Reddawn Rising

Posted September 22, 2025

In Fall 2025, Features

The Outer Banks’ Shining Impressionist

by Jojo M. Tilley | Images courtesy of Reddawn Designs

We’re walking in the bright lounge area of Ashley’s Espresso Parlor when the paintings on the wall immediately draw our eye. They’re beautiful — brilliantly colored; a palette brought to life on canvases known throughout the Outer Banks. The artist in question, Dawn Gray Moraga (aka, Reddawn Designs) immediately greets us with a broad grin, stepping up from her easel and tray with paint on her fingers. She’s just finished talking to two other locals and welcomes us to the table right next to her painting station, insisting upon getting coffee for us. To my surprise, she goes behind the bar, laughing with the other baristas and making the drinks with motions that can only be described as instinctual. The coffee is delicious — as it always is — and she sips her own as her chin falls into her hand, red hair nearly golden in the lights of her studio.

Dawn has multiple studios on the Outer Banks. She has one in Kitty Hawk, one on Palmetto Street, and one in Ashley’s Espresso Parlour. The latter studio is one of her favorite places, not only to paint, but just to spend time, especially as locals come in to get their drinks. She knows everyone, even when she’s not working part-time behind the bar. Every five minutes or so, someone comes to greet her, to which she always reciprocates with a smile and a handshake. Everyone seems to appreciate the energy that she carries — one of kindness and generosity that knows no bounds.

A painting of the exterior of Ashley’s Espresso Parlour on Helga Street in KDH, where you’ll often see Dawn creating.

She knows the locals so well for a plethora of reasons — one of which being the amount of time she’s spent on the Outer Banks. “I can’t believe I’ve been here for over twenty years,” she remarks, her expression bright. Born in Franklin County, she moved to the Outer Banks in 2002, after leaving Averett University in Danville, Virginia.

“I attended for two years, and said I was going to leave just for the summer, but…I never came back,” she laughs. She notes that she changed majors a lot, and, while she loved learning, she just couldn’t justify the money she spent on classes. Art, poetry and horses were her passions, but she realized that she could do all of it without having to go to school for it.

“Art has always been it for me,” she muses. “I can’t remember ever not doing art.” Her grandfather had been a painter for his career, and sometimes she thinks that she got the knack for it partially from him. She recalls that she’d get in trouble for drawing in her classes, whether it was her favorite animals — horses — or the cows she saw in books. “I used to sell the drawings at lunch for 25 cents,” she laughs. “Clearly I had the right idea when I was younger.”

Since her early days of hocking pencil sketches, Dawn’s skills as a painter have only gotten better. She’s well-known on the beach for her beautiful murals, which can be seen in Dowdy Park and at Ashley’s Espresso Parlor. She’s currently working on another one in Duck, beautifying one of the iconic horse statues that populate the area. Only a few weeks ago, she painted over 18 pieces in 35 days — a record that she broke for her most recent art show for The Duck Gallery.

“It was wonderful,” she says. “A lot of older people came, and told stories about the places that I’d painted, since a few of them had been lost to time or renovations.”

Reddawn’s painting of an old beach house on the dunes. The shutters are characteristic of the older houses on the Outer Banks.

When asked about her favorite artists and influences, she doesn’t go for the traditional answers that some would expect — but they come to her instantly regardless.

“Wolfgang Bloch is a friend of mine, out in California,” she says. “He inspires me so much, every day. Locally, though, Willow Temple…she inspires me just with her presence.”

Wolfgang Bloch was born in Ecuador and is best known for his impressionist pieces of seascapes. They are dark — moody — which is what Dawn enjoys most about her own work, as well. Their brushstrokes and horizon-focused painting styles call upon one another beautifully. Willow Temple is another artist local to the Outer Banks who focuses on the ocean as her main inspiration. Her work is impressionistic in nature, dabbling farther into the wonderfully abstract.

Upon asking her about her favorite piece that she’s done, she excuses herself, leaning down to procure a print titled Pool Party at Sea Foam Motel. It’s beautiful — an impressionist piece with over a dozen people, both on the outskirts of the pool and swimming inside of it. She names every single person that she painted in the picture, all Outer Banks locals who passed away too soon. She knows almost every person that she painted, pointing them out with fondness. She says that she wanted to select characters, people who were important to the area and who continued on the legacy of the beach. “I wanted to add artists, musicians, and weirdos,” she giggles. “People who understood the truth of the Outer Banks, who understood its beauty.”

Dawn’s painting of the exterior of Awful Arthur’s Oyster Bar on the Beach Road in KDH.

On top of her more traditional paintings, however, Dawn is known for another medium — paintings on surfboards.

“The process is totally different, and I love it,” she exclaims. “Because you just can’t make mistakes on a surfboard.”

Eagerly, she shows photos of the various surfboards she’s done. Her paintings aren’t just tiny doodles or patterns — they are full murals, on the bottom of each board. One that catches the eye is a self-portrait of her as a centaur.

“This is probably my favorite one that I’ve done,” she laughs. “I wanted that cheesy, almost ‘80s music video feel to it. It’s so exciting, because each board is really unique — you can’t make prints off of surfboards and sell them in other places. Most of my stuff on them is abstract and spur-of-the-moment.”

Dawn seems to identify a lot with that aspect of painting, though, and finds that her work is less calculated and more instinctual. She does what she feels and lets the subjects of the art come to her — rather than seeking them out. This rings true for the way she describes her work, as well. Where once she’d been assigned the title of “coastal modern impressionism”, she now likes “coastal impressionistic surrealism”. This is evident in her work, with the usage of blocking and colors in stunning Outer Banks sunsets and with the many pieces depicting the community’s architecture, dotting the coastline for decades.

Her colors may be the most recognizable part of her work. Saturated and blending beautifully, they are immediately eye-catching when you step into a gallery or retail shop with her work displayed.

“It’s almost frustrating, actually,” she says, a smile on her face, “when I want to tone it down, because I find that I really can’t. The colors just come so naturally to me.”

Her paintings haven’t always been this way, though. When going through a separation in the early 2010s, she found that her pieces became much darker — almost haunted. Talking about this era of her life, she turns and gestures to a painting up on the wall behind her. The painting is of a woman, holding an anatomically correct heart in her hands — shrouded almost entirely in shadows. She gestures to another painting, as well — one she did after her grandmother passed away. It’s of a woman with a cardinal on her head, in a matching red dress, with a ball and a chain attached to her foot.

Dawn’s knack for capturing Outer Banks’ architecture enables her to create vivid, customized cottage portraits, at an affordable price. We encourage property owners to reach out to her for a quote: (252) 347-8956; reddawnmoraga@gmail.com; Reddawndesigns.com

“It really just comes out of me,” she says. “It doesn’t take me long to paint these pieces…not at all.”

Documenting social and cultural shifts is not something that Dawn is afraid of. Her paintings depict the ever-changing landscape of the Outer Banks — especially the buildings that seem to go up and down every few years. In her portfolio are restaurants that locals lament; gift shops with beloved owners; and cottages painted in colors that catch her eye. Her work doesn’t mind being satirical, either. She collects a few prints from the table and fans them out, the laminate twinkling in the light. As they’re perused, it’s easy to see that they have one thing in common — candy.

“Locals are always talking about how the candy stores have just…taken over the beach,” she says, pointing to the middle piece, which depicts two children standing in front of a massive landscape titled Candyland. “I’ve noticed it, too, and so it’s appeared in my work.”

Paintings — on canvases, wood grain, and surfboards alike — aren’t the only type of art that she does. She’s also in an Outer Banks-based band, called Cor De Lux; a direct translation in Latin for heart of light. Dawn is the lead vocalist and guitarist, alongside Tim Lusk, lead guitarist, John Bliven, bass, and Dana Quinn, drums. They’ve released two albums, titled Dream Life, released in 2020, and MEDIA, released in 2023, along with several singles. Dawn’s enchanting voice carries the tracks almost as much as the synth tones and post-punk angst.

Of course, one has to ask the burning question — no pun intended — about Dawn’s business name. At the inquiry, she giggles, and almost subconsciously runs a hand through her hair, partly tied up to keep it out of her eyes while she paints.

“Well, my name when I came to the beach was Dawn Gray,” she says. “But people started just…calling me Red, Reddawn, because of my hair.”

Her hair glints almost as bright as her smile as she returns to her newest piece — a bright green Luna moth, spanned out over magenta flowers. A staple within the Outer Banks artist community, Reddawn will continue to paint, finding joy in the act of creation more than anything else.