Saltwater Dreams

Saltwater Dreams, 2011
7 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches, soft pastel on  blue Canson Mi-Teintes

It's mid January, and winter is finally behaving as it should.  Cold days, colder nights, the promise of snow (although we've been extremely lucky here in Ottawa as the major storms seem to have bypassed us, unlike our neighbours all around us).

The perfect time to sit in the studio under bright lights, listening to music and dreaming of warm seaside beaches ...... and sketching them, of course!

This is the second in my Gull Series  - studies of gulls on the beach at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, which I visited twice, back in 2006 and 2007.  And of course I took hundreds of photos of the gulls, which were in no way intimidated by all the activities going on. The gulls shared the beach with the surfers, walkers, talkers, trucks (yes, they allow trucks on the beach), and cormorants.  Good memories, good fun. 

If you can't go to someplace warm, the next best thing is remembering, and putting it down on paper.

Only 64 more days till Spring!