Living by the Sea
Finding a new sense of place
A little portrait of the seasonal café near my home in Broad Cove on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. The late day sun caught my eye when walking back from the ocean one evening, and I decided to capture the café’s cheerful welcome. It is a favourite summer hangout spot within the community.
It’s astonishing how far the sound of the ocean can travel. My home is tucked away on a back road, but I can hear the roar or hushed swoosh of waves almost all the time. The ocean and its big open skies have become a living presence in my life.
It has been a strange autumn. A hurricane hit in mid-September and flung saltwater far and wide, rearranging the beaches, flattening the sea grasses, and causing many of the trees to lose their leaves. If they did manage to hold onto them, they pretty much turned brown… so our area has almost no fall colour. There are apple trees by the beach and only the apples remain – clinging like round ornaments to brown limbs.
If you walk out along the beach near my house, and then out past the stone breakwater, you arrive at the open Atlantic Ocean. Everything suddenly opens up and becomes all sea and sky.
This is one of my absolute favourite spots. I often go for a walk toward the end of the day or early evening to clear my mind or process things I’ve been working on. There’s something about putting one foot in front of another, breathing deeply, and looking at the surrounding sights that, for me, is one of the main ways that I think.
There’s something about putting one foot in front of another, breathing deeply, and looking at the surrounding sights that, for me, is one of the main ways that I think.
I usually find that, by the time I’m out there looking at all that ocean and sky, a number of pieces click together, I get a new perspective on something that’s been troubling me, or a new idea begins to come together. I love to stand there, breathing the briny seaweedy air, watching the waves crashing onto the moss-covered rocks, and listening to the roar of the ocean or the cry of gulls. Oftentimes, you can hear the snort of seals as they bob about with their snouts just above water.
If you missed it, below is a free desktop wallpaper. I hope this painting gives you some of that feeling of magnificence, higher perspective, and possibility so that you can experience it daily, too.
The view of open ocean, sky, and moss-covered rock that greets you as you walk out past the breakwater. Original gouache painting, Seascape Moss, 6x10".