Travelling alone through Honduras brought me to Utila, a small Caribbean island where creativity seemed to exist without permission, structure or restraint.

As a solo female traveller, I moved through the island with a heightened awareness of place. I noticed the textures, the weathered surfaces, the colours, the handmade details and the ways people had shaped their surroundings with whatever was available to them.

I walked through streets with local art painted on walls, stairways and in front of shops.

It was not just the weather, food, and people; there was a sense of life lived in simplicity and focus. The people who live here do so with intention and create beauty that reflects not just the natural surroundings but also the soul of the island.

The sea delivers the materials and the artist responds. 

I was taking a tuktuk tour around the island, and my guide suggested we stop at Scott’s Driftwood Beach. At first it looked like a lush green park with palm trees overlooking the ocean. Then I noticed the sign and a small donation box.

You will find that Utila has an honour system when it comes to accepting payment for many outdoor installations. So it's good to have some smaller bills on hand.

The artist Mark Scott transforms salt-worn wood into figures and sculptural forms without erasing the marks left by water, weather and time. Set against the palms and turquoise shoreline of Utila, the work feels inseparable from its surroundings.

I found sculptures propped on benches and kind of just set in random places. 

Much like you would expect driftwood to act, to just be where they are carried in. Whether by the ocean or human hands, these sculptures were placed in a scattered fashion. This lends to the charm of the outdoor gallery.

Materials marked by the sea were given another life. Driftwood, discarded objects and natural forms were assembled into something expressive and unexpected. 

The work retained its rawness. It did not attempt to separate itself from the landscape, but became part of it.

Utila reminded me that creativity can flourish anywhere. It does not require pristine conditions. It requires vision, curiosity and the willingness to begin with what is already in front of us.

This is something I need to remember when I am walled in my studio and staring at a canvas, obsessing over how I start this? and expecting my environment to be perfect to create. 

My month-long stay on this island did not just give me vitamin D but injected me with a new sense of creative understanding. That I do not need to place boundaries on myself but learn to break more rules and just be.

Sometimes art emerges from abundance. Sometimes it is built from fragments. In either case, it begins with the ability to see more than what is immediately visible.

Think I'm going to paint that cat.