Before for the Lifeguard Trials, 4×6″
The best way to start the day is an early morning walk on the beach in Santa Monica. I love the wonderful air, the sounds and scents of the sea and the damp sand on bare feet for miles. My son, his girlfriend, their dog and I drove down there to visit my mom a few weeks ago.
After the Lifeguard Trials swim, lining up at the pier, 4×6″
We stayed at a motel two blocks from the beach so that each morning I could get out and walk the beach. One day they were holding lifeguard trials with hundreds of people lined up on the shore, all wearing green bathing caps, ready to try out for the first round of trials. After the big swim they lined up again at the pier.
Santa Monica Morning Beach Walk, ink & watercolor, 4×6″
My mother grew up in a house half a block from the beach. It would still be in our family if the city hadn’t claimed eminent domain to build fancy high-rise apartments and forced my grandparents out. Their wonderful old house had a great front porch and a backyard that was mostly sand. I always loved visiting them and spending the day at the beach. My grandparents fought the city as long as they could until their house was one of the last standing. Finally they moved about a mile from the beach to the house where my mother lives now.
Although I don’t care for the stereotypical L.A. lifestyle which is all about appearances and money, I miss the southern California beaches where I grew up. Northern California beaches are beautiful but they’re just not the same: rocky, cold, windy and foggy.
I love these sketches capturing a different aspect of beach life. It’s too bad about your family home
but I hope you had a great trip.
It was a lovely trip, made even more so by traveling with my son and his girlfriend. Lots of good laughs and together time. Jana
Wonderful ocean sensations captured in your drawings. How lovely that you could spend the time near the places of your memories, sad the loss of your grandparents house, but lovely at least to revisit their home in thought.
I lived at the next beach down (in Venice, CA) when I went to college, also just half a block from the beach. It was great to do my studying on the beach though I probably would have done more if I lived inland! Jana