Seaside

I saw Rae's post on Facebook today, with some great photos of the beach, and she commented that it was good when visiting friends "forced" her to go there, because she took it so for granted that she could go any time that she never actually goes. I think all of us in Los Angeles are spoiled like that, and think gloatingly about how we can get to the beach, the mountains, or the desert in a very short period of time, without actually ever getting in the car and doing it.

Why not? Oh, part of it is standard lethargy, I'm sure, and the rest of it is purely traffic-related. With no congestion on a Sunday morning, I can make it to Santa Monica or Venice Beach from my house in the Valley in about 20 minutes (yeah, I drive fast), which is only right, because it's only about 15 miles. But around 3:00, when we all suddenly realize we've had enough sun for the day and start thinking about barbecuing in the back yard as the sun goes down, that freeway trip can take an hour, and a lot longer if anything untoward happens (a fender-bender, a blow-out, or something worse), which it almost always does, the odds of millions of people having a perfect trip being pretty low. And there's nothing that ruins a great day at the beach more than sitting, sweaty, sandy, and pissed off, in a hot car for an hour. So, we put it off to another day, another weekend, next month, and before you know it, another summer has passed with no trips to the beach.

Of course those of us who paint can take that trip by recreating it on paper. Not really—there's no lovely exchange of ions from sitting in the charged sea breeze—but being "in the zone" while you are intent on painting is an escape in its own way. I started this painting at 5:30, and when I finally put the last stroke of crimson on that pavilion roof, I was amazed to see that it's already almost 7:30 and my cat is sitting outside my window nagging me to come and feed her!

DAY 28: PIER KIDS

#30x30DirectWatercolor2019

In the sketchbook...