Lost Paradise

I had the idea for this painting during a journey in the small state of Belize in Central America. Most of the houses were painted in these typical bright Caribbean colors like the wooden bars of this painting. But besides the indigenous birds and animals one morning there were suddenly gray street pigeons sitting on the beach, searching for leftovers of the tourist. They seemed so out of place in this paradisiac environment that it almost made me angry seeing these birds because in my stereotypical mind they were ruining the Caribbean idyll. But wasn’t I just as out of place as these pigeons were? Somehow the paradise felt lost this day.