Tiny Island
I wasn’t sure if it was going to rain on me yesterday, but I decided to get out anyway. I drove up to China Camp in the North Bay, where it turned out everyone else thought it might be a good day to get out and paint too. There were two ‘camps’, as it were. Elderly folks were all gathered on the beach with their easels and clipboards, while all the hip art students were at the picnic tables near the parking lot, playing with their portable watercolor kits.
With yet another birthday coming up tomorrow, I wasn’t sure which camp I should join.
I settled on painting a tiny little island just off the edge of the beach. I almost called it a lonely little island, but it was actually full of geese, seagulls, and ducks. I’m inspired to paint a storybook illustration of all the birds, young and old, gathered on this tiny island, and they’re paddling it out to sea. I’ll call it “Island Getaway.”
March 1st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Happy Birthday Mike!
Lovely story, looking forward to the illustration.
Duttonbook.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
Holy crap! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I’ll shout ya a bear tonight @ Splitters.
Love the reflections under the island.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Happy Birthday! Thanks for stopping by the blog. Good to hear from you sir -it’s been way too long. New site looks smashing as does the new work. Can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to. Sounds like all good things!
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
New site looks great… I’ve updated the links on my blogs. And happy birthday!
March 10th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Dutton!!
You find me I find you…hooray! This blog is great! I thought this looked new. Awesome job man!Shit, I missed your birthday!? Well happy bee-lato birfday Mike. We shall have to go on a field trip very soon.
Thanks for visiting me blog, btw. And a resounding YES! To all your questions. Miss you lots. Talk soon!
-Christine
March 25th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Really lovely work.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:19 am
hey mike!
the site looks great with this last update. i’ve been liking all the comic strips you’ve been doing to.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I spent a fair chunk of my dissolute youth drinking beer out in China Camp, and I happen to know that that island is called “Rat Rock”. I always liked to think that the reason it’s called that is that one day a rat was swimming in the water out there and a giant rock fell out of the sky on top of it, forming the island.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Thanks for clarifying that! I overhead a woman mentioning it to her painting buddy, but I couldn’t make out what she called it. I thought it was Rad Island. But Rat Rock and your reason for its name sounds far more entertaining.