Christmas Eve with warm thoughts of the Beach

Its Christmas Eve and while my children do some last minute wrapping, warm thoughts of Exuma and the beaches are dancing through my head.

I have several paintings I have been working on of Stocking Island and Three Sisters Beach and I am hoping to finish them over the Christmas holidays. Some of them are almost done, just a few splashes of paint here and there. A couple of them were done as rough painting sketches while on the island, but are good enough to finish now that I see them with a clear mind.

One in particular of Three Sisters Beach was done during a really windy day in November a year ago. I had been sitting on the stone wall by the rocks near the road entrance to the beach. The waves were constant, huge noisy, exciting. The wind blew water and sand around me, on me and I loved every second of it. The energy of the stormy weather gave me energy to attempt to capture the waves in action, the clouds moving at a steady pace, were painted quickly across the top of my paper. And in the back of my mind, I am thinking I need to finish to get as much done as I can before it rains.

But smiling, feeling the strength of nature around me, it was moving, it was a total
creative artistic moment.
And then it started pouring rain and I ran for the cover of the stand in the parking lot, waiting out the rain, waiting to walk home. Home during that visit was a cozy bedroom in my friends house at the end of the beach.

So tomorrow after the unwrapping, the lazy morning of Christmas togetherness, I will head to my painting room upstairs and will give myself a gift for the holiday season.
The gift of hopefully, uninterrupted painting.

Happy New Year!x0
Joanne