January 1997, Angie and I went to Galveston for our 5th anniversary. It seems like a silly milestone as we come up on 31, but I remember it being such a big deal. We rented a very posh little B&B and spent the weak touring a very cold and blustery beach community.
Digging through the garage today, I found these paintings that I'd done while we were there. Whats strange is that hey are are all pastels. I painted a lot with pastels when I was younger, but I never used them when I traveled. They were just too messy and delicate.
None of these are all that great. But I did get an astronaut to sign my space shuttle drawing and some sketches I'd done and I really love this beach scene. It's so uncharacteristic of me to paint what is essentially three large stripes. I always go for stuff that's really gritty with detail. I like how the three umbrellas jus tell you it's a beach adn the two figures running... just a couple of smudges, but wow.
Another irony is that I recall nothing of the beach nor of the man and little girl fishing... but the astronaut stuff and the Bird sketches are pretty vibrant memories. The beach recalls about a dozen other beaches we've visited since. It's particularly evocative of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills where they beaches tend to be wide and empty when we visit.
After spending 25 years trying to learn to control every pixel and value, it's beginning to dawn on me just how lovely it is to paint sloppily.
Like it or not.
