Clouds over Galveston

Clouds over Galveston 300, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This week was supposed to be a vacation week for me. My wife and I had planned to take our kids down to my brother's home near Winnie, TX. My wife just graduated with her Bachelor's Degree from UNT (yeah Tammy!), and my family was going to have kind of a get together for her. We were planning to end up in Galveston for a few days at the beach with the kids. But as often happens, plans changed. I accepted a position with Thriving Minds to serve as the Arts Integration Specialist for one of their summer camps, and I had to attend training in the middle of the week. I also wound up with a couple of shows to perform with one of my bands, so my wife took the kids and went on vacation without me. I've spent part of my time at the easel having myself a virtual Galveston vacation. Growing up in Beaumont, the Gulf Coast beaches were one of our main vacation spots.  I usually made several trips a year to Crystal Beach, Sea Rim State Park (wiped out by recent storms), and Galveston. I have lots of reference photos and sketches from my many beach vacations, and the images are always in the back of my mind. The salty air and the sounds of the waves lapping against the shore are something I've really missed since living in Dallas. Standing on the beach truly gives you a sense of infinity, watching the land disappear and the horizon so far off in the distance. It kind of makes you understand how early explorers might have thought the world was flat and you could fall right off the edge if you sailed far enough.