China Beach Morning

The roar of the surf as your foot slides across a wet tree root or rolls over sea-rounded rocks as you brace yourself against the wind and blasts of mist and rain - there is nothing else quite like it! Your heart quivers from excitement and exertion of about equal amounts. I drop my pack and set up my plein air easel. The brushstrokes reach for the waves and the sea foam as the sun ducks in and out behind the clouds. Welcome to late winter at China Beach on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.