"Pipeline with Flowers" Triptych

“Pipeline With Flowers" Triptych (from the shore)

by Bill Braden

The Sullivan Estate commissioned this image for the centerpiece above the fireplace of the “Elvis House.”  Our clients’ directions were to have something “Powerful, North Shore, and Colorful.”  So, we chose to show the surf spot known as “Pipeline” at Ehukai (the zephyr, the water spray off  a cresting wave by the wind).  The exotic Bird of Paradise on the left and the Tiger-Claw Pendant Heliconia on the right is our best attempt at Colorful. The figures on the beach and waves give scale to the awesome size and power of the epic waves. Even form this vantage point of thirty feet or more above sea level the outside wave is higher than the horizon even from this vantage point of thirty feet or more above sea level.  From the deep sea, where whales often frolic, to the suddenly shallow reef at Pipeline, this fast transition that creates the top-to-bottom breaking waves.  In fact when you’re out in the water, there is a distinct sensation of two sea levels-- the wave is the wall between the split levels.