It is so pretty it is almost embarrassing. I suppose to do a scene like this justice, I should paint it on a sand dollar.
Lagoon take 2
Pretty enough to paint twice. If you have an active imagination, dip your snorkel and mask into the lagoon and peek at the turtles and tropical fish.
Here is a video some honeymooners put on YouTube to help out your imagination. The trail starts at 1:47 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEEAVB1P7HU
Trail Head
Pretty place to start a hike.
A Walk in the Woods
If you have not read Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods,” let me recommend it now. It is perhaps the funniest book I have ever read, and I wonder if we are headed on our hike with equal measures of poor planning. I am packing today, tomorrow night, my dear husband and I will sleep on the trail! We probably camp and hike more than the average person, but we haven’t headed into the wilderness with every thing we need for survival on our backs much since we had children. So we have laughed as we dusted off our decades old supplies. We decided to adopt a hybrid approach between the new movement of ultra light backpacking, and the old standard approach, thus ensuring our packs will weigh a ton, but we will still be sleeping in a bag liner, and using a stuff sac filled with dirty socks as a pillow! I sawed the handle off my toothbrush, so I could take a paint brush, so if I can still lift my arms at the end of the days, I will try to do some studies.
¿cómo amaneció usted?
Buenos días, ¿cómo amaneció usted?
Good morning, how did the sun rise upon you?
Can you consider it plein air painting, if you paint through a window? We do. My youngest and I love to greet the day before dawn, and her easel is perfectly positioned to paint the sunrise, next to an east facing window. I switched the light on to take her photo, but we painted in the dim light and quiet of dawn, she at her easel, and I, set up in the windowsill.
Sand dunes sketch box
Painting plein air in the wind is tricky. I finally found a system that worked well….instead of setting up an easel which is apt to flip in a gust of wind, I sat with a little sketch box in my lap and worked on a 5″x7″ pieced of sanded paper securely taped down.
The sky allowed for an interesting study in color this afternoon. Above the dunes it was a bright, rich, almost-cobalt blue; above the water, the same sky looked almost grey compared to the deep blue-green ocean.
Fetch a pail of water
I love watching children create work. The ocean was a deep dark cerulean. Beautiful.
Meet me over the last dune
Angry Waves
This was day one at the beach…30+ mph wind, and COLD. I was freezing in a jacket, and was dry on shore, those are my crazy children playing in the water. I was hoping to plein air paint a bit, perhaps the wind will die down and I will have a chance later in the week.
The children named these waves angry waves.
Sunset on Bear Lake
I love when my day is bookended by observing nature’s light show.
paintandsimple 