Bay watching: highly recommended, zero effort required

I found a bench along the bay and told myself I'd sit for five minutes.

A sailboat was out on the water, moving slow, no rush to it at all. Behind it, the downtown skyline stacked up against the sky, the kind of layered blues and grays that only show up when the light is doing something interesting. The water was doing that thing where it holds the whole scene twice, once right side up and once upside down and a little softer.

Five minutes turned into closer to forty five.

I worked the skyline in loose ink first, more shape than detail, then let the sail take the most attention, that one clean triangle cutting through everything else that was reflection and blur. The watercolor followed the same instinct, kept close to what was actually in front of me.

There's something about watching a boat move across water with nowhere urgent to be. It's such a small thing to witness, and somehow it slows down whoever's watching it too. I didn't think about my inbox once. I just watched the sail catch a little wind, lose it, catch it again.

That's really the whole story behind this piece. Not a big event, just a boat and a skyline and a bench that happened to be empty at the right moment.

This one's available as an original, and I'd love for it to land somewhere it'll get looked at often, a home, a reading nook, an office window seat. If this scene resonates with you, or you want a similar bay moment of your own captured, just hit reply and tell me.