2019 | Southern California › Orange County, San Diego | Plein Air

The beach wasn’t closed last May, it was a just a terrible run of surf and conditions that kept everyone away. I’d never seen this place so empty. It’s hard to believe this is one of the focal points of surfing in Southern California. But not this day. There was no one. Looking down the coast from here brings back a lot of good memories for me and after a long morning sipping coffee waiting for the last showers to wring themselves out, I’d wanted to come down and spend a whole day wandering and painting here, but the wind had come up and ripped the ocean ragged, making the chore difficult and the inspiration harder to come by. I’m not sure what it was that struck me about this little scene, but in spite of the flat midday light that sought to steal even the shadows out from under the rocks themselves, there was a simple elegance to it that caught my eye. Or that might have been a piece of windblown sand caught in my eye. Or maybe both.