Our Moclips Adventure

Last week Jim and I had a pleasant little getaway to Moclips, Washington. I had not been there since 1986, when Neil and I had spent a few days at the Ocean Crest Resort for our honeymoon.  Nothing had changed. Much. A new and fancier restaurant, but it did seem the suite we stayed in hadn’t been upgraded since I was there, then.  The bed was new, though, and so comfortable!  It truly made up for the choking episode the first night, when the free-standing, ancient fireplace billowed and filled the rooms with swirling smoke, no matter what we did with the damper.  How hard can a Duraflame log be to light?

The scene had gotten even better through the years...even more heart-stoppingly gorgeous, with the added patina of storm clouds and the thrashing drama of crashing breakers, the foam torn and flung by gusts of wind.  Early morning woke us with the building shaking from thunder, the lightening illuminating our bedroom constantly.  Rain hit the roof deafeningly, seemingly forever. Even so, the late morning brought sunlight and refreshed the still-turbulent waves with a rich blue.  As the unusual tide retreated back down the beach, the wet sand gave the appearance of our walking on the sky beneath our feet, seabirds flocking by us, soaring with their own reflections.

This is the drawing I dashed into my sketchbook in tiny installments through the days before we headed home again in the rain.  Almost entirely done with Derwent Inktense water-soluble color pencil wash, layered on a watercolor Moleskine book, landscape page format.  With a little Staedtler Pigment liner pen for the birds, and the foam was done partly with the Uniball Signo White Gel pen.