I don’t usually try to assign narrative to landscape paintings, but last year after seeing some striking footage of Guadeloupe’s Pointe des Chateaux online, I wanted to paint the scene in a symbolic/spiritual context as a gift for a friend. I thought I would share what I had written down about it at the time:
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The image shows a period of relative calm at the cape, observed from its highest point in early afternoon. The viewpoint is nearly due east. A large cross erected at the location is the focal point of the composition and actual site. It is about 40 feet tall and seen clearly from the nearby beach just out of view to the north, the location from which the area is more commonly observed and photographed. The lines of the composition and the actual geography converge at the structure, and to me the scene evoked a narrative.
The presence and intent of the cross at Pointe des Chateaux are accepted here as a representation of true faith, the recognition and receipt of God’s gift of redemption for His own. The physical cross itself, however, is a human construct. It can be taken to reflect the paradoxical message of Philippians 2:12: the responsibility of believers to be active in the outworking of their own salvation, despite the inability to effect it outside of God’s sovereign action. True believers necessarily seek to align with the spiritual and holy nature of Christ, but the effort is difficult and the task impossible to achieve this side of heaven, as they are tethered to a material environment and a fallen nature. Still the responsibility remains.
The ocean can be taken to represent the world, its influences, and temptations. Day and night the Pointe cross faces the open Atlantic, displaying the increasing wear consistent with its assignment. The degradation of the peninsula beyond and below the site implies the eventual failure of a structure that stands on the merits of its man-made construction alone.
To varying degrees the things of this earth distract everyone from the things above. From the high ground at Pointe des Chateaux, as with all Caribbean vistas, the view is enticing and seemingly endless. It reflects the striking beauty of the creation as well as the myriad possibilities for one’s earthly pursuits. La Desirade here represents those pursuits. The island fixes the horizon at an attainable distance while the squall off its coast implies challenge and uncertain gain. The Pointe cross does not directly face it. At this particular moment its orientation is square to a horizon that meets clear sky. In this part of the world the sun and the hurricane approach from the same direction, and everything else is subject to both.
