Sitting on the beach this past summer I look up to see all of these gorgeous colored inner tubes coming right at me! Blowing out of control and free spirited in the wind. The sweet family next to me apologized, but they did not know it was going through my head. I was so excited by the 1 to 2 seconds experience that I pulled out my phone and asked them if we could re-create the whole scene. I explained that I am an artist and I would love to paint that scene in watercolor. They had lots of little kids with them, in particular two boys that took an interest in my interest of wanting to photograph the inter-tubes blowing down the beach. Lucky for me, these two darling boys ended up helping me take a bunch of photos using their inner tubes. We did a lot of running down the beach trying to photograph them. Then some stills came into play. The boys who were middle school age, had suggestions, too. I loved hearing their ideas of, “what if we put the floats like this… what if we stack them… how about this,” as they rearranged the floats into all different positions. I snapped away and would comment how that was a good idea, what I like about that idea and what I’m looking for in the composition. The mom of the boys in the tub following me on Instagram waiting to see the painting. The sweet boys were so excited about what was to come in the painting. They asked, “so when will you have it ready, when will it be on Instagram? We want to see it!” Oh my goodness, I hope that mom is still following me. I told the boys it was going to take me a while before I got the paintings done but for their mom to keep checking Instagram. It turns out their family is interested in art and the mom does have talent. So hopefully, I just want for the boys to see it so it will be full circle for them.
I am honored this painting was accepted into the SWS competition.
 
39"x31" framed watercolor