Phillip Island-- Day 6

Look at the tails on these seagulls, black with polka dots. Their calls are shriek and long, quite different from those back home.



One of the locals told us a recent storm washed up tree branches onto shore.
Can you see the seahorse in this log?
The colors of the sky and the ocean had a opalescent hue.



Into the Harry Potter forest, oh my!

Walking to the beach close by.
Look at this little visitor Michael found in the beach house we stayed in. It's harmless and beautiful, but I didn't get too close to it. It's called a Huntsman spider- B and I were commenting on how much it blends in with the colors of the trees there.
What a wonderful, activity filled weekend we had on Phillip Island. In this first picture from the drive along the way, I was amazed again at just how much some areas look like the east foothills I grew up in- in San Jose, California.

From A to Z: Umbrellas on Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk

I painting this while sitting on the beach in Santa Cruz, waiting for my daughter's sand soccer tournament to start. The beach was more crowded than I've ever seen, with teams from all over California converging on it. But I chose to take out the people for the day and make the beach all my (our) own. You can see a hint of the roller coaster from the boardwalk on the left.

From A to Z: Stormy Sky with Sailboats

A painting done from an art book for a class study. Everything looks so watery because it is. That's why I love to paint with watercolors.

La Selva Beach, Aptos, California

This Christmas I had lots of commissions for paintings from family, friends, and new friends. Here's one I painted for someone of the condos on La Selva Beach in Aptos, Ca. I took the photos a day after the rain fell so all of the colors were crisp and vivid. If you are wondering what kind of birds are in the sky, they're the local pelicans.