Low Tide

6/22/13 Platinum Carbon, watercolor, 100 lb. paper

Low tide was around 10:30 a.m., so Greg grabbed his camera and I my sketchbook, and we headed out for Richmond Beach in Shoreline. Only 15 minutes north of us, this saltwater park includes a gem of a beach in a suburban neighborhood. Because you have to hike quite a ways down from the parking lots and across a pedestrian bridge over industrial railroad tracks to reach the beach, it feels remote and secluded. It’s not even visible from the parking area.

 

Technically the water out there is not the ocean; it’s Puget Sound, so you don’t see big waves breaking. Instead, you see gentle ripples washing up as a small cruise ship glides across the horizon, and even a kayaker paddles by. When the ship got closer, I tried another sketch of it. The dark blue horizon is the Kitsap Peninsula (or maybe Bainbridge Island; they’re kind of layered there, so I’m not sure).

 

As a Seattle native, I take all of this for granted most of the time. But today I didn’t, and I remembered why I live here.

6/22/13 Sailor pen, Private Reserve Black Magic Blue ink