As an illustrator and artist I spend a considerable amount of time just looking at everything around me. Looking at colors, how shapes interact, the blooms on a tree, the little details in everything. I try to remember the nuances and recall them later as I work. I thought I was really good at this till I started drawing a sail boat and the sea.
These new subjects opened up a whole new kind of looking and seeing for me. Not only are boats way more complex to draw than I originally thought (having never been on a boat till Ava) but what the water does to light is amazing to stop and witness. Just that one thing, light off the water, Wow! Forget the sky at sunset or the night full of stars, these are all easily seen as beautiful moments, but just look at how light play on the water and reflects itself as silvery wiggles everywhere. One night we saw as school of little minnows break the surface and the only sign of them was the light sparkle of ripples they silently created. It looked like magic fairy dust sprinkled across the slick shining surface of the sea. Magic moments like that are always there as a reward for the person who stops long enough to really look at the world they live in.
I see beauty everywhere I go, but I love it when I get a little reminder some time to look more deeply at the ordinary around me. This is just one of the beautiful things becoming involved with a sail boat and the sea has given me, Ava has reminded me of the silent beauty of light on the water. Look and see and you'll agree, it's magic.