Monday 16 August 2010

Beach collecting


Last Thursday we went for a walk on one of the local beaches. This one is fifteen minutes by car from my village. It has a long sandy beach and sand dunes, now owned by the National Trust. The tide was coming in and although the sky looks stormy it was a beautiful bright day. I love it here and take along a bag to collect beach treasures. We walked for over an hour and on our return this photograph shows the tide line on the right where the sea water reached, covering this huge sandy estuary.
The sea washes up hundreds of little shells and sea weed. It was like a "pick and mix" version of
the sweet shop, so many to choose. I arrived home with shells, seaweed, feathers, a mermaids purse, rope and a sycamore seed. On Sunday I sorted and washed them all. This is what I selected for my page. I decided to use my acrylic inks, exploring the colour mixes, as I sat on a cushion outside in the sunshine. After about four hours, a huge red insect bite, an overturned water, ink drying too quickly, a lovely ice cream.......this was the result. Hope you like it.
Thank you for your lovely comments. My next blog is my 100th.....a giveaway coming.

13 comments:

Windsongs and Wordhoards said...

Beautiful sea treasures, beautifully painted... :)

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

Really lovely Milly, I like the light you have used both for the artwork and photo.

Stunning seascape photo - what a wonderful place - love the drama of the clouds and mountains! x

Susan Scheid (Raining Acorns) said...

Yet another beautiful painting from you! The photograph of the beach is gorgeous as well. So lovely to end my first workday back from vacation with your finds made into glorious art! Thanks for stopping by RA and leaving a note, too.

Pondside said...

I collected treasures from the beach on the weekend, too. Mine are destined for the garden - yours are beautiful and forever.

Ralph said...

I loved to read your blog and liked very much the paintings of your collection of shells. The beach and sea deserves to be painted also. I will follow your blog with interest

Frances said...

Hello Milla.

What a marvelous day to be strolling along that beach, and doing some treasure hunting.

Your findings certainly were varied and made wonderful subjects for your drawings. It's great that you were able to withstand insects, spilled water, fast-drying inks ... the resulting page in your book is so richly observed. Perhaps I have asked you this before ... am I correct in thinking that you do date these pages?

My last walk in Central Park really provided mainly exercise. I did not take my camera, but did try to remember one strange little end of season floral/seed pod explosion I saw along my walk. Since it was still attatched to its roots, I took no souvenir.

It was fun to come home and do my memory drawing ... it does have some of the quality of what I saw, but I freely admit that nature's version was much more beautiful.

xo

Jill said...

I love your page, your work is always so inspirational.

Ann said...

Beautiful drawings of such wonderful treasures from the sea. How I envy your nearby beach!

Carolina said...

Hi again :)
I love how you make these wonderful selections and compositions. You touch our hearts with them, do you know? I love your art.
Un gran abrazo,
Carolina

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

A beautiful post. Love your seaside finds and your painting. Perfect

Carolyn

Ruthie Redden said...

Milly, i love the idea of the "pick & mix" seashore, a perfect description, we always take a bag along for treasures too.

ELFI said...

j'aime beaucoup!

Marva Plummer-Bruno said...

Oh I would love to live close to a beach!!! You're so lucky!