With Nanny

Hello friends,

It’s amazing how fast the months roll around. Thanks for dropping by my blog. I hope you are not going stir crazy from quarantine. I know this has been a tough few months, and my heart goes out to those of you evacuated from the fires.

My hope is that I can bring a smile to your face. With this month’s painting, I hope that you can escape to the beach with me. Let’s look back at a gentler time and dream of times together by the seaside in the future.

This month’s painting is entitled “With Nanny.” It features a little girl under a parasol. Her little white dress is immaculate, complete with light blue sash. Her little kidskin boots haven’t tromped through any puddles yet.

Nanny is by her side. She, too, is dressed in white cotton lawn. Her straw hat is sensible, hair neatly tucked up and away, and her sleeves are long, so as to protect her from the broiling sun.

I couldn’t resist playing with Nanny a little bit. I let her ruffled eyelet petticoat peek out from under her sensible skirt. She sports a small beach rose at her neckline, possibly a gift from the little girl. Her wire spectacles are a bit bent on one side as the result of an untoward mishap. Nanny’s stockings and leather boots are not in pristine shape, and the gentle smile on her face suggests that the smile on the young girl’s face is not a forced one.

“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.”

— Anthony Doerr

I feel so very blessed to live by the sea. It never ceases to enchant me. We can leave our home and stroll down to the beach, masks on, of course.

It is surprising that even with quarantine the beaches are full. People are desperately needing the healing calm of the seaside. It seems as though no threats of disease can keep people away, and now the fires are chasing people from their homes. Can I blame them for needing a beach day?

I encourage you to study the details of this painting. I had so much fun with the shadows and light, the textures. There’s a man’s leg and shoe that peeks in from the left. Who is he? What are his intentions?

My hope is that, as always, the joy I get in painting and sharing my watercolors with you will encourage your own journey. I hope that you will be encouraged to find your own bliss. Take time to stop the crazy for a moment and dream, create, escape to the seaside, if only in your dreams.

Thanks for joining me again this month and for following my blog. Your kind comments have encouraged me in my journey and brought joy to my world, and I thank you for that. I send you blessings and hope for better days. Please stay safe and know that you have a friend in me. XX