Cruisin’

I’ve been cruising in the Atlantic ocean for the past eight days.  We went to Bermuda where we went snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, toured shipwrecks from in a glass-bottom boat, watched shows, swam in salt water swimming pools, watched some sunsets, and did lots of relaxing.  I had time to do four and a half new pieces of artwork while on the ship.

It was a perfect vacation – our first cruise.  I learned how to stagger with dignity as we walked around on a ship at sea, making it’s way through the tail end of a hurricane.  I was walking straight down a passageway and would suddenly find myself heading for a wall.  Good news – we were all experiencing it, all headed for the wall . . . together . . . and with dignity.

I awoke the first night at sea to discover that I was going from laying on my side to slowly rolling over onto my stomach.  Before my face actually hit the bed, the ship started rolling the other direction and I was righted.  Exciting.

With no email, internet, or cell phone, I discovered that my days seemed to have far more hours in them.  There was time to lounge by the pool, spend time looking out over the ocean, study clouds, laugh and clap at shows and movies, and lots more.  I admit that I really enjoyed being able to sit and draw for hours without giving housework or cooking a single thought.  Wonderful.

This was the tea I was served at a local Japanese restaurant just before our cruise.  I sketched it out as I waited for my food and did the pen and ink work while on the ship.

When I start a pen and ink work, I never know what’s going to happen or where it will go.  That, by itself, has been a great lesson for me, forcing me to be more spontaneous.

It makes me want a cup of tea.

The next project I worked on was quite unique, but I want to add some text to it, so will not show it to you just now.

The next pen and ink is a lighthouse out of my imagination and I call it “I Dreamed That I Painted My Lighthouse”.  What a paint job!  In honor of Christina Allen, I added in a rainwater collector and a small garden of some corn.