Another addition to my travel drawing series, Sunset Swims at South Beach, Fremantle… I redrew this scene way more times than I care to admit. I had such a strong vision of what I wanted the illustration to look like; I remember swimming up to it, climbing up the ladder and seeing the sunset in the background, and thinking I need to capture this incredible moment, so I can remember it forever. But I think I’ve finally accepted the reality that I’ll never be able to quiet capture the endorphin fuelled magic that it was.

My first attempt was based almost purely off memory, of what I thought it looked like, and I was pretty happy with where it was going, but then I looked at photos we had taken, and googled South Beach Fremantle Pontoon, to discover I had drawn a completely different type of pontoon, the shape and material was all wrong, and for a perfectionist like me, I couldn’t just continue with it the way it was.

So I redrew it, trying to combine my foggy memory with a pretty limited selection of photos. My memory has always been pretty useless, and despite this experience being so magical, I feel it’s also pretty valid that I wouldn’t be able to visualise every detail, when my physical fitness isn’t great and in order to experience this moment, I had the swim what felt like miles (probably was about 30 meters), and also had eyes full of sea water. But here it is, Sunset Swims.