beach plein air

I always have high hopes for doing a plein air sketch or two but it rarely works out on these beach trips. However, this time I took along a pack of watercolor postcards and a small sketching kit in addition to my usual sketchbook and watercolor set.

One overcast morning we drove over to the sound side of the island and I brought this small kit and postcards along. While the professor and Kiddo were walking with the dogs and looking for shells I sat on a bench and quickly sketched two views of St Helena sound.

That afternoon the clouds cleared and I brought the same little kit along when we headed down to the beach. I sat on a towel in the sand, with a dog on either side of me, and did two more quick sketches of the ocean while the Professor and Kiddo played in the surf and did more shell seeking.

I had to sketch quickly because the dogs are rarely still for long. They dig in the sand flinging it onto anyone or anything that happens to be in the way. They get excited if someone happens by. They lay their wet, sandy selves across my towel, my legs, my stuff.

So it takes a certain resolve on my part to attempt sketching at the beach. And no concern for the outcome of the sketches. I did manage to find a way by using the little postcards and a small kit that easily fit into our beach bag.

This is my mini sketch kit. It all fits into a plastic pencil box. Not a big deal if sand gets inside, which it did. And on the last postcard above, I added some of the white foamy bits with a white gel pen, not pictured here. I am planning to paste these postcards into my sketchbook as a way to save the sketches, and the memory of doing them, from that day at the beach.