sur les plages

there are two beaches that we frequented - one with the smoothest white sand glinting with minuscule mica specks that reflect the light as brightly as mirror dust...
on this calmer shoreline the water is a crystalline pale green in the shallows and warm enough to swim in even before the heat of the summer sun...
the gentle waves offer up small shells and delicate seaweed strands and when the tide is low, patches of shiny mica bits to be mined...

in between painting, I walk with my camera in hand and with my head down coming across exquisite still-life on the undisturbed sand already perfectly pre-arranged for me to just find the right frame and shoot...

sometimes a sea god drags up serpentine algae and presents it to me proudly - the sinuous frill-edged length stretching out lazily on the sand like some flattened primeval snake...

and as the tide ebbs again, graceful swirls of seaweed mark the silvery sand like rudimentary calligraphy from an unknown aquatic race, punctuated by clusters of opalescent shells hiding secret codes...

I stain my aquarelles with colours of pure light, the moist brush-strokes quickly evaporating into the salty air...and I am in my element on this tranquil beach with so much perfection in every detail around me...

on the other beach of the côte sauvage side, a different and wilder personality emerges...

the crashing waves toss up blobs of poisonous jellyfish to sting unwary feet, but I am seduced by their lavender softness, their translucent helplessness stranded on the pebbly beach, now perhaps at the mercy of children with sticks...

the rough barnacled rockpiles on this coastline create crevices and mini pools filled with shell life and lichen blooms... and like the children, we spend hours examining such wondrously pristine displays of undisturbed marine ecosystems...

we also heave rocks to contribute to a seaside festival of "land" or nature art [à la Andy Goldsworthy], where the artists create their installations out of what is at hand along the beaches...

our efforts are completely spontaneous and primitive and inconsequential to the power of the sea, but we are satisfied with our creations and having had the sheer joy of just playing all day by the seashore...