Pataua is a very special place. If you've been there you know what I mean. There's something about the landscape there. Maybe it's the contrast between the serene estuary and the roaring surf beach, or its small community divided by the estuary, tenously united by its wooden footbridge. Whatever it is, I always feel like I've arrived somewhere unique and special when I drive down out of the bush into Pataua. The photo's that I used to reference this painting were taken on the last sunset of 2002, and my wife and I climbed up the hill to see it into the new year.

See "Evening, Pataua" to compare a more recent painting of the same scene.