In the midst of winter, I long to sketch by the sea.

 

 - from my 2022 sketch book. ©

⚓

“But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?”

Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World

Like my great-great grandfather, I find poetry in the wild waves of the sea. I find it, too, on sunny days in the  sea-foam of waves that echo the color and shape of cumulus clouds above. 

When I returned to Massachusetts from Alaska during the pandemic, I lived near Plum Island. When life’s busy work schedule granted me a few hours to pack my car with a beach chair, small cooler and art supplies, I headed to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean to sketch. 

Sketching is visual poetry. It is something I am looking forward to doing much more this summer after I relocate from the interior of Alaska to the West Coast. See some of my sketches from my 2022 sketchbook below:

 ©

No matter what time of the day or where I sat, seagulls just stood right in front of my beach chair attempting to block my view of the sea, so I added one to my drawing:

 ©

Seagulls are such posers ...

 ©

When I couldn’t make it to the beach, I packed my art supplies and trekked down a couple of streets to the riverfront walkway, found a place to sit amongst the rocks and sketched there. See below:

____

 Susan Slocum Dyer ©

In the midst of winter, I long to sketch by the sea.

⚓