A Jet Lag Kind of Day

It was the perfect day for jet lag.  I did get a great night's sleep last night, but still, I do not feel like the time zone I'm in matches what my body expects (it's an 8 hour difference between Seattle and Portugal).  

I started a painting yesterday of the view from my patio of the cliffs and Lagos way in the distance.  I literally fell asleep while holding the brush, and it has brush marks that follow whatever I was seeing on the inside of my eyelids.  I tried to fix a few things today and the Strathmore sketchbook paper sure can take a lot of water, layering of color and fixing mistakes without buckling or getting fuzzy.  That's good to know!  I'm just getting used to the sketchbook and watercolors, it's pretty fun.

I took the sketchbook with me to lunch in Benagil.  I took the photo at the top of this page from a cliff-top overlooking the beach there.  I am wearing a sweater, but only because I knew I'd be eating lunch in the shade and the temp is really light sweater-weather if you aren't in the sun.  Lunch at O Pescador -- glad I made a reservation, they were turning people away! -- felt like summer.  I had white sangria, spaghetti with clams and lemon meringue pie.  All delicious, with a side of painting.  The terrace tables have a view through a slice of Benagil that looks like it will be blocked in the future by new construction (the concrete columns in the painting - an ominous sign) but was just beautiful today.  

In the late afternoon, I was watching the sunlight on the wall of the apartment again and gave a first try at this idea I have about painting the interesting shapes made by the light and furnishings.  I think I'll keep playing with this idea in my sketchbook.  I've been painting in watercolor because it's so easy to transport, and this may be a job for gouache. 

It's sketchy, but maybe you can see where this could be headed?

A side note about oranges in the Algarve.  I only got here yesterday and I've had four already.  I bought a few different varieties at the grocery store when I arrived, all of them locally grown.  One was overly pithy, which made eating it more difficult than I'd have liked (see my previous blogs for the millionth rant about dull knives in vacation rentals), but they've all been juicy and packed with flavor.  I will be going to a grove at the end of the week for a tour and tasting and I'm really looking forward to that.