"Incoming Tide" watercolor & ink 9 x 9

One of my favorite spots on Monhegan Island is Christmas Cove.  It is on the southern tip of the island.  You can walk past Lobster Cove, where the trail then begins to ascend along the coast.  Rather than heading up the cliff on the way to Gull and Burnt Rocks, I head away from the trail and sit out on the rocks overlooking Christmas Cove.  There is a spot where the tide comes in around both sides of a rock formation, creating a tide pool.  I love to sit in this space.  The island is behind me.  In front is only these rocks, the waves, and the sea.  I love sitting in this spot, all senses activated, surrounded by salt, the sea, and my thoughts.  
One year, as I sat and painted, two young-ish (younger than I but not young young) men walked past me to the tide pool and jumped in to swim.  One of them was obviously familiar with the spot, and had done it before.  It is a very active pool, with waves coming in from both sides, but if you catch it right, I supposed on an incoming tide so the water is slightly warmed by the recently exposed rocks, it would be refreshing.  The pool has rocks on its south side which keep the incoming tide at bay for a while.  These rocks always remind me of a book I loved as a child called "Down and Away Below" about a young boy who saved his South Pacific village when the rocks providing a barrier for their lagoon from predatory fish  broke away. 
So, this is my painting for the Girls Just Wanna Paint July theme of "anxiety".  I have not been able to visit my favorite spot on the island since 2016.  Last summer I was diagnosed with bone on bone knee arthritis and walking was very hard, let alone climbing out onto the rocks.  I could hear the wave crashing down there, and longed to sit and watch.  This summer, I have a new knee in training.  I was determined to make the walk out among my favorite rocks, and very anxious that my new knee wouldn't make the trek, or would make it and not want to climb back up the rocks and hill to the village and our rented home.  All worked out, I sat in my favorite spot, absorbed the atmosphere... and plan to get there again this week before we go.