Wanderlust and Finding my Muse

I've had wanderlust my whole life, like I said in a previous post, it probably came from my Dad, always going for a ride, looking for something new and never being afraid to go down a road that looked like it was going to peter out after a mile or so.

So last week when I was doing some work on the computer at Carolina Creations I emailed Michael and said - want to go to Ocracoke for a couple days - sure - the answer came back immediately.

Now I will have to say Michael doesn't have the wanderlust bug like I do, but he'll pretty much go along if I make the plans.

Another reason I need to wander is to get inspiration to paint and create. Just driving and having images zip by clears my head.

Sometime I see things I want to paint, other times it's just getting out of my normal routine that does the trick.

Sometimes it's hard to identify what inspires me.

We've lived in North Carolina since 1989 and have been to Ocracoke about 5 times. 

What I think of when I look back at those trips
     isolation - driving up the island to the Hatteras ferry seeing nothing but sand and ocean for 12 miles and the miles of marsh you drive through before you even get to the ferry at Cedar Island
     woods - how can such a small island have a woods?
     scale - I feel most comfortable when I am in place that isn't too big and has has boundaries (Key West, Downtown New Bern, the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado) Ocracoke
     beauty - love looking at Silver Lake, watching the ferry come in, seeing the sailboats, the flowers, the fences
     quirky - Howards Pub, the British Cemetery

After returning from each of those trips I did paintings.

Of the light house
Chairs and boats
Birds
Marsh

We'll see what inspiration I get this time.

I'll let you know.

Jan Francoeur