JW Marriott Cancun in The Rain

I knew we were flying into some weather. The cloud formation thirty seven thousand feet up said it all. (Now this photo is a a photo worth saving just for itself).

And the sun didn't shine for the first four days. You would think that I would have spent that time drawing and painting, but very little art was made on this trip. My knee was good to go and I wasn't tied to a lounge chair like I had been In Puerto Vallarta last April. Mostly I photographed whatever grabbed me. And what grabbed me the most our first day was the red-violet color in the rain squalls reflected on the indigo blue and turquoise Caribbean. In a painting, I'd want to push that color and play it up. I did a little pushing in the copy I made of the first photo just to see the possibilities--the beach would have to go and the white caps would have to be increased.





Over breakfast the first gloomy day, the photo below moved me to pull out my supplies and try to catch that ominous blue-blue violet. My first attempt was weak, but as the days passed, I kept strengthening my colors and the sketch didn't come out too badly. I really should have taken the watercolor paper as I had planned. Drawing paper can't really stand up to my heavy hand. Drawing paper was a big mistake.





What wasn't a mistake was staying at the JW Marriott. Its world class spa made up for the lousy weather. Honey and I lounged in the fifteen foot diameter hot tub, then plunged into the indoor pool to play ball with Mr. Wilson. Then we went up to our lockers and showered, lounged and drank ice cold lemon water with a few almonds. Not too shabby. (Sorry the pool pic is blurry. I was still drying off, but you get the idea. This is a cool spot).