Mysterious

Below our house is an unofficial nudist's beach. Unofficial because sporadically  the police come and bust everyone who is au naturale.  They've done such a good job that no families go there any more - just 'unusual' men and gay men. Occasionally a young woman will brave the beach - but is quickly surrounded by men who invade her public private space - till she leaves.

 How do I know this? Well every now and then I look out of our window.

But in the old days it was different.

One day in particular stands out in my mind. .... coming back from a surf with a friend of mine, it's a Summer Saturday, beautiful and warm, the beach is full of undraped bodies, when suddenly a weird change comes over the whole beach - as if the wind has dropped, the waves have gone silent and the birds have been frozen in mid wing stroke..

It took only a moment to realise what it was. You see, every man on the beach (except of course myself and my mate) stared open mouthed in one direction. They were staring at a beautiful woman who was heading down towards the water. She was about thirty feet away and fully clothed - in that she was wearing a figure hugging black bikini.

Even  now, fifteen years later, it still strikes me as ironic - all those bare naked ladies draped all over the sand, yet the men on the beach staring at the one woman who had conjoured an air of mystery about herself - by hiding something from their eyes.

Of course there's no need to point out the moral.

But one of my favourite expressions is "The Joy is in the Anticipation."

The other is "Stop the Train I wanna get Off".

Thanks to everyone who well wished for our show and for the book. I appreciate it greatly.

Opening night was last Friday. On opening night 18 out of the 48 works that were for sale received new homes. I received 15 orders for my book - so I am delighted. Today we received a good write up with some photographs of the hanging. If we are lucky we might get reviewed next Saturday - finger's crossed on both hands.

As far as this post - when I read the Illustration Friday prompt "Mysterious" too many cliches ran through my head. So I decided to do something a little different and made these photographs. In amongst them is a "Shrine" that I made for our show. It has flashing lights and the antique clock chimes like a ship's bell. People think that I am weird.....

These photographs were inspired by Art is jokken.'s photo blog.

And also Sur L'Viro. Both worth a visit.

My apologies once again for not visiting. If all goes well I will be 'round Tuesday or Thursday to make sure you  have all been working :)

Oh, if you click the pics you can see them bigger if you like. I guess that in a way they prove I am really flesh and blood - and not just some guy who sticks pics on a blog :)