
In and out
Out then in
Turn about
Sink or swim
Splash and shout
Try to float
water wings
Take a boat
Walk the sand
Paddle in water
Tide turns round
As the moon grows brighter.
New paintings and regular art updates.

In and out
Out then in
Turn about
Sink or swim
Splash and shout
Try to float
water wings
Take a boat
Walk the sand
Paddle in water
Tide turns round
As the moon grows brighter.
I love limericks… I keep writing them!
There was a young whale from Gibraltar
Who married a young dolphins daughter
They went to a church
But started to lurch
And squashed the vicar on the altar!

Very random and silly I know, it’s sometimes hard to find a rhyme.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was idyllic. Today I was sitting feeling sorry for myself, then my hubby asked me to draw a seahorse like I had drawn on the beach last week. So today’s drawing is a Seahorse from my imagination, it would be idyllic to see a mythological beast like this. Used an old black felt pen because it gave nice soft lines…


Ripples remembered on the beach at Rhyl. Memories of walking on that beach as a child. The gently sloping beach would allow you to walk in shallow water as the tide came in or went out. I remember walking over those ridges that were quite hard, my little feet could feel them, they don’t flatten as your weight goes onto them if you are a child. Rhyl beach is long and wide when the tide is out. When I was small I wandered off to paddle in the sea. But when I turned round I couldn’t see my family anywhere. It was before I found out I needed glasses and it was only a kind person who took me to the lifeguard station where they used the tannoy that helped me to get reunited. On the same holiday I think I wandered into someone else’s caravan because it looked like ours? I must have been about six as I got glasses aged seven.

I always draw seahorses when I go to a sandy beach. This was today’s drawing. I didn’t have anything other than a long flat razor clam shell to draw with.
I don’t know why I like doing this but it’s become a tradition for me. The next tide will wash it away but I know it was there, looking out to sea.


Rhyl is in the North of Wales and is an old favourite of Midlanders in England and people from the North West who want a seaside holiday.
There are holiday flats, caravans, and hotels. Lots of work is being done on the coastal defences. The sea view includes a windfarm of about 200 wind turbines. They are far enough out to be not too visible. You can see them in my drawing but not so much on the photo…

Watercolour sketch, I think it was in Cornwall or Devon, one day we’d gone down to a harbour and I used to take watercolours and sketch pads with me on our visits. Sometimes I left them at our holiday let’s as a gift to say thank you for a lovely time.
The geology of Devon and Cornwall includes dark craggy rocks which is why I recognise the area.

A year ago I was at home
A year ago I wasn’t by the sea.
Eighteen months ago
I was home…
I wasn’t by the sea.
No storms, no showers
No tides, no beaches
No lapping waters.
Bereft of waves
Tide out
Gone.

I must go down to the sea again
Says the old poem.
And I know why
Beauty and violence
Gentle lapping wavelets
And white horses.
Frantic families
Lost sailors
Storms and waves
So high they reach up, up
To the sky.
Birds skim the surface
Grab fish in their beaks
Puffins and Skewers
Cormorants and Choughs
Ever changing
Sometimes boring
I must go there again.

Imagined waves. I still haven’t been anywhere near the beach, but I’m imagining a sea whipped up by a storm. Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was waves. I’ve been to the seaside during storms, but not big ones. I think this could have done with more foam, but it’s hard to draw with a 6b pencil and black ink pen.