Artwork Notes | MATT BEARD ART

Free Range #3: Maybe Later

Odometer 149.6 miles
Got a little sidetracked already. Trying to get just the right angle to paint from the van for the previous painting, my front bumper just grazed the railing on the roadside… and promptly broke, bent, and dislodged itself halfway off. Not wanting to spend this whole drive wondering if it would fall off completely, I figured I should take care of it sooner than later. Fortunately this all happened very close to home, making things simple. But in the rush of taking care of business to begin the real road trip down the state, this little funky one is, all I could muster up. Looking forward to points south soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Free Range #2: Leeward

Odometer: 75.4 miles I often paint right out the back or side of my van, literally standing up inside the thing, enjoying the shade and windblock it provides. The added elevation gain is a nice bonus as well, and sometimes it’s the only reason I paint from in there. On this day it was all three. Bright and windy, and if I stood on the ground outside I just couldn’t see over the bushes in the foreground. I know it only adds about two feet or so, but that can make all the difference. Sometimes I get a bit picky and want to position the van just so, getting the perfect view out the door. This…

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Free Range #1: Waiting for the Day to Warm Up

Odometer: 0.00 miles
Kicking off the tour of California’s coast with some river time near the Oregon Border. Mornings have a bit of a chill that make swimming sound a little better… later. Like after this quick painting. Took a four hour swim with the family up the river right after this one.

Time Zone # 2

Plein air, but with a twist.
Traditional plein air work involves working fast to give an impression of the place at a particular time of day. The changing nature of light throughout a day limits the working time for a single session so larger pieces usually involve multiple sessions returning to the same location at the same time on different days.
This Timezone series is a slow cooking experiment in painting larger works in single sessions over a longer period, all day even, while still remaining true to the traditional plein air ethos. Each vertical band represents a different “timezone” painted quickly to reflect the light conditions of that fleeting moment.

Passing Through V

Painted live for a friend’s going away party gift. These passing through series pieces represent something very simple for me: the movement of energy through any medium. I painted the first one live at a music festival in southern Humboldt while on my home from San Francisco. Just passing through. Something resonated with that one and I’ve done several more since then. In this case the vertical bands in the piece seem to me like periods of a person’s life, where significant life-changing events happen, new chapters are begun but the same vitality of life keeps flowing through from one to the next. Ok. That is all. Robin from HumBrews, I wish you the best in your next chapter.

Airwaves

Painted live on the radio?Yep, live radio.
KHUM with Mike Dronkers in the KHUM studio in Ferndale, CA. Huge thanks to @mikedronkers and @khumradio for letting this happen. If you squint your eyes and stand on your head and sip an IPA while viewing this one you’ll clearly see Mike spinning tunes from the control booth at KHUM on his 7th to last radio show here. We’re gonna miss this guy.

Time Zone # 1

Passing Through IV

“Freedom doesn’t exist out there, real freedom is within…” that was a passing thought while painting this one in full art hobo mode operating in a small shady alley in the beautiful town of Ferndale, CA on the fourth of July this year. Pretty random. I think I was trying to paint the American flag, but something went a bit sideways… I can only guess what the townsfolk thought of the hairy hobo arting out water rainbows in their alley during their patriotic street party. Nobody told me to leave so I’m calling it a win.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hide from a helicopter and duck for cover in the bushes by the train tracks twice on my way to get this view. Graffiti guys deal with this sort of thing all the time, plein air guys not so much. That was fun.
Sounds like its been an intense week for folks that live here and love and care for this coast. Another oil spill is just another example of how the cost of living our lives plays out in many ways.
Big thanks to my friends Guner, John, Mike, and Chris for all the Intel and access logistics.

Beautiful from Here

Always dug the graphic road vibes on this one. There may or may not have been boats anchored just to the left of the frame cleaning up* an oil spill from a busted pipe on the side of the highway. Either way, the color if the water in this little cove was incredible.
*or just dumping poisonous dispersant in the water to break up the oil and put it out of sight, out of mind. I hope I heard that wrong.

Then They Took Him Away

Who wrote this book of etiquette?
All of the pages are blankAs though the ink has spilled right off the paperLeaving us to write our own rules with pencilsAnd skinAnd burning eyes
After reading from cover to cover we are leftJust as we were beforeSomewhat crudeAnd still rather unrefined

Standing Watch

We’ve rounded the corner nowWe’ve foundThe hole in the fenceWe’ve crossed that lineAnd conceivedOf new horizonsNow we stand watchingAndWaitingForThe old roadsTo wash into the sea

Aqueduct

Every river flows to the sea… except this one. It flows to LA. Drink up southern California.

Architecture of Flow

This was a recent live art piece I did to benefit the surf and skate club at Trinidad School. I had a few buddies and a handful of kids skating past my paint table and grabbing brushes to drag across the canvas set up a few yards away, then circle back to relay another pass. Did that for 20 or 30 passes or so then went to work building the painting on the architecture of flow they had laid out.

Stage Left

Painted live from start to finish during one solid set from Absynth Quartet at Redwood Curtain Brewery last Saturday. This was the second event I painted at on Saturday. Never done two of these in a single day before, but I guess they don’t take too long so why not?

In a Mood

Some days are better than others for curiously overheated gas station coffeeMade with the press of a button

Something Fishy

With a bucket full of mackerel, he explained why the water was a fancy shade of green.The fancy cats that live in the rocks were only green with envy.

Bending Lines

You know those painters you see outside on sunny days with their fancy umbrellas, leisurely painting away on the manicured park lawn? I don’t know if they’ve spent muchtime in the coastal zone. I recently got one of those fancy umbrellas for myself. Seemed like a great idea at the time. I even got one that was silver on top to reflect heat and black underneath toreduce glare, and with about 87 different clamp options to attach to nearly anything. It really is a marvel of modern engineering. And it’s basically worthless. I used it as I was painting this one on a beautiful windless day unt…

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Winter Sun

We’ve spent long days hereNorth of the river
We’ve spentOur last two dimesOnHeavenAnd wafflesAnd a good night’s sleepShelteredFrom the falling snowUntil the storm blew over
And now we ourselvesAre spentWorn outLike the twoRaggedDog blanketsIn the back of the van
One more look at the oceanBefore we head homeAnd two thingsBecome clear
We’re not going home tonightAndWe’re gonna smell like dogIn the morning

Vicarious

Unplanned live art from The Accident Lab poetry event last night. Kinda different, maybe someone will dig it… or maybe not. I might be stuck with this one.

Fire Fusion

So I think I’m going to just start enjoying water more as I do these live art paintings. This one I just relaxed and felt like painting a mix of explosive fire and water. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but when completing a large painting in just two and a half hours, it rarely is. What it was though, was super fun. I think just zoning out and painting water is where it’s at for me right now, and I’m looking forward to more.

The Jewel V: Wednesday Afternoon

This was the first time I was given access to this deck on the end of this scientific research pier. I remember being so torn about which view to paint, north or south, that I think I just blew a fuse and split it down the middle with an easterly approach. I figured since it was so unusual to even be there at all, maybe this unusual perspective made the most sense.
Big thanks to my pal @misfitgallerylj for making this one possible as part of my first sold out La Jolla plein air tour.
There’s someone else to thank as well, but names should probably not be mentioned at this point. You know who you are. And you rock. Thank you.

Evolution of Icarus

So… sometimes this happens. When I paint at live events, half the fun is not knowing exactly what I’m going to paint. Even as I’m loading my palette with paint I’m usually still wondering what’s going to happen. At RampArt Skatepark last weekend, this is what happened. Not sure what’s going on here, but one thing led to another and another and another and I guess that’s just how it goes.
The story of Icarus is pretty cool, a warning against pride, but while we mostly seem to focus on that aspect of the tale, we often forget his father’s warning wasn’t just about flying too high, but also too low. Get up off the ground and quit slacking, yeah? Good call. The flying fish has it wired I reckon.
Anyway, I’m sure anyone could read all sorts of other stuff into this, and so could I, but art is more poetry than essay, so I won’t go into all that.
Anyway, hope you dig this little unexpected homage to the master of this genre, Rick Griffin himself. Enjoy!

Flow

It may look like a wave, but if you rotate this piece counter-clockwise it represents the real time wind conditions off the Pacific coast at the time the painting was being created. Check out earth.nullschool.net if you want to see what I’m talking about.

On the Rocks

Painted on site with the rising tide sending large amounts of saltwater all over my back and palette as I worked. There may not be blood, sweat, or tears in this one, but there is certainly a good dose of Pacific Ocean saltwater, and that’s almost the same thing from a salinity perspective…