It wasn't her nudity that first caught his attention as she waded into the surf. After all, it was a 'clothing optional' beach, and very few failed to exercise that option. It was her hair, he realized, the red of her locks making a sharp contrast with the green of the sea.
"Like the painting by Gauguin," he thought, almost voicing it aloud, and he saw her as if in the painting, red hair and light skin contrasting and complementing the white foam and sea-green that flooded the canvas. He watched, transfixed, as she splashed and dove in the surf. Her back was always to him, but he knew by her flesh that she wasn't one of the young nymphs who frequented this beach, rather a mature woman, close to his own age. And free enough to enjoy herself with gleeful abandon in the ebbs and flows and tumblings of the waves, he concluded.
His eyes stayed with her as she finished her swim and made her way back up the shore, her red hair now blown by the land breeze and carelessly framing her face. "A very pretty face," he reflected, "not glamorous, but friendly and comfortable." He gazed at her body as well: clearly middle-aged, full, rounded, mature breasts and some extra pounds, and yet very appealing, soft and fleshy like a Renoir. Her casual, unself-conscious walk lent her a sensuality that reminded him of the women in Hopper's paintings. "My god," he thought to himself, "I've just found a woman right out of three of my favorite painters. And all of them sensuous. At least I can't see the sensuality that inspired O'Keefe, or I don't know what I'd do."
His thought were interrupted by laughter off to his right. There were three women camped there, and the one he watched was obviously returning to join them. They all clearly lacked her self-confidence: one lay face-down, her cheeks demurely covered by a towel, while the other two sat on their haunches, heels pulled in and knees to their chests so that nothing private could be seen. He became self-conscious as he realized they were laughing at him, at his staring at their friend. And he became even more self-conscious as he realized his interest wasn't purely intellectual. He looked away and quickly turned over on his stomach to hide the erection he just discovered he had.
He hadn't been there but a minute when he felt the cool of a shadow come to rest across his back. He knew it must be her.
"Hey," she said cheerfully, "I hear you've been looking at me."
He hesitated, and she playfully kicked some sand onto his back.
"C'mon, turn over and get a close look," she said, "and let me get a look at you."
He smiled at her casual audacity, and rolled over, stretching himself out so she could have the full look she was due. Her eyes started on his face, and he could see she found it pleasing. She glanced slowly over his whole body, her gaze coming to rest on his not-quite-flaccid penis.
"Well, thank you," she laughed; "it seems you liked what you saw. Maybe we should get to know each other."
He moved to the side of his beach blanket and invited her to sit and chat a while. She lowered herself slowly to a cross-legged position, and he couldn't help but see that part of a woman that so inspired Georgia O'Keefe. And he knew he was lost. And he rather liked the idea.
They chatted a while about beaches and children, and even grandchildren, about politics and loneliness, and while they talked, their hunger for each other grew. His mind found some snippets of an old song: