Source: Cision.com
HAWAII, June 15, 2026 — Long before global tourism reshaped the world’s most remote destinations, artist Robert Lee Eskridge was there — preserving island life as it existed nearly a century ago: the fishermen at daybreak, the surfers poised against rolling seas, the vahine framed by mountain and lagoon.
“His art does more than depict memory; it safeguards it,” writes award-winning author and historian CJ Cook in his book, Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond. “In bringing his life to the page, I have come to understand that his paintings and prose were never separate endeavors. They were twin instruments in a single mission: to make the world more vivid, more human, and more remembered.”
A painter, writer and restless traveler whose career spanned five decades and three oceans, Eskridge produced thousands of watercolors, hundreds of oils and more than 100 illustrations for eight books, three of which he wrote.
Eskridge trained in France under the Cubist master André Lhote, absorbing the structural discipline of modernism and carrying it with him into the tropics. There, he merged Art Deco geometry with the organic rhythms of island life, creating a visual language that was both contemporary and deeply rooted in place. His four journeys to Tahiti culminated in Manga Reva: The Forgotten Islands (1931), a landmark work of Pacific art and literature that blends firsthand ethnographic insight with lyrical prose and evocative illustration.
In Hawai‘i, Eskridge emerged as a keen visual historian of daily life before statehood. His murals, watercolors and oils — depicting surfers, fishermen, paniolos and hula
dancers — capture a world in transition with empathy, clarity and respect. Ever curious and unwilling to stand still, he later expanded his palette while traveling through Brazil and Portugal, responding to new cultures with the same attentiveness that defined his island work. At every stage, Eskridge fused scholarship, adventure and humor into his art and writing. His paintings and books reveal a man of intellect and humanity — an artist who bridged continents, honored local cultures and celebrated the enduring beauty of the Pacific and beyond.
“Eskridge urged us to observe with intention and feel sincerely,” Cook writes. “Each painted stroke invited contemplation. Each story bridged worlds.”
Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond
Publisher: South Pacific Dreams Publishing
Release Date: August 11, 2026
ISBN-13: 979-8-9948266-0-7
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CJ Cook is an award-winning author and historian whose work focuses on the art, artists and cultural history of the South Pacific. His previous titles, including Tyree: Artist of the South Pacific and Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art, have earned multiple golds from the Independent Book Publishers Association.
Cook’s biography of Robert Lee Eskridge offers the most comprehensive account yet of the artist’s remarkable life and legacy. The expansive, richly illustrated volume features 509 images, including over 210 works by Eskridge.
Cook serves on the board of The Manuscript Society, an organization dedicated to preserving historical documents.
For more information, please visit www.SouthPacificDreams.com, or find the author on
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cj.cook.520054), X (@cjcook17) and Instagram (@cjcook1767).