My Current WIP and My First Plein Air Painting

The romantic thought of plein air painting has always appealed to me. Sitting one with nature, capturing its beauty with pigment and water…. getting bitten by bugs, fighting the wind, scared to death someone would come over and start judging my work, making comments… Fear stopped me, but this year has been extraordinarily stressful and early September is historically difficult for me (anniversary of my father’s death). This year it’s hurts a little more (a lot). See, my youngest daughter is getting married. My father never met her. Foregoing the emotional journey just know it slays me that there will be an empty chair on her special day. My husband wanted to help take the sting out of that anniversary and told me to pack up my painting supplies and drove me the 1 1/2 hour drive to Little River Canyon. He told me to pick my spot and sat with me as I painted my very first on location plein air painting. Pretty happy with the way it turned out. I did have to stop short cause we were being bitten by this pesky fly.

It’s my first, I’ll take and be glad.

My current WIP is coming along and I’m pretty happy with it’s progress. For some reason I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my work these past two pieces. I am by no means mad about it.

Every now and again something awesome…

Falls outta my paintbrush.

Today was one of those days.

The Find of a Lifetime!

Those who have known me for any length of time know I love the beach. I also love to walk the beach and have beachcombed my whole life; always looking for the treasure. When I was a pre-teen I found this:

I have NO IDEA what it is. I have been told it’s fossilized, most likely whale. (If you know or know someone who could tell me, that would be GREAT!) At any rate, I thought that would be the find of a lifetime. It may be, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. Actually I was looking for REAL TREASURE. I was born and raised on the Treasure Coast of Florida. Named for the countless Spanish Galleons that lay sunk off her shores. I grew up hearing the tales and hoping to find my little piece. It never happened. 
As my love the of the beach and all things marine grew I longed to find certain items. Shells, of course, became a love. Heck! They are freakin’ everywhere! Shark’s theeth were also my my radar.  I mean, how cool are those? But, I never could find one. Then I wanted to find the illustrious whole sand dollar. Never could find one in my youth. Not too long ago I found one on the bayside of my Florida island. I was somewhat happy with the find… it was tiny, but I took it! 

Earlier this month I was once again combing the beach with a good friend of mine. I looked down and found another sand dollar! A little bigger than the last one, but still small in comparison to the broken monsters I see regularly on the beach. My friend found SIX. At that point I have to admit, I had a little butt hurt. I have walked that beach for HOURS and never found that many at once (or even ever for that matter… not including the ones I have seen SCUBA diving or snorkeling). While we were headed back, and I was inwardly pouting, that is when I saw it….. the granddaddy of them all. The treasure I have have been searching and searching for (not the gold), but the ever evasive (from me) SHARK’S TOOTH! 

It was just sitting there all by itself on the sand. I had to do a double take and then made some pretty excited exclamations that my friend swears people 3 blocks off the beach could hear. Sadly they weren’t family friendly. (Hey! To say I was EXCITED is an understatement). My husband asked if I did the dance. Yes, I did my excited dance. 

I have done some research. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it is of the Great White family. With it being black, it is fossilized and pretty damn old. (Upwards of at least 10,000 years, so my research tells me). All I do know for 100% certainty is that is it MINE! I FOUND IT and I am so stinkin’ thrilled! 
Sadly, I had to leave my beach home and head back to the mainland. I can not wait to go back. Yeah, I know I most likely will never find another one on my beach, but that won’t stop me from trying! I can. Not. Wait.