It was a beautiful spring day at Venice Beach in California. The wind was up and blew sand onto the painting from time to time. There are still grains of sand mixed in with the oil paint. Nate painted the lifeguard stand and I painted the waves. Plein Air. He had planned and set it up for a day of painting at the beach. An Art Day, he called it. He brought the canvases, the paints, the brushes and we drove from his home in Pasadena to the coast. His enthusiasm and energy about what we were doing were contagious. We walked out onto the vast expanse of beach and sat there in the sand, painting for most of the afternoon. People would walk by and watch, some of them making comments, others just watching respectfully. I thought about leaving the painting with him, but decided to take it home with me when I flew back a few days later. I had come to visit with a painting of a Greek fishing boat that I had painted for him and I left with a wonderful memory and a painting.