Courageous Voyage

The ocean has always affected me profoundly. Encompassed within its imposing expanse, history, challenge, and opportunity have each left their indelible mark. Throughout time, men of courage and substance defiantly faced its omnipotence with dreams of fortune and a better life – and so set sail to hope. Yet, despite its promise of fruitful ventures, the ocean is replete with challenge, mystery, and danger. Only courage and an abiding faith that tomorrow will bring a new day filled with its own destiny, steel men with courage to push through its menace.

What a powerful metaphor for life. There is a tide rooted in providence and faith that governs the affairs of men. Like the ocean, it is a tide equally predisposed to serenity as to overwhelming swells. Only through courage and faith in providence do we push ahead towards the promise of a better tomorrow, to a new dawn, to hope and opportunity. What a powerful canvas is the sea!

As I set my brush to canvas, I could not envision a better tribute to courage and hope than a lone clipper ship defiantly pushing through the ocean’s fury, against the backdrop of a clearing sky radiant with hope and light. I have always had a great respect for the clipper ship artists of the past, for whom the sea represented the only connection to a new world and promises of a new day.

Courageous Voyage is as much a tribute to a man like Montague Dawson, whose early images of the sea inspired me, as it is a message to those mired in challenge and praying for opportunity and new beginnings. I trust that this image will encourage you to face the swells of life with a profound courage secure in hope, instilled through providence and faith that tomorrow is in His hands…that the storm is clearing…that the sun is ushering in a vibrant new day…and that your Courageous Voyage has set you upon the tides of remarkable ventures.