I am starting to incorporate collage into my paintings, and this past weekend I remembered to take my camera with me on my beach walk. It's a full moon tomorrow, so the low tide was out quite far. I always prefer to walk the beach at low tide, and like to keep a fairly brisk pace since I spend so much time inside, either at my desk or painting. This walk though, was more of an amble because I found so many interesting things to photograph. Here are just a few of them.
When the tide is out a long way it exposes millions of tiny shells on the beach. This is what they look like:
I've never thought about what might be inside them before, thinking they were just empty shells. But on this walk I found a small pool of water that the receding tide had left, which was filled with them. Upon closer inspection, I realized there were creatures in them that had partially opened their shells and were waving very delicate feathery, fernlike appendages in the water. Here's a highly enlarged photo of them:
I don't know what these critters are, but on my next walk I'll make sure I don't step on any of them on the beach!
I also found some very interesting patterns in the sand that look like trees. They may be inspiration for a somewhat abstract painting:
On my walks, I usually have a lot of companions: gulls, curlews, sandpipers, sanderlings, and more. Here's a photo of a very handsome long-billed curlew:
... and the ever-present seagulls:
My beach walk buddies!
