Trip to Bonaire: Sunsets and Bioluminescence

Here is a thing about sunsets - there is one every day, people generally agree that they are gorgeous, and looking at them is a good way to spend your time. But we rarely see them. So during my trip to Bonaire, I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to see some sunsets - and it worked - but not 100% - and for a good reason! I missed a few sunsets because I did a few dusk-to-night dives. There is no good view of the setting sun underwater: everything gets darker and less colorful, and that's it! But that is the time when new animals emerge. After the sun is gone, you can see bioluminescence in the sea, and that is one of the most amazing things to look at, in my opinion. Bonaire has a prominent bioluminescence (when you see light by moving the water - clapping or swimming) but it is also famous for its predictable twice-a-month show of ostracods - tiny crustaceans that emit light to communicate with their potential partners (think underwater fireflies). I tried to take my sketching tools with me to these dives, but quickly discarded the idea of drawing. For one, we dove without lights, so it was really dark (don't worry - we had lights with us, but turned them off on purpose). And keeping track of your air supply, position, and buoyancy, where your diving buddy is - all that was a big enough load without light to keep me completely occupied. But also the view is incredibly unusual, and for me it was a much better experience to look at this fantastic show of light than think where my tools are and how to draw something... quite undrawable :) I found this video to show you something that might explain my thing about ostracods: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6R4lWIZSw4

All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:

1. What I Packed for a Trip (An Interesting New Brush)

2. What I Packed For A Trip (Underwater Sketching Kit)

3. Trip to Bonaire: Plants
4. Trip to Bonaire: Underwater Sketching - Turtle City

5. Trip to Bonaire: Almost Domestic Animals

6. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Oil Pastels and Salt Water Mix Nicely

7. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Remainder Sketches and a SURPRISE

8. Trip to Bonaire: Sketchbook Video (Flip Through) and Additional Sketches - from the "On the Spot" Article

Little Notes From Walks and Hikes

These are three sketches from different days, but they tell a story of how some of the sketching is happening these days. I always have some drawing materials with me, but recently I started using more colored pencils but my black pen is always with me. Often when I draw on location the light situation is making me move super fast - palm trees were on a super sunny day, and the paper was blinding me. Where the evening sketch was done while the sun was disappearing. When I add these little sketches from the day to my main sketchbook, I might add some notes. And sometimes all the notes are from the moment when I was sketching - like on the very last drawing - where I was trying to find with my eyes all the birds that I was able to hear - and ants were driving me away from my perching spot!

Two More Vacation Sunsets

One of the things that I was looking forward on vacation was sunsets and they did not disappoint!

Painting Sunsets.

We had some dramatic skies between rains and I kept hoping to catch either light or color or movement - sometimes with a camera, sometimes with pencils, sometimes with paint smudged with fingers and scraped with nails. The last one was the only one that worked actually. You can see some process photos below too - they will tell you a story of how fast both light and color were running away from me!

From the trip to the Pacific Coast

In November I spent some time in the forest but every evening we made it to the coast to see a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. My sketches of sunsets are never fully satisfying but this is something I cannot resist and feeding this urge to sketch is very gratifying and humbling  :) Trying to match the speed of changing colors slight shifts of mood and the unbelievable sense of time running through my fingers is always priceless :)  

September: Sunsets

All sorts of things happened this September. Just like the rest of this year it was filled with very much expected, completely outrageous, some unique and some crazy, a handful of surprising, a few scheduled, several sad, and many mundane events. Here are some of my favorite memories - of the wonderful sunsets I witnessed, all done on spontaneous bike tides. Here is to more! 

August California fires

This August brought devastating fires to California (again). Many are still burning and the smoke situation is now a part of our everyday life: apps to monitor air quality are installed on the phones again; I dust my plants from the ash in the morning; we close all windows when it gets too smoky outside and then rush to have our walk when it's better. But the sunsets are incredibly beautiful. Haunting, eerie, sometimes outright scary but beautiful. Here is a couple from last week:

Sketchbook #111: Trip to Hawaii - the end of the trip.

We visited an octopus farm - pretty interesting and unusual. I got sprayed and wrestled with a couple of lovely color-changing beasts and fed them some crab legs.