Postcards in the Air : ALONG THE BEACH

Friday, June 16, 2023

ALONG THE BEACH

Plein Aire painters spend time outdoors in all kinds of weather catching the right kind of light, the shadows that change as the day progresses, and the feel of the air, whether it's sunny, foggy, rainy, or windy. They try to capture both what they see and what they feel. I can sit in the shade on a patio for a while and draw in my sketchbook, but I haven't learned to sit for hours outside in all kinds of weather to become a Plein Aire painter. I prefer to take a photo and paint in my workroom without the distractions of passersby or the weather creating havoc with my painting tools.

Bill and I spent some time recently in Pacific Grove walking along the beach, watching the waves breaking against the rocks, and photographing the lighthouse that unlike most is far from shore. The Point Pinos lighthouse is one of seven along the California coast. It is still operational and worth a visit. The current lighthouse keeper is one of the three female keepers throughout its history. The lighthouse keeper no longer lives on the premises as the light is fully automated, but I was impressed to learn that the lighthouse had been tended by women in different eras.

This photo shows how far away the lighthouse is from shore.
Can you see it between the fence posts?

We come to this part of the coast often. It's a good place to photograph and discover interesting items that have washed up on the beach. I look for textures and take photos of the detritus strewn across the sand. In my photo file, I have a large collection of similar pictures from various places. I think they will make a good watercolor someday. Once I'm home, I realize the image doesn't have enough value contrast and the detail of the flotsam would be tiresome to draw. My attention span isn't long enough, and the photo turns out to be the best way to showcase what I saw. Somewhere in my work though, the textures I've gleaned from these images will appear in my paintings.

This time as we walked we came across small, round, flat, and transparent beings called velella velella scattered across the beach. Each one has a sail-like structure attached to a darker, flat disc. They normally sail around the ocean, but in spring or fall with a hard wind, end up on beaches along the coast. They are hydroid polyps, not jellyfish, but they still sting. They are beautiful too.

Pacific Grove on the Monterey peninsula is full of history. It is a small beach town that used to be a summer meeting place for church camps. Many of the small houses display plaques at their entrance to show who used to live there. Pacific Grove is also the resting place for monarch butterflies that migrate there from Mexico every year. We discovered Lucy's on Lighthouse, a new place for us, among the good restaurants and cafes in Pacific Grove. We loved their Affogato Milkshakes. Lucy's is a fun reminder of beach towns and surfing along the California coast. Though I've never been on a surfboard, I couldn't help humming "Let's Go Surfing Now, Everybody's Learning How...."