number 7.  “Turtle Bay” was nowhere to be found.

Over the years, slowly but surely all the prints had been sold from Bajo el Sol Gallery, my first gallery representation, located at Mongoose Junction on St. John in the US Virgin Islands.

I had a master set of the prints, and photo files of the original pastels, as well as a copy of the original photos I had worked from.  There didn’t seem to be any prints left anywhere except for my master set.

I loved Caneel after discovering it. I used to walk through the grounds constantly when we lived on St. John for over 7 years. It was beautiful, built on National Park land and including the old Rockefeller Estate.  There really were 7 very unique beaches on the resort, each with its own personality.

Turtle Bay was at the far end, just below the old Rockefeller Estate house.  I offered to re-create the image to size as an original pastel to complete her set.  It meant a lot to her, and it was wonderful to re-visit the beach in my mind.

Caneel Bay Resort got severely damaged in the hurricanes of 2017.  I’m not sure if the resort will rebuild or not.  But the memories will live on.