Just absolutely bonkers about this black paper. I'm having so much fun with it! Tomorrow I have to go back for part 2 of the oral surgery event, so I'll be getting absolutely nothing done for a couple of days. I'll have to pack this day as full as I can!

9x12 inch 23x30 cm Strathmore black paper, colored pencil, and white ink.

the Bay and the Sea

Assawoman Bay, Chesapeake Bay at Calvert Cliffs, and the Atlantic Ocean at Fenwick, Delware and Ocean City, Maryland.

   It took me forever to figure out how to paint water, but once I got the hang of it (brown - so much more brown than you’d think) it was fun. Calvert Cliffs erode constantly, and the area around them is very silty and full of fossils.

   Ocean City, Maryland.

   So. Disability accommodations. My vision is around 20/400. For reference, this works more or less as “The amount of detail that “normal” eyes can see at 400 feet is the same amount that I can see at 20 feet.” My vision is TERRIBLE.  Since it is not a good idea to swim with your glasses on (and contacts mixed with salt water and sunscreen turns out to be a Very Bad idea) I just swim blind. Not a problem in the water. Big problem when I have to return to land and find our spot on the beach.

   My husband’s family likes going to the beach en masse. We have as many as 25 people grouped together. Years ago when he first took me with him on vacation, before we even married, they all noticed me coming out of the water and squinting hopelessly around. Next thing I know, they all started waving their arms over their heads. Even I can see that kind of big movement. So I can find my way back to my towel, and nobody ever so much as mentions it. They just - spotted the problem, and spontaneously accommodated me. It should - always be that easy.

(Ok, just for fun I looked up more info on the 20/20 scale for vision. Turns out I’m legally blind! hurrah.)

   There were some very small, nocturnal dudes. They are surprisingly calm about being picked up gently.

[ID: A tiny crab perched on a teenager’s thumb, with sand in the background.]

   Years ago my daughter and I went to a bridal shower that had a beach-themed cake. We were both impressed with it, once I got over being horrified because the brown-sugar ‘sand’ looked so realistic I thought it was actual sand. So now for birthdays we often have a beach cake for her, and this year it’s cupcakes. Other than the fact that they didn’t rise properly, and got crumbly around the edges*, they turned out very pretty. I don’t do a lot of decorative-type stuff with cooking; usually of I get it on the table on time and tasting good that is my only concern. Now and then, though, it’s fun to get a little fancy.

[ID: A pan full of cupcakes with blue and white swirled icing, swedish fish candies, blue and white sprinkles, little star(fish), and candy pearls.]

* And I was using a box mix - what the heck happened?

   A small trio of drawings I did to cheer myself up. We visit Ocean City, Maryland most summers, and I have never made the time to draw or paint plein air, but I enjoy working from photos later on. It was my first time trying soft pastels, and they seemed awfully chalky. I expected a ‘buttery-er’ feel and less dust. Live and learn!

My daughter asked for ‘beach cake’ for her birthday. This calls for blue icing, brown-sugar-sand, white icing wavetops, and as many colorful sprinkles and tiny sugar pearls as possible. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Then my son asked me to add a shark.

   Roughly life-size still life drawing from our vacation. Trying to figure out what color the shadows are on a white or cream colored object makes me nuts, and shells are really tough. The more I stared into the opening on that broken shell, the less I felt like I had any perception of color at all. It was cream on the outside and - not gray - not brown - not blue - something darker than cream on the inside. I compromised on a warm gray, but it’s a lie. The orange inside of the large whelk was fun, though. And drawing spirals from different angles is a great challenge any day.

   It’s hard to leave a farm and go on vacation. Event with a house sitter, you worry about your animals. We’re home, now, though, and it’s time to get back out into the garden and do battle with the weeds again. We have the first cukes and squash!

We spent a week at the beach, mostly in Maryland but also a trip to Fenwick State park in Delaware - and it is beautiful!

One more Ocean City painting. These long, odd tide pools halfway up the beach are an unusual occurrence in sandy Ocean City. This one delighted kids and some adults all afternoon, and was still shimmering quietly in the last light of evening. Reflections are either fun or maddening to paint; occasionally both. I do love a little (9x12 inch) canvas I can complete in one sitting.

Sunrise in Ocean City, Maryland. This is a city that takes having fun very seriously. For reasons known only to digital cameras, the sky here doesn’t look as blended as the actual painting does, but it’s as close as I could get. I paint a heck of a lot of green landscapes, so blue was a nice change. In August there is a lot of canning and gardening to do, green beans and tomatoes pile up alarmingly, and a little time spent with my paints is golden.

8x16 inch oil on wood