Celebrating the Life and Art of Robert George Etienne with his Creativity, Re-Imagined (Part 2)

For my grandfather Robert George Etienne's 100th heavenly birthday, I began recreating his original acrylic paintings on decorative plates using my own medium: soft pastels.

After completing Part 1, I realized our family had almost 100 more of Grandpa's painted plates to choose from.

So I asked my family to pick some of their favorites, and created four more. But this time, I took his artwork outdoors.

Each recreation became a plein air conversation between Grandpa's imagination and mine.

Through recreating his work, I've learned more about my grandfather not only as an artist, but as someone who knew how to see. I've learned about composition, color, observation, and most importantly, imagination.

We don't have to create the same way. We can take what someone gave us and make it our own.

Love you, Grandpa. ❤️
After all these years, you're still teaching me how to stretch my imagination.

🎨 Original artwork: Robert George Etienne
​🖍️ Pastel recreations: Jackie Morreale

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Transcript

By Jackie Morreale
​
Hi there, my name is Jackie Morreale, and I am the host of Wisdom for Wannabes.

I've completed part two of my art honoring project for my grandfather, Robert George Etienne. For his 100th heavenly birthday, I recreated four of his original acrylic paintings using soft pastels.

Then I realized I had almost a hundred more. I asked my family to pick our favorites from among the plates that you see behind came up with four more drawings, all of which were drawn plein air art style.

1: TROPICAL FROG

This first piece in part two started with a tropical dart frog.

Grandpa focused on this little frog sitting on a leaf.

I was sitting outside looking at a completely different kind of scene. I was drawing a beautiful view of the intercoastal in Palm Beach County, Lake Worth, surrounded by trees, grass, reflections, and all the layers of green that you find in a Florida landscape.

I decided to put grandpa's frog into the landscape, beneath a palm tree. A little piece of grandpa hiding right there inside of the picture.

It made me think about how differently we see things.

Grandpa could take an idea, a frog, on a leaf, and create an entire world around it. So I took his idea and put it into mine, and I kind of love the result.

2: CHERUBS

The second painting was one of my favorites because it's so different from everything else in grandpa's collection. It feels celestial, spiritual, almost otherworldly.

Two hearts connected by this flowing white ribbon or piece of fabric that seems to move behind them almost like a parachute. The background is filled with sparkling blues, reds, whites, and stars, and with this dark area in the center of the ribbon. My kids called it the black hole picture.

Honestly, I love that interpretation too.

This painting pushed me somewhere completely different. I had to imagine figures that weren't really there, other than in his reference.

This one was much more loose, much more intuitive.

I was letting myself wonder. And that was really fun.

3: LAKE & BIRDS

The third painting brought me back to something Grandpa loved to paint again and again: water. His original artwork shows what appears to be a seascape with seagulls perched on dark rocks, greenery, blue water, and a beautiful blue sky.

I went to one of my favorite lakes. I've been seeing this huge flock of Egyptian geese

sitting there along the water, soaking up the sun. So I drew the lake. I drew the reflections of the trees.

And instead of grandpa's seagulls on rocks, I added the Egyptian geese. I realized, we can take what they loved and find it in our own.

4: THE BEACH

​Then came the one I knew I had to do: the beach. Jupiter Beach is one of my favorite beaches. You walk through this little path that almost feels like jungle before arriving to the sand.

Then suddenly you reach the beach.

It's just you, the water, and the sky. It reminded me immediately of Grandpa. I love the simplicity of this one. Blue sky, blue water, clouds reflected almost perfectly on the surface, and a sandy beach.

This incredible sense of peace. I quickly realized that water is hard to draw. For about 20 minutes, I watched the water change. At first, it was this beautiful tropical green reflecting the sky.

Then it became deeper blue. A pelican flew by.

My phone was so hot it couldn't even record the drawing. It was ninety-six degrees F.

I was covered in pastel dust. So when I finished the drawing, I did the only reasonable thing I could think of: I hopped into the water. I literally took a dip in whatever I was wearing, covered in pastel, and it was beautiful. The water was so clear, so calm. I floated there and looked up at the sky.

Everything was completely still. Just water, sky, and the sound of the waves.

I wouldn't trade that morning for anything.

IMAGINATION EXERCISE

Let's take an imagination journey through grandpa's art.

Imagine you're walking through a tropical landscape. You see small creatures hiding beneath palm trees. Just stop and notice them. Then look up. The trees begin to open into a beautiful celestial sky.

The sky stretches endlessly above you. The water is almost perfectly still. You walk into the ocean.

You submerge yourself and you float.
Look up.
The sky is above you.
The water is beneath you.

There's nothing else.

You hear the waves. Maybe you hear the shells gently tapping against one another as the water moves them across the sand.

Somewhere in that moment you feel connected to someone you whose influence is still with you.

CLOSING

That's what this project has given me. A way to pause, a way to remember, a way to feel connected across time. My grandfather, Robert George Etienne, passed away in 2024, two years ago, but his creativity...

It lives on in the paintings he left behind.

I've learned so much from recreating his work; about composition, color, observation, and most importantly, imagination.

That's the beauty of creativity.
We don't have to create the same way.
We can take what someone gave us and make it our own.

So, Grandpa, thank you. Thank you for the inspiration.
After all these years, you're still teaching me how to stretch my imagination.
Love you, grandpa. Thank you.