Seascape Artist

I’m planning ahead of what I need to take to the beach this summer. I sunburn easily and there is always wind at the beach so it is best to be prepared. Lotion and lip balm are necessary ingredients to a happy plein air painter in the summer heat and beach breezes. It is very important to be comfortable when painting at the beach - it is easy to get over-heated and ill if you do not plan ahead for shelter, water and shade here in Texas at the Gulf of Mexico.

I’m planning on taking my grandson and the dog at least once this summer to the beach … on the surface that doesn’t sound like a trip for painting does it?

Watercolor pencils are the secret for me - my grandson loves to use them too so we will both be sketching and painting out there at the beach. Yes we are going to fly kites too but with a 10 year old and a dog … we are not going to do that all day … there will be plenty of time to sit, rest, drink chilled water and paint in the shade as well as collect seashells from the sand at the edge of the water and fly those kites. I want this outing to be something that he & I will remember the rest of our lives as having a great time together.

The Gulf of Mexico is not water I want to get into but it is fun to dance with the tide - for me, that means staying just out of the water but seeing how close I can get without actually getting in it. I do not swim, so my grandson is not going to be allowed to go in the water anyway on a trip to the beach with me. No floats or pool toys either … I’ve seen people with them but those could be really dangerous - if the current or wind caught one, you could be out to sea rather quickly!

Since I’m taking both of them, I have been thinking about how best to give us some shade protection spending time there at the beach so we do not get roasted like lobsters and can get out of the sun when we need some relief from the sun/water glare - yes we are taking sunglasses and probably beach hats too but the glare in the afternoon especially can be horrendous in spite of wearing hats or sunglasses. I saw an ad in the newspaper for those portable shelters .. looks like it would cover a really large area and be hard for one grandma and her grandson to get it up and down easily at the beach. I was looking and over at Sunfitters, I saw the really pretty 6.5-ft. Sandblaster Instant Install Beach Umbrella (it’s in rainbow colors - that wouldn’t bother me but it might bother some people) and I also saw the most adorable shelter / tent - Portable 9-ft. Sun Shelter with SPF 50 Protection - I’m thinking I should show it to my daughter too - maybe she would like to get one for their trips to the park or fishing on the bayou behind their home - it looks very portable and easy to setup - maybe it would work for football practices and football games for them this fall too.

I really like the Welo Silk Sarong Pareo Beach Cover Up - it is gorgeous! I could hang it on the wall at home as a wall hanging if I didn’t want to ruin it wearing it at the beach in al the gritty sand … LOL … and yes I know I need to get us some beach towels too - I like both the Snorkeling Turtle and the Clown Fish beach towels. Very colorful!

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Yesterday (Saturday, April 28, 2007) was the Texas Adopt-A-Beach community effort to keep Texas beaches clean. The program is a joint effort of Texas General Land Office and a local TV station, KHOU though it is a statewide program and many other local TV stations are also involved in the effort. KHOU was going to Galveston to help cleanup the beach and also publicize not only the event but how important it is to keep our beaches clean.

Anyone who has been to the beach knows just how glorious it is to be there … the wind … the water … the sun … the dolphins swimming and jumping and playing … the swimmers … the sunbathers … the kite flyers … the sailboats … the wind surfers … the sea surfers … the hang and kite gliders on high wind days … but also just how dirty, filthy and full of litter and trash the beach can get from beach visitors but also from ships throwing out their trash at sea to wash up ashore somewhere.

Galveston used to send out crews to clean up the beach and sweep the sand on a daily morning basis (I lived in Galveston for awhile several years ago and am an early morning riser that LOVED to go walk along the beach drinking coffee and taking pictures, I saw the crews and machinery in the mornings beginning around daybreak & on into the day in different places) so it wouldn’t be like that too much for the tourists in the high volume gathering areas of the beach off the Seawall … but even it gets full of trash quickly from people who are too lazy to get up and walk a few feet to the trash barrels with their garbage. The worst though to me from people in person leaving their trash is the broken bottles! Broken glass at the beach means anyone going barefoot … and what child at the beach doesn’t want to go barefoot and get their toes in the sand … cuts and maybe stitches and possibly shots for tetanus and a lot of pain. Just because someone brought glass to the beach. Plastic soda bottles and beer cans are a better choice than glass bottles … not much … they too can hurt someone easily but not like the damage broken glass can do to an un-wary person or toddler.

One of my favorite activities at the beach besides sitting in the shade (under an umbrella) sketching is to walk along and collect seashells … my other most favorite thing to do at the beach is to fly kites! I’m from Iowa … mostly the only time of year it was windy enough to seriously fly kites is in March when it is still rather chilly and sometimes even into April … I love to fly kites! The first time I went to the beach in Galveston … there were a gazillion people flying kites at the beach! You can fly kites almost all the time at the beach in Galveston! The wind is enough - I bought a kite and flew that kite for several hours! It was a glorious time in spite of the nasty sun and wind burn I got - I bought a dragon shaped kite with a great tail on it and took it back to Iowa for my son - he hung it up in his room … it was a costly kite - before going to Galveston, I’d only ever had the cheap paper kites available at the local dimestore that were a bear to get the sticks in the right places and the paper would tear if you looked at it wrongly (those are plastic these days - still a pain but the plastic doesn’t shred just looking at it when trying to insert the sticks) …. it was an annual nightmare that one looked forward to the joy of watching that kite fly in the sky and nose dive into trees … yeah … I’ve lost many kites to the trees over the years … but it was always so much fun to watch those kites spiraling and spinning and being colorful specks in the sky and knowing I had that kite by the string.

I’d also never been in a kite shop before - that was a wonderful experience - it was divine to just see all those kites hung up and spread out - colorful … ready to go fly free in the wind … I suddenly discovered that kites were not all those junky mess nightmares that were all I had ever seen before. I was ruined for those for the rest of my life … when I go fly a kite at the beach … I want a spectacular kite flying machine! And ya need a lot of string down here to fly kites … they do not just go up a few feet and that is all … they can go really high!

If you do not want to fly kites yourself at the beach … take a camera and capture the people that are … and your sketchbook to on-site get the movements … air … wind … flight … color … joy … those will make spectacular seascape paintings that are not the “expected” marketplace for sale painting. Or if you get lucky … find a beach where the hot air ballons fly over it … or a lake that you can turn into a beach scene with the balloons for your painting. Or just a backyard watergarden fountain with balloons … explore new ideas with beach scenes.

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Viking Ship Kite $23.59 Hot Air Balloon w/Twist in Stars and Stripes 41" $25.99 Pirate Ship Kite $23.59 Swallowtail Butterfly Kite $18.99 30 ft. Rainbow of Butterflies Dragon Kite $19.79 11′ Delta Kite - Patriotic USA Colors $99.00 40" Hibiscus Windsock $18.99 150 lb Test Braided Polyester x 500 ft. on Yo-Yo Winder $13.95 40" Labrador Retrievers Windsock $16.99 30 ft. Patriotic Dragon Kite $19.79 40" Merry Monarch Butterfly Windsock $16.99 6.5 ft Wind Generator Patriotic $94.99

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In Galveston, to get to the Island, you have to cross the Causeway - they are rebuilding it right now - I don’t know if it is done yet or not since it has been awhile since I’ve been there. A bridge across waterways is always an exciting visual to me - I find it amazing that people can build bridges that span vast amounts of water. In Iowa, there was a mile long bridge spanning a lake … it was one of my favorite places to drive though the wind driving across it any time of the year could catch you unaware and blow your car into the side of the bridge if you weren’t paying attention. It was a great view of the water though and the Causeway going over to the Island has wonderful views of the Gulf if you are not the driver having to pay attention to the road and your driving. It would be worth it to me to hire a limo just to drive me back and forth across the Causeway a few times to see the view! It’s an up close and personal but aerial view that is much different than being sea level seeing it. Both are wonderful .. but then I love bridges and find them to be some of my favorite architecture - I even like to see freeway over-pass bridges - they are a marvel to me too.

I do not advise flying kites around bridges or electric power lines … stay away from those and enjoy your day at the beach that might start with driving over a bridge to get there and then flying kites or just sketching people flying kites at the beach.

If you are lucky enough to have a beach house and live at or even just close to the beach (or a gorgeous lake) … it can get easy to overlook new ways to portray the ocean (lake) in your paintings … we people have a tendency to get ourselves into ruts and habits and do the same thing over and over - if you live close to the sea (land-locked water too) … get some new lawn beach outdoor furniture in bright colors or paint the old furniture out there … then paint the scene adding some windsocks and/or a kite or perhaps a festival of hot air balloons - when we put some sparkle in our lives - we put sparkle back into our paintings!