Having recently started painting, I had also picked up a sketch book. And so, with virtually nothing to clean up from last night, Lolita and I decided to make the most of the warm weather and do some sketches outside. So, armed with a 4B pencil, an eraser and, of course, Pooh we jumped on a bus down to the beach at Dadae-Po (다대포).
Despite having lived in Busan for some seven and a half years now, I haven’t actually visited the beach at Dadae-Po before and I was truly amazed at what I found there! A real beach… in Korea… without all the usual commercialisation and bullshit one associates with Haeundae and Gwangan. Fantastic! For anyone in Busan (or Korea for that matter) who has never visited this beach, I strongly recommend you taking the time to see it. You won’t be disappointed.
When we arrived we discovered an enormous ‘Tree’ rising up from the sands (just look at the photos to see how big this monster is)! The ‘tree’ was being stacked up in preparation for the first Full-Moon celebrations (정월대보름) of the New Lunar Year which is next Thursday (Feb 21st). Should be quite a spectacular sight when they set it alight! Interesting that even at 4pm the moon was already out, perhaps watching the men build
the ‘fire-tree’ in its honour. It brought to mind some of the old rituals celebrated in ancient Greece for the lunar deity, Selene (Luna in Roman mythology or Máni from the Norse myths). Indeed, Phoebe was one of the original titans associated with the moon. Interesting how events just seem to combine these days…
We wandered along the beach, Lolita taking photos of the shells and the sand dunes (yes… sand dunes… in Korea). The beach reminded me of some of the hidden bays that dot the Spanish and French coastlines, something I never thought to say here in this country. The sea wind made it just a little chilly but it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. Pooh was loving it!
The dry grass proved to be our subject on this day. It looked really great against the sharp, blue, sky. So we sat there and started our sketches. I must admit, it was a somewhat daunting task. I’ve never actually sat down and drawn anything before. Perhaps the only time
was long, long, ago back when I was in secondary school (people still painted in caves back then Lolita) but even then it was just kids messing about drawing lewd pictures of the banana and apple set in front of us! I wasn’t entirely sure how I should start and the minutes crawled along as I tried to figure it out, concious all the time of the nearby scratching of a pencil upon paper coming from Lolita. I eventually got started but never really settled. It was therefore not unexpected to discover that I’d made a complete pig’s ear of my attempt when I showed my work to her!
Even so, Lolita was kind enough to point out my many mistakes and so I set back to work again. The end result was not much better but at least I was getting somewhere. Drawing and drawing well are two very different things! Of course, Lolita’s work was great. Looking at mine now, I’m sort of happy with it even though it is flawed. A first attempt… it can only get better!
It was getting cold by now so we decided to call it a day and head back home, stopping off to pick up a coffee and a biscuit from a bloke with a little van next to the beach. He was a decent enough sort and made a damn good cup of coffee. If you get down that way then have a coffee. Better than Starfucks!
We gave the biscuits to this young dog that we saw curled up outside some shit-hole by the beach. The dog was shivering in the evening as it grew colder and seemed very alarmed when we approached it. Clearly the dog had been on the receiving end of more than a few beatings. Anyway, Lolita gave him our biscuits which cheered the little dog up. Hopefully he’ll be around next time we come back.
Haha! Lolita has come up with a new picture which she’s thinking of painting on the large canvas she recently bought. The picture was inspired by a photo shown to us last night by Tom. We’ll keep you posted on the progress. You’ll all LUUUV it!
Cheers!
Lolita.is.Posting
well..i have some other pictures which i didnt send to meanguy2..ha..
here u go a shot of “meanguy2 is drawing”…i hate drawing..no colours at all..but i should train meanguy2 since i m a great teacher~!
