What Place Is This?

I have lived here for many years and I have spent many days on this beach, but some times you get a day when the conditions are such that it feels like you're on the planet for the first time.

This weekend was one such day. The light was great, the wind was down and it sounded like the vacuum of space. I worked for about an hour and a half and then stopped to play some games with the snow.

Then I just took a break and watched as the late afternoon sun turned the beach into the frozen wastes of Europa or whatever the hell that moon of Jupiter is that is covered with ice. What a breathtaking variety of crazy textures the ice and sun put together.

The day before, down at the peninsula, I took some photos of ice dunes that were curled up on the shore. Great forms and textures...Henry Moore does ice sculpture.

Couple of little sketches with slabs of snow and stone dancing on the ice dunes.

This place never ceases to have a little magic for anybody who pays attention.

Gnomon and a Painting for January

Last weekend was the coldest offering of the winter. The lake has started to lock back up again with temperatures in the single digits. I spent a couple of hours working and the pleasure/pain principle was kicking in. My gloves have the fingertips missing because they've worn through and the stones were so cold, that at times my fingers were sticking to them.

But this is also the most enjoyable time to work because of the silence. The wind is down, there is no surf and the beach is empty. The cold just seems to disappear because of the focus of the moment.

I've dismantled the old stonewave down to the level where it is safe and now I'm ready to rebuild. I'll start this coming weekend to work my way upward, but in the mean time I took a few slabs out onto the ice dunes and set them up to see what they would look like. One of the stones was about 4.5 feet long and almost square in cross section. I dragged it up to the top of the highest ice dune, a newly formed cone and planted the shaft there. Against the blue sky it had a nice feel to it. I'll be curious to see if it survives the week.

Finished a second painting for January. Another in the Pattern Recognition series. Taking what I learned in Guatemala and applying it to the beach.