Formentera, October 2020

The evening Deborah and I went to the opening of Robert Hawkins’ recent exhibition, we asked him to join us on a boat trip the following day. And he came. An worked. Almost the entire day we would see him sketching, one page after the next, observing precisely the scenery he is sorrounded by. Sometimes he’d dance with us or jump into the crystal clear light blue waters of Espalmador, where we had anchored to spend the whole sunday. That absolut beauty of a pirate boat belonging to our captain, the belgium sea wolf Vincent, who lives on it the whole year through, is a real eye catcher. I could see Robert’s thoughts buzzing around, when remembering life on his own 13 meters beauty of a sailing boat, that sank ten years ago not too far away from where we were. During decades, he used to take the most outstanding long legged ladies of the island onto his studio and playground on the water. A real artist in every aspect, I would say.

Similarities to be seen on our captain Vincent aswell, who is also very much into long legged ladies like my sister Deborah. He had actually been portrayed by Robert a long time ago and Deborah and I absolutely love the painting, when going through the extended archive a couple of days later in Robert‘s house. The old sketches and oil paintings especially on sceneries of the kiosko Anselmo‘s, the place we used to spend so much time at during the 80ties as kids with our mom, and all though the 90ties and 2000 as young grown ups, sometimes helping out behind the bar or playing backgammon, swimming and partying. Until it closed down forever. We get completely lost in the blasts of the past.

But on that day trip on the boat, we end up dancing, singing and drinking wine while sailing into sunset with the other two great girls and Vincent’s helping hand and young Colombian and salsa dancing sailor boy that accompanied us. I did not drink wine until the very end to keep control of my loss of balance. At one point I had to give up when trying to dance ballet with the sailor boy on a moving ship when Maria Callas‘s voice appears. Could not expect too much of myself anymore. My role for the day had anyway been the one of the DJ, playing selected exquisit music from the 50ties, 60ties and some 80ties, rounded up by classical music. Deborah‘s role of the ship’s cook has been more than very well fulfilled and appreciated.

So did Robert and Vincent enjoy their roles with applause as the two elegant crocodiles, admired by the younger dolphins swimming and dancing around them.

We Love Formentera