Wender·Vista
Moyenne Island
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileSeychelles
in the Sainte Anne Marine Park, off Mahé

Moyenne Island

— the island one man taught back to life.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A small granite islet of about 25 acres in the Sainte Anne Marine National Park, roughly four kilometres east of Victoria. The Yorkshire newspaper editor Brendon Grimshaw bought it in 1962 for £8,000 and spent five decades replanting it with native hardwoods and rehoming Aldabra giant tortoises. He died there in 2012. The island is now its own national park, reached by short boat from Eden Island marina on Mahé.

from the studio
Moyenne Island
— bring it home

Moyenne Island, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Moyenne Island

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Moyenne Island is a small granite islet of about 25 acres in the Sainte Anne Marine National Park, roughly four kilometres east of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. In 1962, the Yorkshire-born newspaper editor Brendon Grimshaw bought the island, then abandoned and overgrown. Over the next fifty years he and his Seychellois co-worker René Lafortune cleared paths, planted some sixteen thousand trees, and built a small home above the western cove. After Grimshaw's death in 2012 the island was gazetted as Moyenne Island National Park.

— the visit

Day trips run from Eden Island marina on Mahé and take about twenty minutes by motorboat. Most visitors arrive as part of a Sainte Anne Marine Park tour, which combines snorkelling stops with a guided walk on Moyenne and a Creole lunch. A small national park fee supports upkeep. The marked loop trail takes under an hour and passes Grimshaw's grave, his cottage, and several free-roaming Aldabra giant tortoises that he relocated to the island from other parts of the Seychelles.

— the silence

Grimshaw lived alone on Moyenne for most of his five decades there, refusing offers reported to reach fifty million dollars from developers who wanted the island for a resort. He preferred the company of the tortoises and the trees he and Lafortune had planted by hand. The 2009 documentary A Grain of Sand records his account of why. Outside the brief midday window when tour boats anchor in the cove, the island holds a quiet that is rare anywhere in the western Indian Ocean.

— informed by Wikipedia
— where
Seychelles · Sainte Anne Marine National Park, Seychelles
— within
Moyenne Island National Park
— position
-4.6175° S · 55.4889° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km E
Sainte Anne Island
island
2 km S
Cerf Island
island
1 km S
Round Island
islet
4 km W
Victoria
capital
N
Moyenne Island
Sainte Anne Island
Cerf Island
Round Island
Victoria
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Moyenne Island — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

In Sainte Anne Marine National Park, about four kilometres east of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles. It is reached by short motorboat from Eden Island marina on Mahé.

A Yorkshire newspaper editor who bought Moyenne in 1962 for £8,000 and spent fifty years restoring its forest and bringing in Aldabra giant tortoises. He died on the island in 2012.

Around a hundred Aldabra giant tortoises live on the island, several brought as adults from other Seychelles islands. Grimshaw and René Lafortune kept individual records of each one.

Yes. Moyenne Island National Park was gazetted in 2008 in line with Grimshaw's wishes, and is often described as the smallest national park in the world at roughly 25 acres.

No. Moyenne is a day-visit national park. The original cottage is preserved as it was during Grimshaw's life and is not let to visitors. Tours return to Mahé in the late afternoon.

He and Lafortune planted around sixteen thousand trees, including native takamaka, badamier, and palms, restoring the canopy after decades of neglect had left the island stripped to scrub.

— about the piece in your home

It travels well as a quiet token for someone who has visited Mahé or who lived in the islands. A Small with a handwritten note from the studio is the most-chosen size for this piece.

The greens and Indian Ocean blues read well against coastal-modern rooms, Japandi interiors, or a sun-warmed reading nook. The piece sits quietly and pairs with rattan, linen, and pale wood.

Yes. Biophilic interiors favour images of restored ecosystems and native plant life, and Moyenne, replanted by hand over fifty years, is exactly that story rendered in colour.

A single Large reads as one strong image above a sofa. For a wider wall, a four-tile Mural opens the room; a nine-tile Mural carries a long stair landing or hallway.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and hold up to humidity, splashes, and routine cleaning in a bathroom, kitchen backsplash, or laundry.

A dry or barely damp microfibre cloth and plain water. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath the finish, so the piece never needs polish or glass cleaner.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to the studio and painted by Reid Wender. Nothing in the atlas is licensed from a third party, and no two places share the same image.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.