Ever since I’d heard about the remains of this old pier at the bottom of a steep cliff, all covered in graffiti, I knew I’d need to paint the place. The morning fog kept me from being able to paint another cliff top vista nearby so I took advantage of the weather to paint these […]
The Sea is for “California” The Ay is for “Ay, it looks kinda fun out there” The El is for “Where the El did all these people come from? It didn’t look this crowded a minute ago” The I is for “I didn’t see you back there” The Ef is for things I’ve heard out […]
Hot exhaust fumes hardening into tar deposits hanging in the air over the snow cone machines where the tourist buses come to die and pour out their guts just short of the hospital where elderly cottages are kept on life support by the steady IV drip of short-term rental vacation deposits. This place is bought […]
I came with a plan. The plan was to paint these sculpted arches and coves and the sea at work around them while ignoring everything else. Forget the palms, forget the houses, forget the sun and the sky, forget the boulevard, and forget it’s name along with my own and just get lost in the […]
An arch that’s been painted once or twice or a thousand times before this, and will be again by countless others walking these shores. All I know is that at least on this day they better approach from the south, because there was no getting past the rocks on the north side. A steady stream […]
I don’t know why the child suffers But I know he is more than his pain I don’t know when he’ll return to this place But I know he’ll be here again I don’t know why this life Brought him these troubles so soon But I know that when his feet touch this sand The […]
There are souths, and there are Big Souths, and there are places like this that are still south of those while still being north of many other souths, let the reader understand. I’d spent the morning painting out on that headland just past the breaking waves, and the view in this direction made for a […]
A quick family getaway. An early morning stumble across a cow pasture. A desperate and failed effort not to spill my coffee while being distracted by this beauty. A fleeting glimpse of my wife jogging on the beach beneath the first light of day. How does she do that at this hour? I can barely […]
It had been awhile. We needed to getaway and we found what we were looking for on the Mendocino coast. A small house. Just our family and the wind and more beauty than one should rightfully be entitled to, unless it were by grace. Speaking of a different form of grace, pelicans are the masters, […]
After finishing the previous painting, I ventured further on to explore this coast trail to its logical end. I found it here. The sign told me so. The ribbons and trinkets tied to the barbed wire fence spoke of the prayers of others who’ve walked this lonely path. And I thought to myself, “that makes […]
I’ve painted the border fence at the Mexico border before, but this is the first painting I’ve done of California’s northern border. There’s really not much of a border there. Just a beach stretching into the distance. Oregon hasn’t yet built their wall to keep us out, but I won’t be surprised if they have […]
A fine late-winter day on our local coast. It doesn’t get better than this around here. I saw other painters perched at nearly every lookout on this short stretch of scenic road, but somehow I managed to paint this one without getting tangled up in any arguments about ultramarine blue.
