Westport sits at the southern tip of the North Beach Peninsula on the Washington coast, where the mouth of Grays Harbor opens onto the Pacific. Westport Light State Park stretches along a wide, windswept beach that draws surfers, skimboarders, and anyone who needs to stand at the edge of something large and breathe. The jetty reaches out toward Half Moon Bay to the south, its long arm of rock tapering the sand line as it goes.

This is where our crew comes when the itch for surf and open water gets loud enough. A warm Saturday in July means yoga for all at the water's edge, volleyball, football, and sandcastles built with genuine ambition. The coast was overcast when we arrived, the sky loaded with threatening clouds stacked on the horizon. But by four in the afternoon the cover began to burn off, but nobody adjusted their behavior in the slightest. Sunny or not, the day had already decided what it was we just went along with it.

When the light finally went we packed up the sand and headed to Blackbeard's Brewing Company, where cold beer and a warm room put the perfect end on a long and good day.

The painting holds the earlier sky, that churning mix of cloud-on-cloud pressing down on a limitless horizon, the sand line rising gently toward the jetty, the light uncertain and beautiful for it.