Speaking in Tongues

It’s not all plein air and landscapes. Once in awhile I blow steam and do whatever I feel like doing on a canvas at live music event without any planning or reference whatsoever. There’s usually water involved, because painting in this setting often becomes a percussion experience, moving in rhythm with the music, and painting […]


Sometimes You Don’t

Plein air artwork from San Gregorio State Beach on the San Mateo coast of California
Sometimes you’re a Spanish explorer looking for Monterey Bay on an overland journey from San Diego over 200 years ago with 63 soldiers and more than a hundredmules. Sometimes you’re driving around in a large van painting the California Coast on your way to a music festival a few hours north of Monterey Bay. Sometimes […]…

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And They Will Ask

Plein air artwork of the path to Shelter Cove near Pacifica on the San Mateo coast of California

No roads in, no roads out.Washed out 40 years ago.Just this narrow footpath remains. Yet they live here.And walk this path daily.Packing life in and out on their backs. Even the children know who belongs and who doesn’t. And they will ask. If you give a wrong answer, I’m not sure what they’ll do. Don’t […]


Ones and Zeroes

Plein air artwork from the Devil's slide bunker over Montara State Beach on the San Mateo coast of California
It was only a lifetime ago, that we stood here and watched, scanning the horizon for very real threats. It was a different time, when triangles and protractors could save the world, and ones and zeroes just belonged to the hobo’s walking the rails. It was only yesterday we stood and watched, scanning the horizon […]…

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More Than Wind

Plein air artwork overlooking Pacifica Beach on the San Mateo County coast of California
I had just finished a piece from the other side of this hill looking up the coast to the north. As I painted that one, what started as a windless day quickly changed. The whitecaps had enveloped every piece of water in sight, inside the kelp, around the headlands, pretty much game over for painting […]…

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Passing Shadows

Plein air artwork overlooking Rockaway Beach on the San Mateo coast of California
Passing clouds cast shadows of doubt across the rolling hills. Would it rain? Would it hold out? Would the wind come up and blow it all away? The short trail up was full of the oddest switchbacks you’ll ever see. Paved path 50 yards to the left, then 50 yards to the right, to gain […]…

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All That Remains

Plein air artwork of graffiti at the Sutro Baths cave at Ocean Beach on the San Francisco coast of California
Notes… er… randomly connected poetry. I blame it on the weather. Holy moly this was a hot humid day. Hid in a cave to paint this one. Ended with bolts of lighting cracking all around. Anyway, this is what was written… Cerebral flapjacks cooking on the whiskey barArtificial roller coaster couldn’t beat the bumper carCreepers […]…

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Unorthodox

Plein air artwork over Ross Cove looking toward Maverick's at half moon bay on the San Mateo coast of California

Sunday morning. Somewhere under a cathedral ceiling the choir is singing an old song. Out here under the open sky the choir sings the oldest song. Somewhere under a cathedral ceiling, a “contemporary worship team” is singing a new song. Out here under the open sky, the choir sings the newest song. The angels sing […]


Eat the Rich

Plein air artwork from Martin's Beach on the San Mateo coast of Central California
It’s yours, you bought it. Now what? Put up a fence? A bunch of signs telling us to stay out of the places we’ve always gone? Lock the gate? Threaten us with arrest? Have fun with that. We know who belongs here and nobody had to pay our way. It was given freely at birth. […]…

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Don’t Eat Us

Plein air artwork from Tunitas Creek on the San Mateo coast of California
A pristine beach. But after the first impression of paradise subsides, one is greeted by the scattering of utter filth left behind by those who were here before. Oh, I know it’s not me or you. It’s Them, of course. Sure, this painting makes it look rather nice, and no doubt if you make it […]…

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Juxtaposition

Plein air artwork from the bluff's over Dead Man's at Land's End in San Francisco California
Just a few days earlier I’d surfed a spot hundreds of miles north that goes by the same name as this one. A memorial was being held for a local surfer who’d recently passed away while surfing there. This morning as I woke up to make the 6 hour drive south with this destination on […]…

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More or Less

Plein air artwork from the beach at Morro Rock on the San Luis Obispo coast of Central California
I saw an old man reciting poetry to the seagulls here. They waited on his every word, looking for any morsel of wisdom they could read between his lines. Or potato chips, those would work too. One seagull perched on my van. He wanted to know what I was doing in there. I was painting […]…

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Mourning and Remembrance

Plein air artwork of a shipwreck near Cayucos on the San Luis Obispo coast of Central California
By day they theorize, philosophize, and lay their eyes on this predicament from old lawn chairs behind a makeshift barrier of plastic tape. By night they await the higher tide under the spotlight, searching for answers, but generating none. Once a proud vessel, named for nobility, now on the rocks, without the gin, or perhaps […]…

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The Sea Before Dark

Plein air painting of the cliffs over Pismo Beach on the San Luis Obispo coast of California
A focal point for those just passing through. After miles of inland panoramas the road opens up to a view of the ocean here. But only for a moment or two. Then it’s back to the cows and the farms and the country music. It’s hard not to stop once in a while. It’s just […]…

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Leave No Trace: Side A

Plein air painting of the coast at Cave Landing near Avila Beach on the San Luis Obispo coast of central California
Arrival: Late Afternoon.  Look west, hike to bottom of trail. View from top was better. Plus creepy creepers lurking in the reeds everywhere down here. Trash strewn. Beautiful place, but yuck. Back to top. Look east, hike toward cove on that side of this headland. Trash strewn. Starting to feel guilty. Might head back to […]…

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Leave No Trace: Side B

Plein air painting of graffiti and rock formations at Cave Landing near Avila Beach on the San Luis Obispo coast of California
Arrival: Late Afternoon.  Look west, hike to bottom of trail. View from top was better. Plus creepy creepers lurking in the reeds everywhere down here. Trash strewn. Beautiful place, but yuck. Back to top. Look east, hike toward cove on that side of this headland. Trash strewn. Starting to feel guilty. Might head back to […]…

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Economy of Scale

Plein air artwork showing the view of Morro Bay and Morro Rock from Black mountain on the central California coast
Geology trips me out. They always say that the large rock formation at the mouth of this bay is some sort of plug in a volcano. Okay… well I guess that’s pretty convenient. Maybe that’s why they are so strict about not letting climbers set foot on the thing- don’t want to risk any climbers […]…

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Hole in the Fence

Plein air artwork from the San Luis Obispo county coast near Ragged Point in central California
Under the barbed wire, across a bluff top meadow, promising lines appeared bending around the nearshore reefs. Don’t let the painting of this dreamy lineup fool you. Sure, in a still moment, it was a vision of perfection, but taken in the 4th dimension of time, it was nothing more than a broken promise. At […]…

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Most Wanted

Plein air artwork from Point Estero in San Luis Obispo county on the central California coast
I’d been wanting to paint this stretch of coast for years. It’s not a place I’ve visited much, but even driving by as a kid learning to surf years ago, this area called to me. The deepwater reefs and powerful surf were out of my league and no doubt when things get real out there […]…

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B.Y.O.B.

Plein air artwork from the trail to Sierra Nevada point on the san luis obispo county coast of central california

We came in search of gold. We’ll leave with pockets full of solitude. We speak to the wind. We live here now, everything else is dreamtime. The cars and houses, the monies and the media, the interconnected web of information that ties us all together… none of that can truly exist at all. We know […]


We’ll Cross that Bridge When We Get to It

California coastal plein air artwork of Rocky Creek Bridge on the Big Sur coast of Montery county
Under the authority of a king in Europe, there is land in California, owned and private today, that was divided up and given to friends of the throne. It’s wild to think of the history behind some of the barbed wire we see all over the coast here. I don’t blame anyone. I’d have accepted […]…

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Dressed in White

Not a fun place to attempt to park this huge van… Drive around, drive around, drive around, repeat for an absurdly long duration, ok, finally, park! Then get out and walk around looking for one spot to paint, knowing the time is short and I’ll be long gone by dark, my one chance to paint […]…

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