South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Watercolor and Gouache. 11” x 17” watercolor paper. 2023.

Research, renderings, and swatches.

South Pacific follows the story of an American nurse stationed at a U.S. Naval base on a South Pacific island during World War II. She falls in love with a French plantation owner, but struggles to accept his mixed-racial children. We later follow a second romance, between a U.S. lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, which explores his fears of the social consequences he would face if he marries her.