Art is where you see it...

Art is truly "in the eye of the beholder".

Accompanied by my sketchbook and camera, I enjoyed a playday by attending the Pacific City Birding and Blues Festival with Becky. We both are considered artistic, and have a lot of fun together. We see "art" on many levels, in many forms, and take great delight in sharing our discoveries with each other. Gets us into some interesting adventures, at times...

Some folks wear their art...such as Festival guest presenter Ram Papish, who is not only a field biologist, but an illustrator/writer. He paints his jeans for each occasion, based on his field sketches, outstanding photography and exquisite bird paintings.

Other artists, considered "commercial" or "graphic" artists, use their talent to create signs - such as this one at the newly established Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Several of the Festival hikes and outings were at this site.

Photography is an art that almost anyone can accomplish, camera in hand. An eye for composition, and proximity to beautiful country helps.

Beachcombers have long known that what washes ashore can be a source of endless creativity. One of the Festival activities was geared for children, a creative art area where kids could paste, paint, and glue their way to fame.

This little mermaid was very serious about her art...

Beach homes are frequently sources of creative espression. After leaving the Festival we moseyed down the coast to Neskowin, driving slowly around the small beach community, savoring the older cottages and newer architectural endeavors. This shingling job caught our eye...

with appreciation not only for the appropriate beach design but also for the builder who constructed it. This is craftsmanship.

A few more miles south, we visited the Connie Hansen Memorial Garden in Lincoln City, where an avid gardener turned her love of plants and the coast into a beautiful natural piece of art - her garden. Using plants and stones for color and texture, gardens are a never-ending source of delight - and work. Each season brings rewards to the volunteer gardeners and touring visitors. Small but satisfying, this garden is something to mark on your list of "things to see at the coast."

A stoney stream bed echoed the lines of a splashing, bouncing stream near by.

While it is still early spring, there was lots of color in the garden...

A photographer's playground. Becky has posted her version of the garden and our trip on her blog, which you should visit ( http://bbfarr.blogspot.com/ ) Her photos are at professional level, you will enjoy them. And if you get to Salem, enjoy her first show, during the month of May at Young's Teriyaki, downtown!

We both had fun pursuing this fat orange and black bumblebee through the flowers.

Texture is an integral part of a garden, just as important as color. This small pond and water basin is a good example. Rough stone, smooth stone. Small rounded leaves, long slender pointed leaves. Mossy surface, reflective surface. Water and stone allow wonderful artistic elements in gardens.

And to beaches. Afterall, that's what MAKES it a beach, right?! The Oregon coast is unparalleled in beauty of beaches and water. Lincoln City is a popular place, for good reason. Throw in a sunny afternoon, and it's paradise.

Our natural world is a treasure chest of artistic expression. The forms of creatures large and small, clinging to their little world of water and stone, are visual art at it's finest.

Tidal pools, full of color and life. Silky clear salt water magnifying, enticing.

The movement of tide and wind ripples the water in a pool, creating an impressionist sketch.

And so ended my last day at the coast, for this trip. Full of all the things I love. Art, nature, and family.

And topped off with a bowl of Marionberry Cobbler at Kyllos Restaurant, where we sat watching the surf, kids playing in the water, kites soaring and dipping. Which are are also a creation from an artistic hand...