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# MATT BEARD ART

Painting the Entire California Coast

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://mattbeardart.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Words](https://mattbeardart.com/blog/)
- [Depth Perception VIII: Moon and Stars](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-viii-moon-and-stars/)
- [Blurreds of the Field | Greeting Cards](https://mattbeardart.com/blurreds-of-the-field-greeting-cards/)
- [Et Tu, Gino?](https://mattbeardart.com/et-tu-gino/)
- [It's All You](https://mattbeardart.com/its-all-you/)
- [The Snag of Asclepius](https://mattbeardart.com/the-snag-of-asclepius/)
- [The Burning Bush](https://mattbeardart.com/the-burning-bush/) - Someday soon I’m going to burst into flames Maybe Friday If it’s a nice morning I’ll light up like the fifty one warheads Haphazardly placed in my birthday cake And at last when the hazmat suits Finally come crawling up from their shelters To sweep up my snowy ashes Squinting in the virgin light They
- [Painting the California Coast: Volume One](https://mattbeardart.com/painting-the-california-coast-volume-one/) - A coffee table collection of artwork and notes from the field after 15 years of painting up and down the Entire California Coast.
- [Theme Parks: A Collection of Poems](https://mattbeardart.com/theme-parks-a-collection-of-poems/) - Theme Parks contains seven collections of my original poems, organized around themes of language, time, place, family, love, self and the unexpected nearness of God.
- [California Spring Trucker Hat](https://mattbeardart.com/california-spring-trucker-hat/) - Theme Parks contains seven collections of my original poems, organized around themes of language, time, place, family, love, self and the unexpected nearness of God.
- [Sneaky Deals!](https://mattbeardart.com/sneaky-deals/)
- [Afternoon Swim](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-swim/)
- [Morning Swim](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-swim/)
- [Working Up to a Faceplant](https://mattbeardart.com/working-up-to-a-faceplant/)
- [Over And...](https://mattbeardart.com/over-and/)
- [I Never Knew A River Until I Knew You](https://mattbeardart.com/i-never-knew-a-river-until-i-knew-you/)
- [Thanks For Not Letting Me Die Today](https://mattbeardart.com/thanks-for-not-letting-me-die-today/)
- [Evening Swim](https://mattbeardart.com/evening-swim/)
- [For You, From Us](https://mattbeardart.com/for-you-from-us/)
- [The Bird and the Bees](https://mattbeardart.com/the-bird-and-the-bees/) - The canary in the coal mine When she stops singing Lives are on the line None more so than hers I never thought I'd live to see music stop And I know it never truly did Wherever there are humans There is music And yet It went oddly quiet for a time Times and half
- [Misnomer](https://mattbeardart.com/misnomer/)
- [And She Was Made of Sunlight](https://mattbeardart.com/and-she-was-made-of-sunlight/)
- [Two in the Bush](https://mattbeardart.com/two-in-the-bush/)
- [Worlds Away](https://mattbeardart.com/worlds-away/)
- [Love Your Anemones](https://mattbeardart.com/love-your-anemones/)
- [Blurreds of the Field](https://mattbeardart.com/blurreds-of-the-field/)
- [The Banquet](https://mattbeardart.com/the-banquet/)
- [Music of the Spheres](https://mattbeardart.com/music-of-the-spheres/) - The astronomy app on my phone said there would be some cool things happening in the sky that night, just after the rise of the full moon. An alignment of planets. The app never said anything about the 360° Piano Sphere hovering over the waters beneath the alignment though. And it just goes to show,
- [Overcoming Disynclination](https://mattbeardart.com/overcoming-disynclination/)
- [Below the Surface I](https://mattbeardart.com/below-the-surface-i/)
- [Below the Surface II](https://mattbeardart.com/below-the-surface-ii/)
- [Listen to Her](https://mattbeardart.com/listen-to-her/) - Another one for the Music People. You know who you are. For the last few years I’ve been honored to paint the official artwork for the Redwood Coast Music Festival. Each year I put some thought (typically at the last minute) into just what this mysterious magic called music is all about. Where’d it
- [Internal Communications](https://mattbeardart.com/internal-communications/) - There is a stage every painting I create goes through at the very beginning that I fall in love with almost every time. It's not the polished end-game, it's the initial quick sketch with the first few thin washes of color applied. There is something about that first reaction to the scene before me that
- [From Seed to Flower and Back Again](https://mattbeardart.com/from-seed-to-flower-and-back-again/) - My mother was a greenhouse She birthed a million babies And her grandchildren See the world now From the wings of honeybees --- Painted for the Humboldt Botanical Gardens, 2023 The Gardens are a beautiful place and each year they invite a bunch of artists to come and paint on the grounds. They feed us
- [Origin Story](https://mattbeardart.com/origin-story/)
- [Depth Perception VI](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-vi/) - Another prayer for clarity That we might all come to see Our present death As fertile ground Instead And though this trope wears thin There will be nothing cliche About who you are When you arise From your own grave Today
- [Yield for Tractor](https://mattbeardart.com/yield-for-tractor/)
- [Depth Perception #7](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-7/)
- [Hitting the High Notes](https://mattbeardart.com/hitting-the-high-notes/)
- [Afternoon Commitments](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-commitments/) - When we’re young and in love, we can ignore all the demands of the world in favor of one afternoon alone with our loved one, while the entire world becomes small enough to rest in the shade of a single beach umbrella. If you know my art, you know I’m usually drawn to higher
- [Bamboozled](https://mattbeardart.com/bamboozled/)
- [Ella's Point](https://mattbeardart.com/ellas-point/) - This was pure imagination, but not all my own. My wife and I had been tasked to give some art instruction to a friend’s daughter as part of an independent study art class she was in at her local high school. You have to know one thing- I am not a very good teacher. I
- [Depth Perception #3](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-3/)
- [Depth Perception #4](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-4/) - Our bodies are made of rocks, sand, and clay. Veins of metal pulse beneath. Mining operations are blood transfusions that keep the gods on life support. Our spirits disturbed, distant storms, fueled by the heat of life-giving fire, translates the language that created the first world into the depths of our subconsciousness, reverberating in pulses
- [Depth Perception #5](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-5/) - There is something primordial about staring into the blackness of the deep. A sense of heightened awareness is stirred because, well, mostly because monsters. So we feel safer in shallow waters where we can see with all certainty that no such monsters lurk. And yet if the ocean is really moving its the shallows with
- [Dust and Ashes](https://mattbeardart.com/dust-and-ashes/) - The poppies and buckwheat bloom Little fires that have jumped the hearth Right out from the sun itself Scattering our world alight Illuminating our path And the dust we kick up Reminds us where we come from As it settles on our skin A mourning dew Of leftover ash Reminding us of where we’ll go
- [Gravitational Truce](https://mattbeardart.com/gravitational-truce/) - Over 4 miles of hiking with a large canvas and all my gear, risking the tide, trusting these unstable cliffs to hold a few more hours towering over my head. A game of Russian Roulette with sedimentary geology, all in the name of beauty and solitude. I found it here that day, and some might
- [Twentytwenty II](https://mattbeardart.com/twentytwenty-ii/) - Back in 2020 I painted a dark stormy shorepound painting as a response to the mayhem we were all living through. It struck a chord with many, I think because in spite of the darkness there was a certain beauty in it as well. A few years later, when a collector asked for a similar
- [Depth Perception #1](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-1/)
- [Depth Perception #2](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-perception-2/)
- [Kansas City Star](https://mattbeardart.com/kansas-city-star/) - This was a lot of fun to paint, and waaaay out of my comfort zone. If you know my work, you know what I mean. I’m a lot more comfortable painting rocks and trees inaccurately than I am doing the same injustices to the human form, but there they were, pouring themselves into their music
- [The Loneliness of the Long Distance Rose Bush](https://mattbeardart.com/the-loneliness-of-the-long-distance-rose-bush/) - Maybe it's a self portrait. This was painted at the Humboldt Botanical Gardens where there must have been at least 20 other artists working on the grounds. Maybe more. Beautiful people, hearts of gold, paintings of delightful beauty in various states of refinement. I show up late, wander the entire garden, perpetually unsatisfied with the
- [The Coast Road](https://mattbeardart.com/the-coast-road/) - It's not always intentional When humanity is erased When strip malls and donut shops Are leveled in the blink of an eye When paved roads are pulverized Back to rutted earth Without a second thought I don't mean to do this In my haste I get sloppy And the brush doesn't seem to care One
- [Nobody Home](https://mattbeardart.com/nobody-home/) - Nobody home Just kidding Everybody is home We all live here Our feet in the sand Reminds us of what we’re made of Mostly anyway Mostly made of earth But some of us are also made of fish tacos And if I tell the truth here I must say I’ve spent more time Eating fish
- [Chain of Command](https://mattbeardart.com/chain-of-command/) - Chains of oppression Forged of human weakness Masquerade as strength Behind machines With a thousand different ways To spill blood A chain of command Sends a child To destroy a town That could have been his own And it may just break that child Or may by him be broken He stands beside the caravan
- [Mine... Or Maybe Yours](https://mattbeardart.com/mine-or-maybe-yours/) - We met when we were older, when we had more swagger, and we stood a little closer to the throne. But we had a falling out between us, we're artists, and we're awkward, this is widely known. The fault was all mine, that's what I've been told, but it could have been yours and yours
- [Into the Sunset](https://mattbeardart.com/into-the-sunset/) - Will this be your first? That was my stupid question for them I'm not very good at this They were really quite beautiful together A perfect young couple Watching another southern California sunset From the edge of crumbling cliff Over the mirror of the sea Clearly expecting A green flash I'd just finished painting the
- [The Light In Our Eyes](https://mattbeardart.com/the-light-in-our-eyes/) - One fine morning we arose And somehow cooked Our morning brews Seventeen machines From which we could choose And some of them Are pretty good We stare into ceramic darkness That floods our morning with life Egad, what’s this? The sun that shines In our eyes while we’re trying to write Piercing light whom I
- [Water Wheel](https://mattbeardart.com/new-year/) - Time is a water-wheel And we’ve gone around the bend Water spills out And down the creek To the oceans to the clouds And back for another spin Looks like we’ve got a whole new chance To do it all over Again Our last turn was dripping Into an empty room Full of whole new
- [Plate Tectonics](https://mattbeardart.com/plate-tectonics/) - When two bodies collide There will always be A fault line to find In you or in me But not now For today we are lovers Folded one around the other Cliffs and chasms Metamorphic And sedimentary flesh Thrust like beating hearts Love is a precipice We stand on the edge And as we
- [Talk of the Endings](https://mattbeardart.com/talk-of-the-endings/) - We talk a lot these days About the Endings Put your boots on When you enter the kitchen And step carefully Through broken china Sometimes the Ending Is only a burnt tortilla With the face Of Jesus But mostly We talk of the Endings In low tones Fearing the unknown We speak of lives lost
- [Oil and Water](https://mattbeardart.com/oil-and-water/)
- [Sun Set Twice](https://mattbeardart.com/sun-set-twice/)
- [You Go Left, I'll go Right](https://mattbeardart.com/you-go-left-ill-go-right/)
- [Ghosts Can't Swim](https://mattbeardart.com/ghosts-cant-swim/) - You never really know Who they bring along What ghosts are riding shotgun Talking And drowning out the song But everybody here Knows that ghosts can’t swim Cold water to them is searing heat And anyway They can’t even stand A bit of sand on their feet The ghosts just stay in the cars Angry
- [War and Peace](https://mattbeardart.com/war-and-peace/) - Conflict is inevitable The Sea sends its navy To war against the Land The Fog lays an ambush Against the Bluer Skies The Mud launches a ground assault Against Your Soggy Boots Warring factions lie in wait Around every bend At the end of this trail Named for
- [Oceans to Oceans](https://mattbeardart.com/oceans-to-oceans/)
- [From the Joker to the Thief](https://mattbeardart.com/from-the-joker-to-the-thief/)
- [Made in California](https://mattbeardart.com/made-in-california/)
- [SDSFF 2017 Skip Frye Tribute: The Glider](https://mattbeardart.com/sdsff-2017-skip-frye-tribute-the-glider/) - This year the San Diego Surf Film Festival hosted a heartfelt tribute night to San Diego’s Skip Frye, who has been building beautiful boards and outsurfing everyone for over 50 years. The hall was packed with legends of the surfing world there to honor Skip with the SDSFF Lifetime Achievement Award. As each speaker stood
- [“GROUNDWATER” @Morris Graves Museum of Art | March 31-April 29](https://mattbeardart.com/groundwater-morris-graves-museum-of-art-march-31-april-29/) - “GROUNDWATER” In addition to creating a new series of work live during the Redwood Coast Music Festival at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, I will also be showing one of my favorite bodies of work in the Floyd Bettiga Gallery (downstairs from the main floor). My Insinuation Series explores the idea of using
- [Proof of Concept](https://mattbeardart.com/proof-of-concept/) - Painted this one en route to a lighthouse at California's greatest turning point. I was originally going to paint the beach park about 5 miles north of this point, just around that first bend in the distance of this painting. After walking about 30 feet north to seek a nearby view, not even getting out
- [Negative Donut](https://mattbeardart.com/negative-donut/)
- [Bobcats Don't Have Tails](https://mattbeardart.com/bobcats-dont-have-tails/) - For this one, I wanted to return to the scene of the first painting, I felt there was something more to see without trying to get the entire scene all the way to that white mountain. And I was right. As soon as I stopped to set up the easel, I looked back on the
- [The Sand Fleas](https://mattbeardart.com/the-sand-fleas/) - Painted live with the Sand Fleas this evening to benefit the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust. I've painted with a lot of bands and live musicians but never tried this before, where the focus is turned back squarely to the musicians. In fact I generally avoid figurative work altogether. There was some consensus that it looked
- [I'm Going In!](https://mattbeardart.com/im-going-in/) - Close to the water's edge and just around that boulder point known as Bonsai Rocks. By the time I was done with this one, staring so closely into that crystalline water while sweating in the sun, there was no holding back. I'm going in! Wow, Tahoe. You're cold. That hurt.
- [A Strong Inclination](https://mattbeardart.com/a-strong-inclination/) - This is the first painting I did in Tahoe. It was a real puzzle for me trying to sort out the values in the painting with that blinding white snow on the surrounding ridges. I kept feeling like everything should be lighter because of the distance, then I'd lose the contrast that would make that
- [Fit for a King](https://mattbeardart.com/fit-for-a-king/) - Named for the stretch of coast nearby, King's beach, it's easy to see why a place this beautiful would belong to a King. That said, he's lost some territory this year as the heavier than normal snowfall melting into the lake has the water level several feet higher than normal and this beach, like many
- [West of Heaven](https://mattbeardart.com/west-of-heaven/) - I was undoubtedly the highest I've ever been while painting this one. Wait. not like that. I mean the highest elevation- 9,123 feet above sea level to be exact. Heavenly is the name of the ski resort here on the California/Nevada border and we arrived to the first day of the summer gondola running visitors
- [Heaven's Fourth Foundation](https://mattbeardart.com/heavens-fourth-foundation/) - How's that cryptic title? Don't worry I'm not starting some sort of religious new age cult or anything. I just have a tradition with my coastal paintings of not naming locations in the titles, but often providing obscure wordplay cues to the locations. I do this partly because as a surfer, no matter how much
- [The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth](https://mattbeardart.com/the-meek-shall-inherit-the-earth/) - The bold get up early and seize the day. They also seize all of the parking spots on the southwest shore of Tahoe by 9 in the morning on hot summer days. Earlier this day I was rather bold myself, rising before 6am and seizing a primo spot just about the falls in the previous
- [No Turning Back](https://mattbeardart.com/no-turning-back/) - I'd tried to get to this place, Rubicon point, located in D.L. Bliss State Park for two days in a row only to be denied by a full parking lot. On the first day, I was with my whole family and we looked at a map and decided to walk in on the Rubicon Trail.
- [Morning Glow](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-glow/)
- [Afternoon on the Coast Route](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-on-the-coast-route/) - This is one of the first paintings I painted of this location. I’d go on to paint many more over the years, but none quite as refined as this one painted over ten years ago. It waspainted at home in the quietness of my studio. This is as good a time as any to point
- [Daybreak](https://mattbeardart.com/daybreak/) - A fine lineDivides the pursuitOf overwhelming joyFrom sheerAnd loathsomeIrresponsibility The high tide lineDividesThe rest Consider us dividedAndConquered Even the SpaniardsOn the tall shipsKnow... Both victoryAnd defeatTaste betterWith a dash of saltAnd lime
- [The Jewel IX: Friday Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-ix-friday-morning/)
- [The Jewel I: Monday Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-i-monday-morning/)
- [Free Range #31: Summer Cooker](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-31-summer-cooker/) - Odometer: 1491.6 miles Not much to say here. It was really hot this day, not like Texas-in-Summer heat or anything near it, but still much hotter than usual for these parts. I’m not used to sweating so much near the beach. It’s all well and good if you’ve got your feet in the water, it’s
- [Chipps and Salsa](https://mattbeardart.com/chipps-and-salsa/) - Honored to be selected as the official event artist for the 2015 Luau & Legends of Surfing Invitational coming up later this summer on August 9. Every year a new artist is commissioned to create their own variation of the event location, Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA. This incredible event has been running for 22 years
- [Chatting With Suess #1](https://mattbeardart.com/chatting-with-suess-1/) - From the day I was shown this view, I looked forward to painting it. A sweeping vista of the coast revealed a summary of the region: a densely populated zone, but scattered with open spaces of arid beauty. A fertile ground from which to gaze out and ponder the absurdities of life that we take
- [The Abalone Tree](https://mattbeardart.com/the-abalone-tree/)
- [Moment of Clarity](https://mattbeardart.com/moment-of-clarity/)
- [Morning Jewels](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-jewels/)
- [Number 9](https://mattbeardart.com/number-9/) - I’d been driving past this little slot canyon for years wondering if I’d ever get out there to paint someday. It looks out over the wetlands that are fed by the tidal inlet at that reef way out in the distance. I’ve painted that reef from plenty of other angles (beach level, the cliff at
- [So Close, But So Far Away](https://mattbeardart.com/so-close-but-so-far-away/) - Long walk to get here, hot day, no way to get down this cliff and into the water. Not complaining, just stating facts... in a complainey sorta way. On another topic, Southern California was fun in April/May, caught the tail end of the Bloom and these yellow flowers were seemingly everywhere.
- [Cliff Hanger](https://mattbeardart.com/cliff-hanger/) - While I tend toward the pulled back views looking up or down the coast until the atmospheric haze obscures the landscape features off in the distance, it's nice to change it up from time to time and absorb a more intimate view of the unique coastal features in a given location.
- [Cubic Yards](https://mattbeardart.com/cubic-yards/) - Plein air from a beautiful morning along the La Jolla coast from awhile back. I always enjoy the flowing weathered forms of the rocky shoreline here. In this case it was that cubic chunk of rock just catching the light that caught my eye so I ditched my usual mode of operation that typically involves
- [All You Can Eat](https://mattbeardart.com/all-you-can-eat/) - This was a significant painting for me. I have a tendency to want to include everything, and break up every space on a canvas into smaller and smaller pieces. When painting flat beaches or spaces with a lot of empty foreground or sky I usually struggle with those empty areas. Here I finally just let
- [A Stone's Throw](https://mattbeardart.com/a-stones-throw/) - 2nd of 4 paintings painted this day- a quick study done in the midday heat. Figured since I mentioned my last one was the first of four in one day, I better own up to it and show the rest of them as well... bear with me Painted and titled this a year before the
- [Grumpy Locals](https://mattbeardart.com/grumpy-locals/)
- [Not Exactly a Picnic](https://mattbeardart.com/not-exactly-a-picnic/) - Painted from the roof of my van. I put a platform up there just for this purpose. It’s great to return to places I’ve been before and see them from just a little higher up. To be honest though, I wasn’t all that into this scene at the start, even from my lofty perch. But
- [The Boulevard](https://mattbeardart.com/the-boulevard/) - 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
- [Just Before Sunset](https://mattbeardart.com/just-before-sunset/) - One of those summer evenings that make you just feel like life could always be this way. It can't. But in the moment, maybe it sorta can. I painted this while watching one particular section of reef where wave after wave peeled across in perfection. I couldn't finish this quick enough. I caught one gem
- [Jacob's Ladder](https://mattbeardart.com/jacobs-ladder/) - This pier is condemned. Structurally damaged. And the scene here beneath the shadow of its condemnation is… interesting to say the least. Police patrols. Dealers. All manner of today’s American riff raff squaring off against the sunny California dream. Let’s call this man by the stairs Jacob. In the biblical narrative, Jacob was a deceptive
- [Not Exactly No](https://mattbeardart.com/not-exactly-no/) - I’m pretty sure there are more than a few of you Who consider me a lazy man A work ethic gone soft Beach days in the sun Idle hands Idle mind Idolatry to the almighty dollar Guilty as charged Stone me But with sweat dripping Down my face I stand in the sparkling sun And
- [Higher Learning](https://mattbeardart.com/higher-learning/) - If I had learned a little more I'd have known what not to do I'd have stood my ground And refused to paint The whole entire view But here we are after the fact Showing every reef and where they lie Splayed out across this canvas From a vantage point Halfway up the sky A
- [Who Are You?](https://mattbeardart.com/who-are-you/) - Let's meet for tacos. I drag an art pal along and we meet up with a friend who wants me to paint a particular spot nearby. The tacos are delicious but they are actually giant burgers and these beers are absolutely perfect. Another pal shows up and another round ensues. We leave the funny tacos
- [Recent Fractures](https://mattbeardart.com/recent-fractures/) - Standing on the edge Where everything brittle must eventually break Where every painting is a tempting of fate I do think about these things But not deeply, and not with too much weight Because I try to tread lightly on the edge of fate But recent fractures Can't be ignored nor can I the consequences
- [Empty](https://mattbeardart.com/empty/) - They’ll happily share with youEach and every wave you rideWhether you like itOr not But then again...They’ll also cook you up a cup of Dutch CoffeeIn the parking lot
- [End of a Long Day](https://mattbeardart.com/end-of-a-long-day/)
- [Lined Up](https://mattbeardart.com/lined-up/) - On the morning I was created⠀I crawled out the back of the old yellow van⠀Wide-eyed and blinking⠀Wondering where my brother had ran?⠀ He ran to the sea⠀He ran for his life⠀ Past the razor’s edge of the earth⠀Into the mist where the horizon is long⠀Where the black dots line up and wait⠀Is that really where
- [Skippin' Work](https://mattbeardart.com/skippin-work/)
- [The Low Road](https://mattbeardart.com/the-low-road/)
- [Above and Below](https://mattbeardart.com/above-and-below/) - One world aboveAnd another belowIt might be heaven up thereButDown hereWe live in our vans
- [House of Prayer](https://mattbeardart.com/house-of-prayer/) - These trembling walls danceWith their Maker’s invisible spiritAs we wage war on tomorrow’s past Victory was better an hour agoAnd defeat is a low-tide Rising
- [Free Range #30: Fading Fast](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-30-fading-fast/) - Odometer: 1415.8 miles Hoping for a quick surf at the end of the day. Missed it. There is always the morning.
- [Just the Basics](https://mattbeardart.com/just-the-basics/) - Written on March 24, 2020 Back when I painted this one and called it "Just the Basics" it just made sense. What I meant by that expression then seems today almost extravagant. Surfers generally tend to have a simple mindset. It doesn't take much to make a good life, no need to chase money in
- [The Hectic Pace of Modern Life](https://mattbeardart.com/the-hectic-pace-of-modern-life/) - Written on April 6, 2020 That title takes on a whole different flavor right now. At the time the world was buzzing away at top speed, except on a bad-surf day on the Southern California coast. I had painted this scene a few days before (minus the VW), but I wasn't happy with it, so
- [Modern Lines](https://mattbeardart.com/modern-lines/) - I’ve walked over and beneath this railroad line many a time. I’ve jumped from the tracks to flee the train. I’ve marveled at the burnt beams and wondered that entire trains could be held up by charcoal and memory. Apparently others wondered too, and decided on that eternal Roman upgrade- smooth concrete. Impervious to the
- [Buzz Buzz](https://mattbeardart.com/buzz-buzz/)
- [October Groundswell](https://mattbeardart.com/october-groundswell/) - Rising and falling like the tideAnd yet they are surprised when their stocks don’t rise and rise and rise One October they fellA negative low-tide The panic that followed scorched a thousand cigarettesAnd left ‘em where they lie While their shaking hands still burned with fearWe tip-toed past the madness as the tide slowly filled
- [Morning Rollers](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-rollers/)
- [The One that Got Away](https://mattbeardart.com/the-one-that-got-away/) - They fish for meaningThere’s tension in the lineOnce they’ve caught our driftThey will place a hook in its jaw And skewer the guts from the living truth Until nothing is left Between us and them But a line or twoHardly worth repeating
- [American Paradox](https://mattbeardart.com/american-paradox/) - Under watchful eyesWe pretend the machineryWill clean up the remains of our freedomsLost forever to the systematic fire We burn your moneyAndWeep with your love
- [Still Life: Tower 22 and Red Single-Fin](https://mattbeardart.com/still-life-tower-22-and-red-single-fin/) - Twenty-two rulesand too many ways to break them.We didn’t know any better.We thought they were only suggestions.
- [Subpedestrian Homesick Blues](https://mattbeardart.com/subpedestrian-homesick-blues/) - Sand crabs and square slices of pepperoni pizza- the working capital of days long spent hiding under the pier for shade, and relief from watching eyes. The older kids’ cigarettes smelled funny. Try not to look ‘em in the eye.
- [The Light Contagious](https://mattbeardart.com/the-light-contagious/) - One of the best things about plein air painting all over the California coast is that it requires me to post up and really watch the waves for several hours. By the time I wrapped this one up at sunset, I knew I'd be back the next morning, and where I'd sit in the line
- [Natural Defenses](https://mattbeardart.com/natural-defenses/) - Last one from a recent trip to Orange County, and my first plein air from this historically significant plein air zone. I'm sure there are literally thousands of paintings out there from this vantage point, but until now none of them were mine. I haven't been avoiding it intentionally, it's just a nightmare to find
- [Time Rolls Slowly Uphill](https://mattbeardart.com/time-rolls-slowly-uphill/) - The morning before painting this I had done a demo for a friend's high school art class down on the beach below these hills. I felt like I sorta botched that one a bit, (I had higher hopes for it anyway) . He took his students to a Museum in Laguna Beach afterwards and I
- [The Way it Was](https://mattbeardart.com/the-way-it-was/) - I was asked to paint this iconic Southern California cove the way it was before the highway and houses came along, without any signs of human presence. It would require some careful editing of the devoloped landscape. Speaking of careful handling of the landscape, it would also require some careful stepping through a plant rehabilitation
- [End of the West](https://mattbeardart.com/end-of-the-west/) - It’s the end of the westIt’s the setting sunIt’s a train-wreck that’s only just begun It’s a crowded barIt’s the law of the landIt’s illicit activities obscured by hot sand It’s a war at seaIt’s the first shots firedIt’s victory in sight, though not the one desired It’s a shift in the windIt’s an outgoing
- [California Responding to a Global Crisis](https://mattbeardart.com/california-responding-to-a-global-crisis/) - Yeah, this is a big one we’re going through. But we’ve gone through others. This is how global crises look here on the southwestern edge of America. ⠀⠀I arrived to visit my father after a series of strokes left him housebound to the home where I was raised in Long Beach. It was decidedly un-edgy
- [Nosebleeds](https://mattbeardart.com/nosebleeds/) - To be honest I don't know why I'd never painted here before, I've painted a lot of Orange County beaches, both iconic and off the beaten path, but none more famous in modern times than this one. On any south swell you can expect to see footage and photos all over the internets and newspapers
- [Capital Punishment](https://mattbeardart.com/capital-punishment/) - To kill a killer. Justice served. Except in this case I don't think the killer ever actually killed anyone, and even if so, it was certainly not intentional. "Killer" was only a nickname. In fact the "killer" was much loved and revered by California surfers until 1966, when capital punishment was dished out and the
- [Cottage Industry](https://mattbeardart.com/cottage-industry/) - 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
- [Something Easy](https://mattbeardart.com/something-easy/) - Not much to say here, just a nice day on the southern California coast. Just a little something easy for those going through some hard times.
- [Something Not So Easy](https://mattbeardart.com/something-not-so-easy/) - If the previous painting of the day was titled Something Easy, well this would be the opposite of that. This place is hard. In many ways. And so was this painting. For a long few minutes, I didn't think it was ever going to work to get this down the beach perspective. But what a
- [When the Ship Comes In](https://mattbeardart.com/when-the-ship-comes-in/) - The ship has sailed And with it your lover Stolen away So you live like a pirate now Steering your terrestrial warship Your vessel made of sand Stealing only what you need And in need of everything And needing it today Stealing whatever you can Stealing one last glance At the bigger picture Before your
- [Chasing Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/chasing-gold/) - It’s funny. Here is one of the major epicenters of California. You’d think that, given its importance to the state, I’d have spent a lot of time painting this stretch of coast. I haven’t. I’ve mostly avoided it, to be honest. It’s hard to find parking. It’s stressful. It seems to be one of those
- [All the Sons of Adam](https://mattbeardart.com/all-the-sons-of-adam/) - We throw these stonesFighting this warWe declared on sandOn BabylonAnd one another We won’tBe finishedUntil our better angelsConcede defeat
- [March of History](https://mattbeardart.com/march-of-history/) - I'd been looking forward to painting this cove for a very long time. Surfing history runs deep here as this was one of the first locations in California to develop a dedicated surfing scene. Doc Ball was shooting water photographs here from atop a wooden surfboard back when they had to build their own water
- [The Writing on the Wall](https://mattbeardart.com/the-writing-on-the-wall/) - There's a lot that went into making this painting that you wouldn't know just by looking at it... Trespassing, for starters. It wasn’t exactly private property, but the city here had this area blocked off and clearly out of bounds. Walking the perimeter, I observed a well-maintained fence- every hole patched up, no gaps to
- [Vaudevillian Cartoon](https://mattbeardart.com/vaudevillian-cartoon/) - Painted en plein air, summer of 2018Temperature at 10am: 92 degrees and stupidly humid. Vaudeville [vôd(ə)ˌvil] noun. a theatrical genre of variety entertainment, typically made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Act one: The rugged beauty of a pristine corner of California’s coast- and a truly magnificent
- [Sarah's Lemonade](https://mattbeardart.com/sarahs-lemonade/) - I scour the coast looking for views like this- familiar places from unfamiliar angles. They don’t always reveal themselves right away. This one took years of following hunches and calculating the risks of trespassing on these multi-million dollar properties (or in this case, nearly trespassing, but not quite) . If they can afford real estate
- [Step Right Up](https://mattbeardart.com/step-right-up/)
- [Bird, As a Weapon](https://mattbeardart.com/bird-as-a-weapon/) - Written on March 26, 2020 This may look like social distancing in effect, but this was painted on a weekday last May. There were people, but they were moving and since plein air painting is in some ways like a hand-made photograph with a 3 hour exposure, the moving objects (people, cars, etc.) don't always
- [The Beautiful Mountain](https://mattbeardart.com/the-beautiful-mountain/) - After spending maybe too much time with the painting in my previous post, this was a reaction against that one's slow and methodical recording of a very technical shoreline. I had to move fast with the setting sun as I tried to just focus on getting some sense of the crispness of color and light
- [What Lies Behind](https://mattbeardart.com/what-lies-behind/) - A friend I had just met earlier at an event in San Diego invited me for a rare visit to this exclusive piece of California’s coast. I absorbed it with all my senses as we surfed all morning and I painted all afternoon.⠀⠀So what exactly does lie behind these locked gates? Here's a few things
- [The Royal Treatment](https://mattbeardart.com/the-royal-treatment/) - Already a long day of painting, this was a late afternoon session down the street from a restaurant where I'd just ate and drank to my fill with an old friend. I was supposed to be delivering a fresh batch of canvas prints to the restaurant as well. After a relaxed meal I told them
- [Thermal Windows](https://mattbeardart.com/thermal-windows/) - This private beach club cove once hosted a thriving whaling community. If one could activate time layers to run simultaneously we'd see grandmas playing smashball over bloody whale carcasses being carved away on the beach. But today is a quiet weekday and I see neither. I only see the quiet scene blurred through my sweating
- [Not So Distant Shores](https://mattbeardart.com/not-so-distant-shores/) - Plein air from one of California's other coasts Not too often do I paint from places I can't drive my van to, but it sure is fun to see these coasts with no roads and crystal clear waters. I'm stoked to be heading south for another round with one of our offshore islands next week.
- [We Must Keep Our Eyes Open](https://mattbeardart.com/we-must-keep-our-eyes-open/) - We must keep our eyes open. First two syllables: We-muh. Wordplay for the name of the tribe that lived here for thousands of years before they were scooped up and sent away to make room for sheep and cattle and now a national park. The opportunity to come visit this place was part of a
- [Moonlit Echoes](https://mattbeardart.com/moonlit-echoes/) - 5th painting completed today… well sorta today. Technically I only did four during the daylight hours but then snuck this one in the late hours of night beneath a bright full moon. The moonlight falling on the crushed gravel paths makes walking these trails at night a beautiful experience. The reflective white surface of the
- [Beside Clear Waters](https://mattbeardart.com/beside-clear-waters/) - This irresistible cove is overlooked by a rare Torrey Pine. I find myself today among the only Torrey Pine trees that exist outside of San Diego. The hillside behind me contains a dense grove. I was drawn to this one, standing alone beside these clear waters. It seemed to me a bit of a fragile
- [Time Waits for No Man… And Neither Does the Boat](https://mattbeardart.com/time-waits-for-no-man-and-neither-does-the-boat/) - I’ve heard it said that “time waits for no man”, well… neither does the boat. It was a pretty rushed scramble taking on this scene just before the boat was to depart for home. I was half-tempted to “miss the boat” just to stay a bit longer, but thought better of it. When I started
- [Water Under the Bridge](https://mattbeardart.com/water-under-the-bridge/) - This was my first day on a trip to this fairly remote piece of California. I wasn't alone out here, I was a guest artist travelling with a group of science students from the CSU system. Right on arrival the group decided to jump right in to a 7 mile round trip hike to a
- [Distant California](https://mattbeardart.com/distant-california/) - It's not the California coast that most of us are familiar with, but good to know it's out there. These old barns down at the bottom of this valley are no longer used, the sheep and cattle ranch ceased operations years ago. In some ways its sad to see this era come to a close,
- [Trifecta: Ticks, Wind, and Poison Oak](https://mattbeardart.com/trifecta-ticks-wind-and-poison-oak/) - I didn't have to hike far from the cabin for this one, I just wanted to peak a little around the corner of the beach straight out in front. There's a small hill that blocks the view here, so I made it my mission to get on top of this hill and paint from there.
- [The Apex of Spring](https://mattbeardart.com/the-apex-of-spring/) - Visiting this hard to reach outpost of California's coast during the Spring Equinox after a few wet months, I was hunting not just new corners and vistas, but had wildflowers on my mind as well. Elusive creatures, they can be, I didn't see as many as I'd hoped. But I did spot this little patch
- [Wish You Were Here](https://mattbeardart.com/wish-you-were-here/) - Those two old barns standing together in this distant outpost reminded me just how much I miss my best friend, my wife, when I'm out wandering around on the edge of the earth. I hope to bring her back here soon. One of the nice things about this region of California's coastline is that this
- [An Unfamiliar Song](https://mattbeardart.com/an-unfamiliar-song/) - This was the endpoint of my longest hike on this trip, 11 miles total, and it took me past several miles of coast I'd hiked and painted on a previous trip. On that trip, I thought I'd gone about as far as I could reasonably go in a day's work of hiking and painting. But
- [Holy Ground](https://mattbeardart.com/holy-ground/) - This is the view from the top of a hill that overlooks the entire crescent of this coast. Though there was no trail up here, and no clear signs of humanity in this refreshingly pristine landscape, I know I wasn't the first to stand in this exact spot. The way the peak looms over the
- [Down Harbor Blvd, Just Past the Airport](https://mattbeardart.com/down-harbor-blvd-just-past-the-airport/) - It’s like standing on holy ground. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to be here today. These thoughts are never far from my mind as I stand on the edge of this steep shore cliff and paint the scene before me after a rare opportunity to walk the interior valley of one of Southern
- [Left Behind](https://mattbeardart.com/left-behind/) - Beautiful memories, but some days are defined by regrets, just like the cactus in many ways is defined by its spines. ⠀⠀To get here required a two hour drive across a private reserve to this far side of the island. I have to give a big shout of thanks to my friends at the California
- [Her Quiet Time](https://mattbeardart.com/her-quiet-time/) - The Chumash people lived here first. The Earth Mother’s name was Hutash, and it was said that she planted a particular plant on this island, from which the people emerged fully grown. They were cold until they were given fire by lighting from that old Sky Snake, the Milky Way, the Earth Mother’s husband.⠀⠀The people
- [Idylls of the King](https://mattbeardart.com/idylls-of-the-king/) - Did you know that King Arthur’s famed sword, the Excalibur, was forged here, and that this is the island where King Arthur himself passed away? Ok, that’s not true, but the little town tucked behind this little cove on this desert island was named after the island in that very legend, as recorded in the English poet
- [Houses of the Doves](https://mattbeardart.com/houses-of-the-doves/) - The view from where we stayed (thanks mom-and-pops-in-law!). Sometimes I hike miles for a painting. Other times I stumble out the back door after a long slow morning and there it is.
- [The Gamble of Art and Culture](https://mattbeardart.com/the-gamble-of-art-and-culture/) - They call it a casino, and yet aside from placing the riskiest bet known to man - betting on art and culture - no gambling has ever taken place in this building. When it was built, Vegas wasn’t much of a thing yet, and the word “casino” was still just an Italian word that means
- [Low Speed Rail](https://mattbeardart.com/low-speed-rail/) - On a flat and windy day hereI asked her father for his blessingThat his only daughter might become my brideHe laughed and paddled hard for a terrible little wave
- [California Burning](https://mattbeardart.com/california-burning/) - This painting tour of the Santa Barbara/Ventura coast is quickly developing a wildfire theme. Every time you turn around down here there is another fire raging on another hill. I had a different spot in mind today, but the view of the smoke plume from this little utility road was just too good to pass
- [The Queen's Castle](https://mattbeardart.com/the-queens-castle/) - Even though she was royaltyWe continued to stareAt the linesAroundHer blue eyesAnd at theShape of herTremblingLipsThat encircledHer delicate mouth Meeting her wasOur good fortune She showed us graceAnd mercyWe did notEarn Little did we know thenJust how goodThe Queen would be to us Or just how difficultFortune can beFor thoseWho have received it
- [Well Oiled](https://mattbeardart.com/well-oiled/) - Of course I could have just drove up and painted right here. It’s barely 50 feet from the parking spot. But first I had to spend an hour or two exploring the inland side of the road, scouring around the train tracks and straining unsuccessfully to find a passable goat trail up the steep eroded
- [Rey y Reina, Fuego y Agua](https://mattbeardart.com/rey-y-reina-fuego-y-agua/) - Found another one from the last road trip. Not sure how this wasn't posted earlier. Painted during the Rey Fire a few weeks ago. Those are its massive plumes in the upper right glowing in the afternoon sun. Huge thanks to those that made this view possible for me. The word I heard was that
- [Vanishing Points](https://mattbeardart.com/vanishing-points/) - There was a day back in July of 2018 that saw record breaking heat all over California's coast. This was a few days after that when temperatures here cooled down to a chilly 96 degrees on the coast. Believe it or not, this was a relief from what it had been two days prior. This
- [If These Walls Could Speak](https://mattbeardart.com/if-these-walls-could-speak/) - This is a busy place. Especially after spending a week painting in virtual solitude on one of our offshore islands. Back to humanity. Parking lots. Attitudes. Spandex bikers. Beach joggers. Warring 12 year olds. Addicts teetering on the razor's edge of their future. Social media selfie hounds. Freeway traffic. All of this and a perfectly
- [La Novena](https://mattbeardart.com/la-novena/) - It’s good to have an exit plan. Sometimes it’s a quick exit out the backdoor. Sometimes it’s a longer game, like a sea captain who plants Norfolk pines wherever he lands should his ship’s mast be burnt by pirates or broken in a storm. And the exit isn’t always what we think. One exits a
- [The Sea is for "California"](https://mattbeardart.com/the-sea-is-for-california/) - 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
- [Sunrise Over the Gaviota Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/sunrise-over-the-gaviota-coast/)
- [Free Range #25: Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-25-dont-need-a-weatherman-to-know-which-way-the-wind-blows/) - Odometer: 1,151.9 miles Tonight was a victory for the mobile studio van. I often paint from the back of the van for protection from sun/ wind/rain, etc... But this particular evening the wind was howling so strong down these coastal canyons that it was hard to paint in the van even with all windows up
- [Free Range #24: The Spirit Not the Letter](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-24-the-spirit-not-the-letter/) - Odometer: 1,120.9 miles Driving out to check this place, I could tell the wind was coming up fast and early, so I figured I'd skip the surf and just get right into painting. I had the easy spots in mind, simple views right off the shoulder of the road as it wound over the bluffs
- [Around the Corner](https://mattbeardart.com/around-the-corner/) - We kissedOn that beachAs anotherIron horse galloped byWe were stowawaysOn a different trainAnd we had no ideaWhere it would take us
- [Afternoon Snacks](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-snacks/) - Single session studio painting, not plein air at all, it just looks that way... I don't work from single photos too often these days, but this quick snapshot from a few years back had been begging to get painted all that time. Yesterday I caved in and painted it in one session in the studio.
- [Land Rights](https://mattbeardart.com/land-rights/) - To step foot on these shores is to step back into an older CaliforniaPreserved in the ether of wood, and rust, and leather If exclusion is the cost, so be itSurely we’ve spent more for less elsewhere By the way, if you can get me past the front gateI give really good deals on commissioned
- [Educational Facilities](https://mattbeardart.com/educational-facilities/) - These are the places where we return when we get a bit too old after a long week of work and need to learn to be young again. They are also the places where the young grow and learn, and gain wisdom beyond their years. Up and down the coast are these friendly pockets of
- [Yo No Soy Marinero](https://mattbeardart.com/yo-no-soy-marinero/) - Last one from a recent Ventura/Santa Barbara trip. Sometimes a painting almost seems to paint itself. This one really didn't need me much at all. The more I got involved the more I messed it up so at one point I just sortof mentally checked out. I put on some music to drown out the
- [Study Break](https://mattbeardart.com/study-break/) - Always fun to paint from 500 feet up. UFO view of kelp beds, bending lines, and the likely culprit of many a failed college exam.
- [The Glider](https://mattbeardart.com/the-glider/) - Skip Frye Tribute. An interpretation of a classic Ron Stoner image of Skip paddling out at Cojo, from the Surfer Magazine Archives Painted live start to finish last night with Skip in the room. Think about that for a second.
- [Almost Home](https://mattbeardart.com/almost-home/) - Some islands are formed by water, some are formed by the long standing legacies of private property dating back generations to a time before "coastal access" was even a thing. Some of these have effectively become islands in their own way shielding their environs from the outside world and preserving these lands in a state
- [California's Dream](https://mattbeardart.com/californias-dream/) - Occasionally the California Coast sleeps in during the May Gray/June Gloom and has this recurring dream. She sees a distant marine layer and no other clouds in the bright clear sky. She sees the shade of an old and twisted eucalyptus. The tree itself- invasive, and beautiful, and loved- a rare combination indeed. She sees
- [The Great Escape](https://mattbeardart.com/the-great-escape/) - This was from a heat wave last July that saw temps in the 100's at the water's edge. If you could find parking, you could attempt to cool off in the water with your family and everyone else that lives in a hundred mile radius and who have no AC at home and who are
- [The Ceremonies of the Horsemen](https://mattbeardart.com/the-ceremonies-of-the-horsemen/) - The second of three paintings from a quick trip to this slice of California paradise last summer (I posted the first a few weeks ago with no commentary). The titles for these three are all chosen from Dylan tunes for various reasons. In this case it's a double-meaning referring to the occasional cattle roundup on
- [Come Out Ye Gifted Kings and Queens](https://mattbeardart.com/come-out-ye-gifted-kings-and-queens/)
- [I Shall Be Free](https://mattbeardart.com/i-shall-be-free/) - The third of three paintings from a quick trip last summer. The titles for the three are all chosen from Dylan tunes for various reasons. This one was chosen because the actual name of this creek comes up in the song. Also, as an artist I often do claim the right to freely edit a
- [A Window of Light](https://mattbeardart.com/a-window-of-light/) - I was supposed to drive a lot further up the coast on this day back in 2019. I didn’t get past this point though. After a few hours in the water, laughing as a handful of us rode these hypnotic little waves spinning down the point, I knew I was going to paint here as
- [Sorry Not Sorry](https://mattbeardart.com/sorry-not-sorry/) - So this was different. There's a really great beach park 6 miles north of here that I hadn't painted for awhile. I was on my way through the area and thought it would be fun to return and see what I could do with it after a few years of pushing my art process a
- [Harnessing Power](https://mattbeardart.com/harnessing-power/)
- [Most Wanted](https://mattbeardart.com/most-wanted/) - 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
- [Leave No Trace: Side A](https://mattbeardart.com/leave-no-trace-side-a/) - 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
- [Economy of Scale](https://mattbeardart.com/economy-of-scale/) - 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
- [Mourning and Remembrance](https://mattbeardart.com/mourning-and-remembrance/) - 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
- [More or Less](https://mattbeardart.com/more-or-less/) - 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
- [Harmonic Convergence](https://mattbeardart.com/harmonic-convergence/) - Every little canyon has its own song I don’t have much ear for music Painting is how I listen And also how I play along
- [Ebb and Flow](https://mattbeardart.com/ebb-and-flow/) - There is nothing like painting in the cool shade on a warm summer day, with a good art pal like Wade Koniakowsky humming around painting here, painting there, disappearing for awhile and returning with snacks and cold beers. It reminded me of those days of my youth, before we could drive, and we’d take turns
- [The Back Road](https://mattbeardart.com/the-back-road/) - As it happens, on this morning all of my plans were thwarted by that mother of all disruptions... No, not the pandemic, this was 2019- way before all of that. No, this diabolical mocker of all my good designs for spending a day under the sun will be with us long after this covid stuff
- [La Meccanica in un Momento de Pace](https://mattbeardart.com/la-meccanica-in-un-momento-de-pace/) - High tariffs in the newfound Kingdom of Italy in 1865 led to a large number of dairy farming Swiss-Italians to come to the US and eventually settle around this town. This coincided with the massive droughts that had just collapsed the large cattle ranches that dominated the California coastal landscape until that point. After the drought,
- [Sir Francis Drake Was a Pirate](https://mattbeardart.com/sir-francis-drake-was-a-pirate/) - It's true, he was a full on sea-sailing, ship-boarding, plunder-stealing, off-with-yer-head-if-you cross him pirate. The Spanish navy hated the guy and he had a personal beef with them as well. He even sailed clear past all of Spanish-settled California and claimed all of northern California for England in 1579. It didn't stick, but it was
- [The Devil at My Heels](https://mattbeardart.com/the-devil-at-my-heels/) - The devil that was at my heels this day, wasn't really a devil at all. But he worked for one, or at least a nuclear power plant that has taken the devil for its name. I'd hiked 3 or 4 miles out on this windy day to see the furthest reach of this coast that
- [Hallowed Ground](https://mattbeardart.com/hallowed-ground/) - William Wendt was a master of California Impressionism, a distinct school of impressionist art forged in the California landscape back in the early 1900's. One of Wendt's most iconic paintings is called Where Nature's God Hath Wrought and features a boldly centralized view of this very peak. Look it up if you need to, it's
- [Meet Me in St. Louis](https://mattbeardart.com/meet-me-in-st-louis/) - A little further than the road will take you, this little cove is accessed mainly by kayak or paddleboard which means getting out here to paint while armed with just a van and a backpack is a tricky matter of… logistics! Oh, how I love logistics. And also my friends, like my good art pal,
- [Motel California](https://mattbeardart.com/motel-california/) - I know you guys think my job is super easy. Just cruise around and paint pictures between coffee and beers and donuts and tacos. Go for a surf if the waves look fun. Hike around in beautiful remote places on the edges of the world. Hmmm... My job is pretty easy, come to think of
- [For Those with Ears to Hear](https://mattbeardart.com/for-those-with-ears-to-hear/) - This piece gets personal for me. It's a prominent headland on a stretch of California's coast that always reminds me of my grandparents who moved somewhere behind those mountains on the right when I was about 10 years old. We'd go visit them occasionally, always bummed that they didn't have a TV or "anything to
- [Rags to Riches](https://mattbeardart.com/rags-to-riches/) - A road closure not too far north of this headland made for a quiet night sleeping on a highway pullout. The view I'd come for was obscured by the marine layer which hovered about 200 feet above sea level so after a quick cup of coffee and some grumbling in the mist I made my
- [South by South](https://mattbeardart.com/south-by-south/) - 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
- [Walking on the Moon](https://mattbeardart.com/walking-on-the-moon/) - 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
- [The Arrival](https://mattbeardart.com/the-arrival/)
- [Mid-Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/mid-morning/) - If you spend any time at all in this town, do yourself a favor and find a different mode of transportation than a rusty old van. Parking is nuts to non-existent and navigating the unfamiliar streets in a vehicle that can’t hop curbs, cut over embankments and weave through crowds of pedestrians really hinders one’s
- [Free Range #16: Sweet Cherries for Sale](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-16-sweet-cherries-for-sale/) - Odometer: 766.8 miles I was digging this roadside view on the coast beside a nearby produce stand’s sign announcing "Sweet Cherries for Sale" and had just gotten set upwhen the cherry slinger walked up and told me I'd have to move. He said I was blocking his Sweet Cherries sign. I wasn't, but I could
- [Steam Driven](https://mattbeardart.com/steam-driven/) - Painted in the studio, but with a plein air approach- start to finish in about 2 hours, no time to fuss about perfection, loose but with lots of intent... if that makes sense. I have spent a bit of time in Santa Cruz. Several good friends moved there in the mid 90's, and have been
- [Prior to the Fire](https://mattbeardart.com/prior-to-the-fire/) - Painted this on location on my first day in town on this trip. This was the ridiculously hot day here. Not an ounce of wind either. If I knew then what I know now, I would have jammed up the coast to the points north as the wind has been prone to howl out there,
- [There Used to be Two](https://mattbeardart.com/there-used-to-be-two/) - When I rolled up to paint here I was thinking it would be a simple thing to pull up and paint from the back of the van as there is a carpark directly overlooking these rock formations. My first curve ball was when I realized it was posted as a 20-minute zone with the state
- [Everybody Has Been Burned](https://mattbeardart.com/everybody-has-been-burned/) - Fire creptOver the mountainWe saw it from townAfter dinner last night Smoke driftingOut to seaThis morning Everybody hasbeen burned beforeEspecially here On this day thoughThe Rasta ManOnly smiledAnd gave me a beerInstead
- [Protected](https://mattbeardart.com/protected/) - Latest from my Free Range: Santa Cruz painting tour. There's coves like this all over the California coast, tucked away and protected from the predominant winds creating clean conditions when elsewhere the sea is ragged with wind chatter. This coast is certainly worth protecting and I'm thankful for all who have worked to preserve the
- [For Miles and Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/for-miles-and-miles/) - The last plein air painting from last months trip. (18 paintings, 12 days, 1 parking ticket...) This particular stretch of California coastline intrigues me. Miles of coastal bluffs lined to the edge with row upon row of crops, a highly productive and active agricultural zone, and dotted with sculpted points and coves so abundant you
- [Slot Machine](https://mattbeardart.com/slot-machine/) - Line after lineAnd jewel upon jewelThese beams of lightBearing weightAs well as witnessTo our memoriesLost in the fireOn the night we crossed the bridgeOver the village of tents and mudAnd icePassing carsWith no driversAnd the rising tideForced us to climb over the rocksTo round the headlandWhere lovers lovedAnd dreamers dreamedAnd thieves did their best workStealing
- [A Pleasant Arrangement](https://mattbeardart.com/a-pleasant-arrangement/) - He was sitting out on his porch that afternoon. The day was getting late but the setting sun was still warm as he stared out over the water. I never knew him but his house stood there, looming large over this coastal scene. It must have been a pleasant arrangement. What better place to ride
- [Perfect from Afar](https://mattbeardart.com/perfect-from-afar/) - One of the last paintings from recent Santa Cruz trip. This is the California I love. Open, accessible, space with occasionally great waves. In order to paint these places, I have to visit them in person. It's one of my favorite perks of this job. I hear of parts of the east coast where private
- [The Long View](https://mattbeardart.com/the-long-view/) - Sometimes a painting or a place stirs up more of a poem instead of any sort of story. Not sure what I was thinking here, but when I pulled up my notes on this one, this poem is all I had written down. Make of it what you will... -- Bones of old shipsLeft basking
- [Jim Denevan's Gift](https://mattbeardart.com/jim-denevans-gift/) - Jim Denevan is an artist on a whole different level. Mostly sea level. His medium is the beach. I mean that in a very littoral way. And no, that’s not a misspelling. I’ve been aware of his work for years, but haven’t had the opportunity to watch him at work in his studio until this
- [Ether](https://mattbeardart.com/ether/) - 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 Whole Wide World](https://mattbeardart.com/the-whole-wide-world/) - This was a commissioned piece for a couple who was married on the bluff beneath those trees in the distance. It had me thinking of marriage and a song I'd been enjoying by Bill Callahan called Pigeons where he sings: when you are dating, you only see each other And the rest of us can
- [Dressed in White](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Ghosts of 1963: Salvador Dali, His Wife, The Witch, and an Absolute Bomb](https://mattbeardart.com/ghosts-of-1963/) - While researching reference material for this studio work, I came across a photo of Salvador Dali and his wife, sitting on that boulder beside the dying snag of cypress in the center of the painting. Look close and you’ll see them. A lot has changed since they sat there in 1963. The grass is gone,
- [The Gambler's Fallacy](https://mattbeardart.com/the-gamblers-fallacy/) - One of California’s prized state parks. I arrived early, knowing the park fills up to capacity nearly every day with a line of cars waiting to enter. I’d made it on time, but my van was too long. Denied. I had a long way to drive that day, and a boat to catch tomorrow that
- [Marine Layers](https://mattbeardart.com/marine-layers/) - I enjoyed this moody midday painting. Sometimes I go to a place hunting bluebirds and sunshine. In this case all I found was clouds and crows. For real. A friend that lives nearby showed up midway through the painting with some amazing deli sandwiches which we shared by his van up on the road. Halfway
- [The End of Love](https://mattbeardart.com/the-end-of-love/) - We knew things were about to get interesting, news of the pandemic was just ramping up in February. And here I was in Tourist Central, painting one of Monterey’s iconic focal points. We were not social distancing. We were in each other’s faces, breathing each other’s breath, like lovers but still strangers from all different
- [22 Miles to Go](https://mattbeardart.com/22-miles-to-go/) - A bright morning and a fine start to the last road trip I took before everything got put on hold in 2020. In spite of how the title makes it sound, I certainly did not have another 22 miles to go neither by car nor on foot. It was a short walk from the road
- [A Little Ways Away](https://mattbeardart.com/a-little-ways-away/) - Thérèse of Lisieux Born in an age of books without end Teachers teaching the taught The perfected lesson The corrected doctrine But no one to love the world entire Unable to bear the burden And fully aware of the limits Of her own imperfect love Small, weak, and broken She found her greatest strength In
- [California Storm](https://mattbeardart.com/california-storm/) - We came to this mountain in search of goldWe’ll leave with pockets full of solitudeWe speak to the windWe are here nowEverything else is goneThe cars and housesThe monies and the mediaThe interconnected web of information thatTies us all togetherNone of that can truly exist at all We know because we’ve listened to the quietThat
- [A Break in the Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/a-break-in-the-rain/) - All the while the day grows darkerAnd nothing dry is left.The eternal endurance of water has won,And now even what’s wrong is right.You can see it, but you cannot understand itNothing more can be doneBut surrender beneath the weight of it allAnd beWashed AwayThis is what it is to be human
- [California Spring](https://mattbeardart.com/california-spring/) - 20 things I’m thankful for in the middle of this storm...⠀⠀A life spent exploring this coast. ⠀A brother that showed me the way to enjoy the ocean. ⠀A mother with the patience of a saint to bundle into the VW and wait while we surfed the afternoon into evening. ⠀A father that loved to drive…
- [Free Range #19: Like a Bridge Over Troubled Womp](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-19-like-a-bridge-over-troubled-womp/) - Odometer: 887.8 miles Well, not really. I'm sure the womp down there is perfectly content to be left alone and only viewed from above. The only troubled ones would be the prospective wompees passing by hankering for some all-time scenic & historical womp. Access down there isn't easy. This one is for all my boardless
- [Speaking Softly Like Light](https://mattbeardart.com/speaking-softly-like-light/) - Painted this one not too long ago down on the central coast of California. This is the one I did during that video that I posted yesterday from @stwcoalition. They kept telling me to speak up, cause the light wind was muffling everything in the microphone. It was a bit of a challenge to stay
- [We'll Cross that Bridge When We Get to It](https://mattbeardart.com/well-cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-to-it/) - 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
- [Some Things Money Just Can't Buy](https://mattbeardart.com/some-things-money-just-cant-buy/) - Like most surfers who’ve visited the area, I’ve collected some great memories of this place over the years. I’d wondered about painting this rock outcropping overlooking the beach for a long time. The last time I tromped around it there was quite a few years back and there was no trail that I can recall,
- [Tide Falling](https://mattbeardart.com/tide-falling/) - One of the most iconic waterfalls in all of California and one of only two year-round falls in the whole state that land on the beach. This one used to land in the water, but a landslide deposited so much sediment up the coast that the gradual drift of currents built this beach where none
- [Mist and Light](https://mattbeardart.com/mist-and-light/) - When ones and zeroes No longer add up And the printing press Runs out of flesh And the headlines Have nowhere to run We’ll pick up the pieces Build temples of song Made of discarded words Metal vowels and consonants Foraged from fields Like seed for migrating birds And the truth that emerges Will cut
- [She Called Off the Dogs](https://mattbeardart.com/she-called-off-the-dogs/) - I only had to walk about a mile and a half down a steep and private dirt road to get to this vantage point of a beach everyone knows, but few have seen from this angle. About half way down, I was greeted by friendly dogs doing their best to act really unfriendly to strangers
- [This Side of the Cactus](https://mattbeardart.com/this-side-of-the-cactus/) - A lonely cypress stands on this ridge, holding on for dear life through every storm and gale it’s seen, and it’s seen a lot of them. It’s getting a good whipping from the north wind right now as I paint this, its roots holding firm and its muscular bows holding back the wind for myself
- [Off the Grid](https://mattbeardart.com/off-the-grid/) - A cove not easily reached. A wild country. The government here stalks on four paws and the cities are made of gray sticks full of poison. And life goes on, even off the grid.
- [Escaping Santa Cruz Crowds: circa 1880](https://mattbeardart.com/escaping-santa-cruz-crowds-circa-1880/) - Yup. Even in 1880 Santa Cruz was getting too crowded for some folks, like Sabrino Gamboa who fled to this stretch of Big Sur’s coast nearly 150 years ago. Same as it ever was, I guess.
- [Information Superhighway](https://mattbeardart.com/information-superhighway/) - I don’t know why, but the thought of a credit card bill, or bank statement, or some foreboding notice from the IRS sitting in one of these little metal boxes getting absolutely gob-hammered by winter storms just seems so absurd and yet so right- as if nature herself was seeking revenge on the entire economic
- [The Dark Watchers](https://mattbeardart.com/the-dark-watchers/) - Through thickets of poison to a cliff in the wind beneath dark skies, they followed. Not with their bodies, just with their eyes. They call them Dark Watchers, and stories of them in these hills go back generations. If you see them and try to approach one, they vanish into the landscape. I wish I
- [Everyone is Listening](https://mattbeardart.com/everyone-is-listening/) - My final painting of this trip. I recently read about the family that home-steaded this place back in the 1800’s and installed a phone line to King City in 1910. One of the kids that grew up here recalled that you could tell who was calling because everyone had a different ring. And when a
- [Pale Blue Eyes](https://mattbeardart.com/pale-blue-eyes/) - It's true, that fog just lingered on, and on. Those pale blue eyes... I saw a burst of blue sky while rounding a bend and thought for sure the fog was lifting. That was my mistake- thinking anything was sure about fog. I should know better. And I generally do, but the scene was truly
- [No Fires](https://mattbeardart.com/no-fires/) - The higher laws do not forbidThe burning of your gasoline dreamsNoThey practically command it We’d driven all over the state, the miles passing like a rushing river in a sudden spring rain. It wouldn’t do really, us being together, that is. She was from a different world than I was, far too refined to spend
- [Restricted Access](https://mattbeardart.com/restricted-access/) - We never did imagineThe goldenAccelerationOf our free fallWould yield... Such high rentFor apartments so small AndSo many left turns AndNo rights at all
- [Free Range #15: Morning Drive](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-15-morning-drive/) - Odometer: 755.7 miles Our fatherKept us movingEven thoughWe stopped a bit too oftenTo read the signsAnd ponderTheir meanings When it was time to move onWe would oftenHave to push with all of our might BarefootOn the rough pavement Our fatherDrove a Volkswagon
- [Juxtaposition](https://mattbeardart.com/juxtaposition/) - 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
- [Don't Eat Us](https://mattbeardart.com/dont-eat-us/) - 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
- [Unorthodox](https://mattbeardart.com/unorthodox/) - 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
- [The Beach](https://mattbeardart.com/the-beach/)
- [Passing Shadows](https://mattbeardart.com/passing-shadows/) - 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
- [More Than Wind](https://mattbeardart.com/more-than-wind/) - 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
- [And They Will Ask](https://mattbeardart.com/and-they-will-ask/) - 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
- [Afternoon Martinis: Side B](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-martinis-side-b/)
- [Pure and Simple](https://mattbeardart.com/pure-and-simple/) - One of my favorite things when I'm out on the road (or at home for that matter) is finding a new trail to access a piece of coast I haven’t seen before. I’d seen some new trailheads on a previous trip past this stretch of private agricultural coastal bluffs and made a mental note to
- [Rogue Showers](https://mattbeardart.com/rogue-showers/) - Spent the morning sipping coffee with some new friends who ended up buying this one. It had rained overnight and even though the sun was out and bright, every time I thought to hike up into the hills for this view, another shower would come through and soak everything anew. ⠀⠀But that was just fine.⠀⠀I
- [Say Nothing](https://mattbeardart.com/say-nothing/) - The land that lay directly behind me as I painted this distant view from one of California’s more central coasts belongs to none other than Neil Young, and having learned this I couldn't help but recall him singing the old Woody Guthrie tune This Land is Your Land: As I was walkin', I saw a
- [Free Range #11: Come and Go](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-11-come-and-go/) - Odometer: 533.1 miles The fog was relentless here. Spent a lot of time noodling around with the foreground waiting for the whiteout to lift from this epic hilltop vantage point.
- [Free Range #12: Elevation](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-12-elevation/) - Odometer: 628.7 miles
- [Comin' Down the Mountain](https://mattbeardart.com/comin-down-the-mountain/) - Painted this one from the mobile studio. It wasn't moving at the time though. That would have been rough. Although that mighta helped keep the monstrous flies out of the van... they were nuts. Had to swing my paint rag around every couple minutes the entire time I was painting. I think they liked my
- [Eastward](https://mattbeardart.com/eastward/) - Some placesYou come toAlmost by accident OthersTakeA bit more effort NobodyComes down from the mountainWithout firstHaving to climb it Nobody comes to the endOf the trailWithout firstTraveling its length Nobody comes upFrom the seaWithout first going under And nobody arrivesIn that small town across the bayWithout knowing first where it is But mostlyThat’s just becauseSomeone
- [Milk and Honey](https://mattbeardart.com/milk-and-honey/) - Plein air from a van rocked by gusty winds. I tried to leave this area after the last one, I was beat, dirty, and looking forward to a hot shower and my family's faces once again. But just as I was mentally plotting where I might find the nearest cheeseburger before making the 5 hour
- [Tea and Oranges](https://mattbeardart.com/tea-and-oranges/) - 6th day on the road, 18th painting completed, 3rd on this day I had this place pinpointed on my map for months. Not for it’s beauty, though it doesn’t lack in that area, but because it’s a place that means a lot to a friend that commissioned me to paint it on my next trip
- [A Reluctant Admission](https://mattbeardart.com/a-reluctant-admission/) - 7th day on the road, 19th painting completed, 1st one this day After collecting an official “Vehicle Immobilization and Potential Arrest Notice” on this private development the day before, I was careful on this day to stay in the designated public access area. These pay-to-play private coast mentalities have always struck me as odd. I’ve
- [Soaring with Rick Griffin](https://mattbeardart.com/soaring-with-rick-griffin/) - 7th day on the road, 21st painting completed, 3rd one this day Painting the California coast is something that rose out of my admiration for the California Impressionists of the early 1900’s. Before that I was painting skulls and bones and waves, which rose out of my admiration for Rick Griffin (1944-1991) and his artwork.
- [From the Overflow of the Heart, the Mouth Speaks](https://mattbeardart.com/from-the-overflow-of-the-heart-the-mouth-speaks/) - 8th day on the road, 23rd painting completed, 2nd one on this day. Last one of the trip. I’m exhausted. There’s something about a rivermouth sandbar that really holds one’s attention. I wanted to get the whole scene here: the inland valley leading to the now hot and dry heartland this river flows from, the
- [The Light at the End](https://mattbeardart.com/the-light-at-the-end/) - First of four paintings I'd paint this day in one of my favorite parts of California. Thick morning fog prevented me from seeing the views I came for so I went with my standard back up plan- wander around aimlessly and grumble about that old nemesis- the Great Northern Pacific Marine Layer. Mid grumble I
- [Nova Albion](https://mattbeardart.com/nova-albion/) - Plein air painting in strong winds is indeed a sport. Especially on the edge of a steep cliff. Painters know the challenges, but most folks just see finished paintings during their 10 seconds of social media fame and think whether they like it or not. Whether they should type a comment, hit the like button,
- [A Wide Range](https://mattbeardart.com/a-wide-range/) - The fourth painting completed in one long day spent in solitude, hunting views and painting in one of the most beautiful parts of California I can think of. I’ve driven past this little ranch nestled along a finger of this estuary and always thought it would make a nice painting. The day was fading fast,
- [Russian Past](https://mattbeardart.com/russian-past/)
- [Free Range #6: Roadside Blues](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-6-roadside-blues/) - Odometer: 213.5 miles Sometimes we all needa soft shoulder to cry onBut other times all we need isA wide shoulder to park on
- [The Usual Difficulties](https://mattbeardart.com/the-usual-difficulties/) - First day on this road trip, first painting completed. I’ve driven past this dirt road for years, knowing that it was there, but a bit wary of taking my giant van down it’s length, not wanting to get stuck in a situation where I’d need to reverse a mile of dirt road with no turnaround.
- [Fading West](https://mattbeardart.com/fading-west/) - 2nd day on the road, 6th painting completed, 4th one of the day I wasn’t planning to paint here at all, though I did stop and check it out the day before. This day I was planning to head south from my previous location, but the afternoon fog crept in and made a mockery of
- [No Vegetarian Options](https://mattbeardart.com/no-vegetarian-options/) - 2nd day on the road, 5th painting completed, 3rd one of the day There’s a chunk of reef out here that I’ve always enjoyed pulling over for and watching when passing through this area. I’ve never seen it look truly rideable, but I wouldn’t put it past some nut to give it a go on
- [Remnants of a Long Day](https://mattbeardart.com/remnants-of-a-long-day/) - 4th day on the road, 13th painting completed, (4th on this day) After a long day bouncing all over the area painting as efficiently and nonstop as I possibly could, I ended my 3rd piece with enough time to sneak in one more. One thing that really jumps out about this coastline is how old
- [Heard from Across the Valley](https://mattbeardart.com/heard-from-across-the-valley/) - 4th day on the road, tenth painting completed, first one this day Some paintings I’ve seen for a long time before I painted them. When painting plein air it can take awhile since you’re not pulling images out of your imagination, if there’s a painting rumbling around in there, you have to wait until you
- [We All Stand Alone](https://mattbeardart.com/we-all-stand-alone/) - 4th day on the road, 12th painting completed, 3rd one this day I came around a bend on the winding highway 1 a bit south of here today and a large RV was heading toward me in the oncoming lane. It wasn’t swerving or dangerous, we were both moving slowly and within our respective lanes.
- [Fault Lines](https://mattbeardart.com/fault-lines/) - 5th day on the road, 15th painting completed, 2nd one this day I’ve scouted around this cove a few times over the years, looking for an angle to paint this place, but never bothered to find a way out onto the cliffs that overlook it. Glad I finally did, I could spend weeks painting out
- [Making Amends](https://mattbeardart.com/making-amends/)
- [Spoke Too Soon](https://mattbeardart.com/spoke-too-soon/)
- [Bridging Continents](https://mattbeardart.com/bridging-continents/)
- [Box of Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/box-of-rain/) - Look out of any window… Dividing the morning And the evening And the day into thirds What’s a window but a box for the sky? And what’s the sky but a box full of birds? And what’s a bird but a box for our dreams? And what’s a dream but a box full
- [Prime Pelican Real Estate](https://mattbeardart.com/prime-pelican-real-estate/) - 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,
- [End of Trail](https://mattbeardart.com/end-of-trail/) - 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
- [Irish Coffee](https://mattbeardart.com/irish-coffee/) - 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
- [Ukha](https://mattbeardart.com/ukha/) - Unfasten the beading Undo the hook from the loop Soon we'll be eating Russian Fish Soup Tonight in the cabin After the sun jumps its hoop We know what we're havin' It's Russian Fish Soup We're not in a hurry But the ladle's first scoop Sets our spoons in a flurry Of Russian Fish Soup
- [Lost... Or Just Displaced](https://mattbeardart.com/lost-or-just-displaced/) - The glossy pages of outdoor magazines are the admission tickets. Nylon and Gore-Tex nomads. Lovers of the adventurous life with paid time off. Communing with nature while eating astronaut food under the stars. Always keep it moving. You have to match the speed of gravity to stay in orbit. Don't stop, or you might get
- [Needle in a Haystack](https://mattbeardart.com/needle-in-a-haystack/) - The needle was the view And the haystack was the mist I come for the first But cursed my luck When I couldn't see past my fist I set up in faith That it would clear And momentarily it did Had to work quick To get the jist And that is what you see here
- [Waiting for His Master](https://mattbeardart.com/waiting-for-his-master/)
- [First Light](https://mattbeardart.com/first-light/)
- [Shoebox Series III](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-iii/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Shoebox Series I](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-i/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Sunrise Over the Cove](https://mattbeardart.com/sunrise-over-the-cove/)
- [Overlook](https://mattbeardart.com/overlook/) - Some things are easy to overlook⠀Others take a little more work⠀Natural beauty⠀Simple love⠀So often get left where they lie⠀While the headlines print bold⠀On our aching flesh⠀These haunts where our demons lurk⠀⠀Crashing stocks upon the shore⠀Homes condemned to their blight⠀The need to eat⠀A will to survive⠀We’ll do what we must to get by⠀Sell our daylight for
- [The Shack](https://mattbeardart.com/the-shack/)
- [Bird's Eye View](https://mattbeardart.com/birds-eye-view/)
- [Afternoon Fog Bank](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-fog-bank/)
- [Waxing Moon](https://mattbeardart.com/waxing-moon/) - My favorite story about this one isn't my story at all. It's something a Patagonia employee said the first time they saw this piece in the back of my van in their HQ parking lot in Ventura, California. It went something like this: "This is heavy, no way, check it out, when you look to
- [Surf Check Daydream](https://mattbeardart.com/surf-check-daydream/) - The first art teacher I ever had used to always tell us that all art is a lie. I never really understood what he meant by that, but it sounded pretty neat and quite teacherly. Generally, I gravitate toward truth-telling with my art and most inaccuracies in my paintings are accidents of omission. I’m just
- [First Look](https://mattbeardart.com/first-look/) - I’ve been told lately That I didn’t paint this one quite right Or it must be somewhere else That our local jetty doesn’t look like this That it’s all busted up And full of holes Where the ocean pours in And leaves salt in every wound But I painted this a long time ago
- [Looking Back](https://mattbeardart.com/looking-back/)
- [Wedding Rock](https://mattbeardart.com/wedding-rock/)
- [Finding California](https://mattbeardart.com/finding-california/)
- [Crab Haul](https://mattbeardart.com/crab-haul/) - I painted this one years ago From a weathered photograph It was a Christmas gift From a daughter To her father She was a young child When the photo was taken From the Old Trinidad Pier Of her dad and his crew On his boat down below She said they ate good
- [Harbormaster](https://mattbeardart.com/harbormaster/)
- [With a Blazing Midday Sun](https://mattbeardart.com/with-a-blazing-midday-sun/)
- [Ephemeral Records](https://mattbeardart.com/ephemeral-records/) - At high tide that rock with the trees on it is an island, but at low tide you can walk right out to it. Over 20 years ago I ventured out to it with a friend, our minds set on climbing up to the top of it. Except neither she nor I were the climbing
- [Summer in April](https://mattbeardart.com/summer-in-april/)
- [May Grays](https://mattbeardart.com/may-grays/) - Out from herSlumberEyes blinkingAt the newly minted greensOf a silver spring day The forest is fullOf dollarsBut she is hungryFor the fishThat used to swimUp the river TodayShe willStand still on the oldLogging road And even thoughThe whole earth shakesOn this dayShe will not be moved
- [Short Lived Blues](https://mattbeardart.com/short-lived-blues/) - Headed up the coast on a gray day. Surfed some fun summertime glassy gutless beachbreak nearby as the morning gray burned into afternoon blue. Figured it would be a good time to paint for a bit, and just after finishing the summer grayness returned. That's a big part of the fun (and sometimes frustration) of
- [Knuckle Bones](https://mattbeardart.com/knuckle-bones/) - After a whirlwind road trip to that stretch of California just below Point Conception yet still well above LA, its good to be home for a bit. But only for a bit. Enjoyed painting our good old "knuckle bones" out here the other day before getting ready for another painting road trip to the points
- [After a Long Dark Winter](https://mattbeardart.com/after-a-long-dark-winter/) - Well, this winter wasn’t really all that much longer or darker than usual, but still, we hadn’t seen the sun for a few wet weeks here on the coast. When it finally returned it felt as though the sun itself had awoken like a bear from hibernation, blinking, sniffing the air, and without hesitation leaving
- [Pretty Much Flapjacks](https://mattbeardart.com/pretty-much-flapjacks/) - These dunes are a lot of different things for a lot of different people. If you wander around them enough, much like coastal dunes near urban areas everywhere, you’ll find the clues left behind- everything from remains of small fires where school kids burned their homework, to all sorts of sordid tales of detritus that
- [Over the Moon](https://mattbeardart.com/over-the-moon/) - A slice of California, a view from an elevated state... It's not always outdoors and in the wind, this one was done late last year in the studio, but a painting like this doesn't happen without spending some serious hours, days, and years of, well... "researching the topic."
- [Who’d a Thunk?](https://mattbeardart.com/whod-a-thunk/)
- [Morning Commute](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-commute/)
- [Morning Gems](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-gems/) - Much like with many of my paintings, there are no humans visible in this piece. To be fair, that’s not much of a stretch here as sunrise on this part of the coast is often a cold and lonely affair. But just because humans aren’t visible, doesn’t mean they aren’t part of these paintings. For
- [Dance of Days](https://mattbeardart.com/dance-of-days/) - I have some playlists of music that take me back to my school days- 80’s punk mostly with a slant toward anything connected to the D.C. bands that followed and evolved from Minor Threat and got caught up in the Dischord Records slipstream. One of these must have been playing when I painted and I
- [Anything But Silent](https://mattbeardart.com/anything-but-silent/) - As my wife slept in the shadows by the creek beside this headland, I stood and faced the moonlight and attempted to sort out mixing colors by headlamp. Due to the timing of the tides we'd have to leave first thing in the morning so even though I'd rather have been sleeping myself, this was
- [It's Never Like This](https://mattbeardart.com/its-never-like-this/)
- [Bread and Butter](https://mattbeardart.com/bread-and-butter/)
- [Rise and Shine](https://mattbeardart.com/rise-and-shine/) - Painted this one on location close to home on a November morning back in 2019. It was one of those days we don’t get very often here, perfect conditions, no wind, crystal clear… just not quite clear enough to see what was about to go down in a few short months. When I look at
- [An Invitation](https://mattbeardart.com/an-invitation/) - I read the invitation on the last falling leaves of our apple tree. Fall days like this are the best.“Come as you are” is all it said.So we went.Barefoot and happy.Soon enough I found myself standing on the wet sand while painting this one as this shaded creek flowed out to sea around and beneath
- [The Blessing of the Fleet](https://mattbeardart.com/the-blessing-of-the-fleet/) - Who of us isn’t a ship about to leave harbor? When the anchor is pulled We’ll sail into a new tomorrow As dark and unknowable As the deep Who of us isn’t a ship on the ocean? Lines cast and waiting To bring in a harvest To feed the world Maybe today Who
- [This Will Never Shut Down](https://mattbeardart.com/this-will-never-shut-down/) - Painted during the first week or so of lockdowns back in March of 2020. Businesses were shutting down. The roads were growing quiet. The air was crowded with questions, but the land and sea had answers of their own. Some things will never be shut down. You can shut your eyes, but you can’t stop
- [Twentytwenty](https://mattbeardart.com/twentytwenty/) - Twentytwenty doesn't need much introduction. We've all been caught in this storm. That's what this painting is about. But there is a bit more backstory to it that some of you might not be aware of. This piece was started live on location at the Dunehouse in Manila, CA as a benefit for Friends of the
- [Right Before Dinner](https://mattbeardart.com/right-before-dinner/) - Just after arrival, I snuck this one in just before setting up camp. And the voices chimed in as I painted. “I’m just a bump on a log” and “I’m just a bird on a rock”, and “I’m just a blade of grass in the wind”. Yeah, me too, I thought. But “I’m hungry” is
- [Right Before Lunch](https://mattbeardart.com/right-before-lunch/) - A view that never gets old. I actually painted from this exact vantage point 15 years ago. I titled that painting Right after Breakfast and figured that I should revisit that spot and see what happens, so that’s what I did… right before lunch.
- [Right Before Breakfast](https://mattbeardart.com/right-before-breakfast/) - I’m not a “morning” person, I am however a “whatever-magic-is-in-the-light-in-this-particular-place-right-now” person so it worked itself out. Just the sight of these deer grazing along a beachside meadow beneath a rising sun aroused these dry bones from the body bag and back to life. It was such a moving scene, I was surprised whole whales weren’t
- [The Entry Way](https://mattbeardart.com/the-entry-way/) - 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.
- [Down by the River](https://mattbeardart.com/down-by-the-river/)
- [Nothing to Get Mad About](https://mattbeardart.com/nothing-to-get-mad-about/)
- [Stairway to Here](https://mattbeardart.com/stairway-to-here/) - It's the word that was spoken Before I was sent To a world collapsing Under it's own colorless night We look with our eyes And see failure An abandoned outhouse A crime spree Suspicion and Self destruction Egos ablaze And rampant consumption Of her beautiful form Of her body Of earth And water But these
- [The Brighter Side of Widowhood](https://mattbeardart.com/the-brighter-side-of-widowhood/) - As I was nearly finished with painting this scene I watched a woman descend the narrow path To this small cove With her child They were beautiful And complete As they were She didn't need a husband down there Checking his phone Drinking too many beers Zoning out when his daughter called for him Showing
- [Where It Wishes](https://mattbeardart.com/where-it-wishes/) - You never know where the wind will take you. I generally avoid painting down at sea level. I like to be up on the edge of the cliff. Canvas bouncing in the wind. But today I'm here. Not of my own decision. I'm painting this for some friends. They're moving on, and this, a parting
- [Shoebox Series IX](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-ix/)
- [Bending Lines](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Winter Sun](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [In a Mood](https://mattbeardart.com/in-a-mood/) - Some days are better than others for curiously overheated gas station coffeeMade with the press of a button
- [Free Range #1: Waiting for the Day to Warm Up](https://mattbeardart.com/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.
- [Free Range #2: Leeward](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [One Last Chance](https://mattbeardart.com/one-last-chance/) - Plein air painted last year from a portion of the California Coast that might fall into the sea at any moment if it hasn't already... I’ve wanted to paint this one for a long time. Not sure why it took so long, but it was fun to finally take the time to make it happen.
- [Car Trouble](https://mattbeardart.com/car-trouble/) - I seem to remember several occasions over the last 20 years where my van wouldn’t start after a surf here. Probably because it was just an old Volkswagon and that’s kinda how they work. It was as good a place as any for the old van since the road makes a gentle descent to beach
- [Geological Chess: The King and His Rookery](https://mattbeardart.com/geological-chess-the-king-and-his-rookery/) - I rarely paint with oils, but I’ve done several over the last few years, sneaking them in to the mix here and there as I feel like it, just to remind myself that the grass really isn’t any greener in oils, the morning dew just takes a lot longer to dry. Most of my paintings
- [Sticks and Stones](https://mattbeardart.com/sticks-and-stones/) - I had painted this same scene a few months prior, but only focused on the rock stack and ignored the view of the sweeping beach as it arcs its way around this bend in the coast. In the middle of painting this one, a tricky situation arose. My nose just started bleeding randomly. Maybe a
- [The End of California](https://mattbeardart.com/the-end-of-california/) - 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
- [Tolled You So](https://mattbeardart.com/tolled-you-so/)
- [Tracking South](https://mattbeardart.com/tracking-south/)
- [Standing Watch](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [And So Would I](https://mattbeardart.com/and-so-would-i/)
- [Fair to Good](https://mattbeardart.com/fair-to-good/)
- [Left it All Behind #2](https://mattbeardart.com/left-it-all-behind-2/)
- [Left it All Behind #1](https://mattbeardart.com/left-it-all-behind-1/)
- [Her Answer](https://mattbeardart.com/her-answer/) - I'd hiked this windswept beach for hours through the midday heat when the sun is at its shadowless peak. I was looking for a few things- a painting mostly, but also a wave or two. What I found was mostly wind. Lots of it. Blowing hard offshore early in the hike, then sideshore as the
- [A Rare Sandbar](https://mattbeardart.com/a-rare-sandbar/)
- [Hurst's Point](https://mattbeardart.com/hursts-point/)
- [California](https://mattbeardart.com/california/)
- [Baker's Dozen](https://mattbeardart.com/bakers-dozen/)
- [Winter Warmth](https://mattbeardart.com/winter-warmth/)
- [Aqueduct](https://mattbeardart.com/aqueduct/) - Every river flows to the sea... except this one. It flows to LA. Drink up southern California.
- [She Loves the River](https://mattbeardart.com/she-loves-the-river/) - Painted on location, 2.5 miles from the road. A challenging back-country hike with all my gear to paint this one-day late birthday gift for my wife last year...⠀It’s true, she loves the river⠀And it’s steady constant force⠀The ocean is just leftovers⠀And she prefers the source⠀⠀She leads me through the briars⠀Stinging nettle, oak, and sorrow⠀Some pain
- [This Machine Converts Money into Noise](https://mattbeardart.com/this-machine-converts-money-into-noise/) - The pandemic didn’t slow me down, it was a combination of other things; my dad’s health was certainly a heavy weight to carry, but there was also a long overdue website overhaul that took far longer than I’d ever expected. ⠀⠀For a brief window back in mid-summer it seemed the covid restrictions were easing a
- [No Rush](https://mattbeardart.com/no-rush/)
- [Revelation](https://mattbeardart.com/revelation/)
- [Wade and Two Steves](https://mattbeardart.com/wade-and-two-steves/)
- [Shoebox Series VIII](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-viii/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Shoebox Series VI](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-vi/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Shoebox Series V](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-v/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Shoebox Series IV](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-iv/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Shoebox Series II](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-ii/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Sine Series II: Transfer of Energy](https://mattbeardart.com/sine-series-ii-transfer-of-energy/)
- [Sine Series I: Exchange of Ideas](https://mattbeardart.com/sine-series-i-exchange-of-ideas/)
- [Sine Series III: Anthrogenesis](https://mattbeardart.com/sine-series-iii-anthrogenesis/)
- [Poppies and Pointbreaks](https://mattbeardart.com/poppies-and-pointbreaks/) - He’d laugh this little howling cackle that pulled you into his slipstream as you made your way along the path, down the makeshift rope, repelling into the cove below that you’d never seen breaking before and now was suddenly cracking it’s sonic water booms on the reef below. Everything made him laugh. And almost everything
- [Everything She Needs](https://mattbeardart.com/everything-she-needs/) - Several years ago I was invited by the Save The Waves Coalition to be a part of their Redgate Ranch Music Festival, to create event artwork and paint live at the event itself while enjoying live music from some great bands on the event's single stage.⠀⠀My first night there, after the music finally ended, and
- [Afternoon Inside the Point](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-inside-the-point/) - What day is it now? How long has it been? I miss my lover and my friend And while it’s not quite really a sin I’ve now fallen in love With a very light wind Someone to speak with This breeze she is mine We’ll speak with each other And we’ll speak in rhyme
- [The SLO Road | 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/the-slo-road-2019/) - Backstories, back roads, and no roads at all... notes from a 5 day painting trip in San Luis Obispo County that featured: 11 Paintings. 16 miles hiked. 2 miles paddled. 1 barbed wire fence. 1 mountain, painted twice... by accident.
- [Elsewhere](https://mattbeardart.com/elsewhere/)
- [It's All Just One Rock](https://mattbeardart.com/its-all-just-one-rock/)
- [Out to Lunch](https://mattbeardart.com/out-to-lunch/)
- [Down and Down and Down Some More](https://mattbeardart.com/down-and-down-and-down-some-more/)
- [The Distance to Forever](https://mattbeardart.com/the-distance-to-forever/)
- [No Mere Maid](https://mattbeardart.com/no-mere-maid/) - At last! This one was 7 years in the making- just a quick pencil sketch way back when, set it aside, and forgot about it until I got a call back in November asking me to paint a “slutty mermaid”. That wasn’t gonna happen. But it reminded me of this idea for a north coast
- [Her Song](https://mattbeardart.com/her-song/)
- [The Hungry Distance](https://mattbeardart.com/the-hungry-distance/)
- [Teacher of Souls](https://mattbeardart.com/teacher-of-souls/)
- [Trial By Fire IV](https://mattbeardart.com/trial-by-fire-iv/) - Back in the early days of this global pandemic thing we're all still slogging through, we saw the virus take hold in Italy. That was a wake-up call. ⠀⠀I had just had the chance to visit Italy back in September (which is no minor feat as anyone who has ever tried to get me to
- [Trial By Fire III](https://mattbeardart.com/trial-by-fire-iii/)
- [Trial By Fire II](https://mattbeardart.com/trial-by-fire-ii/)
- [Trial By Fire](https://mattbeardart.com/trial-by-fire/) - As we watch the world burn around us, many of us are waking to the reality that we are truly non-essential. As artists, we’ve always known this. You can’t eat paintings. We’ll continue to forge ahead on the fringes while everyone else sorts out the falling chips. Some of us won’t make it. We chose
- [Bench Warmer](https://mattbeardart.com/bench-warmer/)
- [On Geological Time](https://mattbeardart.com/on-geological-time/)
- [New Every Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/new-every-morning/)
- [Trial By Fire V](https://mattbeardart.com/trial-by-fire-v/) - This wasn’t my first time painting live with Luca. Last September I found myself at a beach party in Italy where Luca was playing. (And that’s a whole other story for another time, but for anyone that knows me, you know it takes a minor miracle to get me away from the California coast... )
- [Drink the Chicken](https://mattbeardart.com/drink-the-chicken/)
- [The City by the Bay](https://mattbeardart.com/the-city-by-the-bay/)
- [Doubting Thomas and the Pope](https://mattbeardart.com/doubting-thomas-and-the-pope/)
- [Beneath the Surface](https://mattbeardart.com/beneath-the-surface/)
- [Ballad of a Crystal Man](https://mattbeardart.com/ballad-of-a-crystal-man/)
- [Architecture, As a Weapon](https://mattbeardart.com/architecture-as-a-weapon/)
- [Solitaire](https://mattbeardart.com/solitaire/)
- [Facts and Fiction](https://mattbeardart.com/facts-and-fiction/)
- [Deep Calls to Deep](https://mattbeardart.com/deep-calls-to-deep/) - “The only people for me are the mad ones: the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who... burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles.” ⠀-Jack Kerouac, American Poet and Novelist (1922-1969)⠀Printed and taped on my father’s fridge by
- [Cloud Theory](https://mattbeardart.com/cloud-theory/)
- [Waters Above](https://mattbeardart.com/waters-above/)
- [The Father, the Son, and a Very Still Wind](https://mattbeardart.com/the-father-the-son-and-a-very-still-wind/)
- [La Tavola](https://mattbeardart.com/la-tavola/)
- [As the Wheel Turns](https://mattbeardart.com/as-the-wheel-turns/)
- [End of the Rose](https://mattbeardart.com/end-of-the-rose/)
- [Balance of Powers](https://mattbeardart.com/balance-of-powers/) - This was painted live at a benefit event for our local hospital's Family Medicine Residency Program back in July. These live paintings usually auction at events for anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand on the far upper end. Not that this means a whole lot in the big picture, but we were
- [Tomorrow, Today](https://mattbeardart.com/tomorrow-today/) - Tomorrow, today, and to be honest, yesterday as well. This was painted a while back in 2019. Nothing too deep, just having fun with the painting and thinking of those moody stormy days when the sun breaks out and the rain is still falling and everything becomes crystals and prisms and beauty. ⠀⠀But today, let’s
- [Chromatic Water Theory XIII: Abstract Jazz](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-xiii-abstract-jazz/) - Painted partially live at the Basement in Arcata, then finished recently for the Redwood Coast Music Festival. It's been a ton of fun creating artwork for the festival, and at the festival as well. This Chromatic Water Theory series was literally born in the presence of world class jazz musicians performing in the Morris Graves
- [Don't Fight It](https://mattbeardart.com/dont-fight-it/)
- [Beyond the Shadow of Doubt](https://mattbeardart.com/beyond-the-shadow-of-doubt/)
- [Dream CASA](https://mattbeardart.com/dream-casa/)
- [Chromatic Water Theory XII: Rhythm and Melody](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-xii-rhythm-and-melody/)
- [Chromatic Water Theory VIII: Acoustic Wave](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-viii-acoustic-wave/)
- [Speaking in Tongues](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Trust the Process](https://mattbeardart.com/trust-the-process/)
- [Hidden Hills](https://mattbeardart.com/hidden-hills/)
- [Keeping Time](https://mattbeardart.com/keeping-time/)
- [Surface Tension III](https://mattbeardart.com/surface-tension-iii/)
- [Surface Tension II](https://mattbeardart.com/surface-tension-ii/)
- [Over the Waters](https://mattbeardart.com/over-the-waters/) - Painted live, (start to finish and without a plan) at the Arcata Theater Lounge a few months ago. I began this one in black and white, accompanied by a piano soloist, with black and white surf films playing on the screen behind the stage. Never felt so classy in my whole life.
- [Chromatic Water Theory X: Under the Moon](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-x-under-the-moon/)
- [Chromatic Water Theory IX: Harmonics](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-ix-harmonics/)
- [Upheaval](https://mattbeardart.com/upheaval/)
- [Silent Waters](https://mattbeardart.com/silent-waters/)
- [Sea of Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/sea-of-gold/) - Back when I began doing a lot of plein air work over 15 years ago, this was an early destination one spring while I was living in Southern California for a short time. I would spend the subsequent years developing my approach and focusing my art on the coastline (basically after a realization that painting
- [Songbird](https://mattbeardart.com/songbird/)
- [Drip Castles](https://mattbeardart.com/drip-castles/) - I was scheduled to do some live art today at a local event here in Humboldt, a culinary event celebrating… well, Spam, of all things… but also with some live music so I figured I’d zone out, angle for some free beers (which were kindly provided) and figure something out as I went. Shortly before
- [Chromatic Water Theory XI: Drum Solo](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-xi-drum-solo/)
- [Nightfall](https://mattbeardart.com/nightfall/) - Before there was light⠀There was water⠀And before there was life⠀The water broke⠀Staring up into that black ocean⠀Eyes blinded by the falling seas⠀On this winter’s solstice⠀No stars tonight⠀Just a child⠀Floating weightless and free⠀In a fish bowl for all to see⠀⠀Mary and Joseph⠀They live down the street ⠀We ate donuts on strings⠀Tied to their tree⠀Last Halloween⠀But tonight
- [Not California](https://mattbeardart.com/not-california/) - It's pretty hard to get me to paint anything but the California coast. I have a list of commission requests that I try to get to in the studio each year, but often they get pushed back, sometimes a few years if they aren't requesting a California location. Not sure how this commission snuck onto
- [Geometries of Love](https://mattbeardart.com/geometries-of-love/) - Not plein air, but quickly painted in a public setting from a blurry overcast bootlegged photo, so not exactly a studio painting either... This was done as a gift for the family that opened their home to me during my recent stay in San Diego. They spend their anniversaries down here every year, and though
- [Chromatic Water Theory III: Strum](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-iii-strum/) - Sound upon sound, wave upon wave, a simple strum of a stringed instrument produces a series of notes that can combine to produce a harmonious chord. Sound is a wave after all, and every wave forms from smaller waves, ripples even, joining each other in a synergy of moving water, liquid chords in the key
- [Chromatic Water Theory II: Resonate](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-ii-resonate/) - Many instruments have within their design a method of capturing, redirecting, focusing, and amplifying the otherwise not-quite-so-extraordinary sounds produced by whichever simple vibrating element they employ. When those vibrations bounce off chambers, refract around curving elements, they refract, combine, and grow to a beautiful pitch, much like a wave as it approaches shallow waters. Canyons,
- [Chromatic Water Theory I: Percussion](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-i-percussion/) - Percussion, it’s the foundation of music. It’s been here all along, discernible all around and within us, from water’s rhythmic waves to our own heartbeats pumping our saltwater life force through our bodies. From the basic repetition emerges increasing complexities, and with a human intellect at the helm becomes the very structure upon which song
- [A Wing and a Prayer](https://mattbeardart.com/a-wing-and-a-prayer/) - Studio redux of recent live art concept. A few weeks back at a benefit for Standing Rock I painted a different version of a bird swooping down to grab a fish out of the water. In that one the bird was just a dark silhouette and the fish ended up with a non-intentional pacific northwest
- [Chromatic Water Theory VII: Chunk](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-vii-chunk/) - Much can be said of beautiful harmonies, but there is also a place in music for the discord, the feedback, the reverb, the chunks of rawness strewn about from a creative process that values expression above technical perfection. Even the ugly shorepound is beautiful to the bodysurfers. Oceanic mosh pits. Every song has its roots
- [Chromatic Water Theory VI: Platinum](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-vi-platinum/) - I painted this one during a Johnny Cash tribute set at the Eureka Theater during the Redwood Coast Music Festival while the painting (and occasionally my big fat head was projected on to a 30 foot screen behind the band). Slightly awkward, but hopefully a fun visual to compliment the music. Thinking of Johnny Cash
- [Chromatic Water Theory V: Theory and Practice](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-v-theory-and-practice/)
- [Chromatic Water Theory IV: String Theory](https://mattbeardart.com/chromatic-water-theory-iv-string-theory/) - Stringed instruments often contain a dizzying array of mathematical geometries; the length and/or thickness of strings, the placement of frets, the bodies themselves. All of it designed to produce the harmonic frequencies we hear as notes and chords arising from vibrating strings. But what is vibration, if not a wave? Reduce a wave, or for
- [Water is Life](https://mattbeardart.com/water-is-life/) - If we look to the seasons we see that darkness comes in cycles, offset by rhythms of light. And yet the darkness has never felt so loud as the discordant anthem of this asymphonic night. We are tempted to see this present moment as the cold oppression of a tangible force. A standing army of
- [Shoebox Series XII](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-xii/) - Recent commission, but a solid throwback to 2008, when the first 8 paintings of this series were published in the Surfer's Journal (Second County South, vol.17 #3). I don't work from photos all too often, but this series is an exception. The idea isn't to recreate a perfect photo (waste of paint, just print the
- [Creepy Fingers](https://mattbeardart.com/creepy-fingers/)
- [Grass Fed](https://mattbeardart.com/grass-fed/) - um... not plein air Music is like math, where math allows us to see the inner workings of the physical world around us, music allows us to see the inner workings of the non-physical world within us. What?
- [Moonlighting](https://mattbeardart.com/moonlighting/) - This was done by the light of the full moon and a strategically placed led headlamp- not too close to ruin ability to see the scene beyond it, but close enough to barely discern the difference between my primaries. But only barely, some super weird choices went down for sure. Went with my buddy's bike
- [A Hope and a Future](https://mattbeardart.com/a-hope-and-a-future/) - Painted live last week at Cannifest. Definitely not plein air. Blank white canvas to finished piece in one session though, no time to overthink it. Finally got a good photo of it. This is the one that won the audience vote up there. Pretty stoked about that.
- [Elevation](https://mattbeardart.com/elevation/)
- [Insinuation XXI](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xxi/)
- [To Air is Human](https://mattbeardart.com/to-air-is-human/) - Written on April 21, 2020 The name of the band that played that night I painted this was Terrapin Flyer if I remember correctly- a Grateful Dead cover band. I never was all that into the ol' GD, but that's not to say I don't appreciate their music, so it was a ton of fun
- [Groupthink](https://mattbeardart.com/groupthink/) - The result of the Live Art collaboration with Spencer Reynolds @spencerreynoldsartist last night. We're still friends. But it was a close call for a minute there.
- [Up a Creek](https://mattbeardart.com/up-a-creek/)
- [Back East](https://mattbeardart.com/back-east/) - First crack at the desert. Furthest east I've been in a really long time. No waves, but digging the morning color palette all the same.
- [Primarily Speaking](https://mattbeardart.com/primarily-speaking/) - One of my favorites from my "From Scratch" show. Easy to overlook, but symbolic of my whole approach to art. Flowing water vibes and a nod to the three primary colors I use. Every painting I make uses just red, yellow, blue and white. Every black, brown, green, gray or whatever is mixed individually from
- [Peace, In Another Language](https://mattbeardart.com/peace-in-another-language/)
- [Body of Water (The Red Door)](https://mattbeardart.com/body-of-water/) - Prologue Never, have I ever, painted live at a church // In these halls where language like an eagle soars // Hunting an explanation but seldom willing to explore // Beyond the war that leaves words stripped to their core // And the tension left behind that gives us sometimes something more // Than the
- [Reclamation](https://mattbeardart.com/reclamation/) - Written on April 22, 2020 Painting at the Jambalaya was always a wild time. A small space with a loud sound, and excited music fans moving with abandon, meant that my spot to post up was on the floor directly beside one of the speakers getting my ears blown out and going with the flow
- [Left Alone](https://mattbeardart.com/left-alone/)
- [Hovering](https://mattbeardart.com/hovering/)
- [Never Saw it Coming](https://mattbeardart.com/never-saw-it-coming/)
- [Evening Float](https://mattbeardart.com/evening-float/)
- [A Different Line](https://mattbeardart.com/a-different-line/)
- [Event Horizon](https://mattbeardart.com/event-horizon/)
- [Fat Lip](https://mattbeardart.com/fat-lip/)
- [Her Blue Eyes](https://mattbeardart.com/her-blue-eyes/)
- [Right Angle](https://mattbeardart.com/right-angle/)
- [Arc](https://mattbeardart.com/arc/)
- [Into the Unknown](https://mattbeardart.com/into-the-unknown/)
- [Holy Moly](https://mattbeardart.com/holy-moly/)
- [4:53 PM](https://mattbeardart.com/453-pm/)
- [Amplitude and Frequency](https://mattbeardart.com/amplitude-and-frequency/)
- [Against the Grain](https://mattbeardart.com/against-the-grain/)
- [Lurch](https://mattbeardart.com/lurch/)
- [Fleeting Glimpse](https://mattbeardart.com/fleeting-glimpse/) - Painted live at Redwood Curtain brewery during a live music set from Likwefi. No plan, just paint and let the music guide the pace. Twice during the show I thought I saw a bird and tried to define it, but the more I developed it, the worse it looked as it wasn't a planned drawing
- [Spit Rhythm](https://mattbeardart.com/spit-rhythm/)
- [Burned into Memory](https://mattbeardart.com/burned-into-memory/)
- [Passing Through VI](https://mattbeardart.com/passing-through-vi/) - Painted Live at Oysters and Ale benefit for Humboldt Made a few weeks ago. These live pieces are a fun outlet for me, a welcome change of pace from drawn out studio work or weather/light/location dependent plein air work. I never really know where a piece is going to go and that's at least half
- [Passing Through V](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Airwaves](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Passing Through IV](https://mattbeardart.com/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,
- [Out of Eden](https://mattbeardart.com/out-of-eden/)
- [Pray for Her](https://mattbeardart.com/pray-for-her/)
- [Photosynthesis](https://mattbeardart.com/photosynthesis/)
- [Convergence](https://mattbeardart.com/convergence/)
- [Vicarious](https://mattbeardart.com/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.
- [Architecture of Flow](https://mattbeardart.com/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.
- [Stage Left](https://mattbeardart.com/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?
- [The Loneliness of the Fish Taco](https://mattbeardart.com/the-loneliness-of-the-fish-taco/)
- [Acoustic Dunescape](https://mattbeardart.com/acoustic-dunescape/)
- [Insinuation XIII](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xiii/)
- [Insinuation XII: It Will Be What It Will Be](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xii-it-will-be-what-it-will-be/) - And it will be what it will be
- [Insinuation XI: Like Polished Brass](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xi-like-polished-brass/) - Lengthening shadows signal the cycle Is nearing its endSoon to repeat againAnd as the fading light races the horizonThe dust is what we’ve laid eyes onThe circuit completeThe awakening of earth’s mind In a thousand incandescent lightsStreaming forth To welcome all and then someTo receive the failed and winsomeHer final thought to hold a mass
- [Insinuation X: Green Explosions](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-x-green-explosions/) - The fragile seed Takes root and shootsGreen explosions of sunshine Burst forth from the scattered ashes Of those laid to rest From the day when the mad disease Took aim and shotTheir passing became The passion behind The protest of laughing children Bellies fullThe harvest abundant Ringing from the bell tower Over field and foe
- [Insinuation XVII](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xvii/)
- [Insinuation XVI](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xvi/)
- [Insinuation XV](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xv/)
- [Insinuation XIV](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xiv/)
- [Passing Through II](https://mattbeardart.com/passing-through-ii/)
- [Another Day](https://mattbeardart.com/another-day/)
- [Insinuation XIX](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xix/)
- [Insinuation XVIII](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-xviii/)
- [Dunescape](https://mattbeardart.com/dunescape/)
- [Evolution of Icarus](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Flow](https://mattbeardart.com/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.
- [Passing Through III](https://mattbeardart.com/passing-through-iii/)
- [The Wedding Gift](https://mattbeardart.com/the-wedding-gift/)
- [Water and Spirit](https://mattbeardart.com/water-and-spirit/)
- [Sun and Wave](https://mattbeardart.com/sun-and-wave/)
- [Down the Line](https://mattbeardart.com/down-the-line/)
- [Surface Tension I](https://mattbeardart.com/surface-tension-i/)
- [Seven Stitches](https://mattbeardart.com/seven-stitches/)
- [Two Rights Don't Make a Wrong](https://mattbeardart.com/two-rights-dont-make-a-wrong/)
- [Into the Light](https://mattbeardart.com/into-the-light/)
- [Surface Processes](https://mattbeardart.com/surface-processes/)
- [Home Break](https://mattbeardart.com/home-break/)
- [Hand Jive](https://mattbeardart.com/hand-jive/) - Painted live at the San Diego Surf Film Festival, 2014. Throughout the 4 day event, contributing filmmakers were asked to trace a print of their hands on this 36″ x 36″ canvas. On the final day, I incorporated their hands into this finished piece.
- [Fire Fusion](https://mattbeardart.com/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,
- [Insinuation: Prologue](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-prologue/) - Rising and falling, the transfer of energy, the simple wave is itself in nature prominent.To look too close is to see only the thing and miss the implications of its movement.From here on no further mention made of the object of our salted minds.Just an attempt with light and with shadeto find it between the
- [Passing Through I](https://mattbeardart.com/passing-through-i/)
- [Breakwall](https://mattbeardart.com/breakwall/) - Recent Live Art piece from the Save the Waves fundraiser in SF a few weeks back. I'm really stoked how this one turned out. I went with a simple image of a wave about to break into a breakwall, an enigmatic comment on our role in shaping the shoreline, creating and destroying surf breaks along
- [Heat Wave](https://mattbeardart.com/heat-wave/)
- [Insinuation IV: Riding Shotgun in the Cardiac](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-iv-riding-shotgun-in-the-cardiac/) - As the plot thickens The pulse quickens Signals the release of adrenalineThe fight or flightThe might makes right At heart it’s all just lightEmanating through nervous roots Planted deep in the sinewsIt’s neither sin nor is it newsRiding shotgun in the cardiac Pumping beats to keep the blood movingRegulating the pace of exchangeThe old for
- [Insinuation III: Sheet Music of Endless Revolutions](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-iii-sheet-music-of-endless-revolutions/) - Pulsating depths collide with rock in steady rhythm Rocksteady rhythms Seafoam drifts that move in procession Driven by the upwelling of timeEtching on the surface a crooked white lineA visible record of the upheavalThe sheet music of endless revolutions Each blast is a rebellion In search of freedom like waterMoving to this inexplicable beatDancing with
- [Insinuation II: Hunting Reverb for Survival](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-ii-hunting-reverb-for-survival/) - Molten harmonics signal the release of tensionThe groaning of tectonic riffs Played with the volume cranked to eleven The subterranean chords of metal and rock circle their preyDescending through chasms Black air dripping with the sweat of earth Waiting to shake its foundations And strike Hunting reverb for survivalAnd it hides by the deepest frequencies
- [Insinuation I: Lost in a Sea of Synapses](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-i-lost-in-a-sea-of-synapses/) - Dancing at will upon the innumerous grainsThe finite brains of particulate philosophersWho cannot through their centrifugesDo anything other than remain on it’s surfaceGrasping at photonsMissing the pointMarching lockstep in lines around the cornerAdrift in a city of relapsesLost in a sea of synapsesMentally sequencing the circuitry required To awaken the silicon mined of earthThe silicon
- [Insinuation VIII: Hope of Expectancy Surrendered](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-viii-hope-of-expectancy-surrendered/) - As joy turns to sorrow And victory defeatThe batteries drainedThe battering remains A constant beatEach pulse an increase of primordial painThe hope of expectancy surrendered Like broken water from a cloudburst in a heavy rainSomething gone wrongThe absence of lightThis can’t be the way That all is set rightThe giver of life drained of the
- [Insinuation VII: The Spin of the Sphere](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-vii-the-spin-of-the-sphere/) - The spin of the sphere Is the beginning of fear And where it leads none can followIt’s tilted gait Refuses to wait As yesterday wars with tomorrow And the lengthening days The upper hand gainsAnd the bluebirds await the arrival Of the victor’s scorn Trampling the snowmelt Of their opponentWho retreats to the high mountainsBlocking
- [Insinuation VI: Earth's Shadow Not Yet Reaping](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-vi-earths-shadow-not-yet-reaping/) - The lunar eclipse breathes its deepest shade of red As the waters of earth rise up to meet the dyingA global procession Where every drop offers An honest confession Of unending love And weeps for the loss of their beloved’s white-blue lightThese fluid mourning masses Gather at the funeral parlor doorAwaiting a turn to glimpse
- [Insinuation V: No Escape Until Exhalation](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-v-no-escape-until-exhalation/) - Inhalation of numbers A suspended matrix of love and tears Sweat and painNo solution for this equationJust a problem of oxygen suspended in bloodArriving from beyond the sea To bring life however brief it may beBut with it arises The conflict inside usCarried by wind Born of dustMade of earthFragile and flammableUnquenched and unbirthed Ubiquitous
- [Internal Rhythm](https://mattbeardart.com/internal-rhythm/)
- [Insinuation IX: Where Once there was Only Sky](https://mattbeardart.com/insinuation-ix-where-once-there-was-only-sky/) - Rising up to heights intolerable Between moments of relief All too briefJust when the final surge washes throughRearranging the ground floorSoaking the upholstery With salt driven from the earth’s rotationGlass breakingWalls shakingThe record collection scattered like shells on the shore Just when it’s too much to bearAs violently as it movedJust as quickly it is
- [Regaining Flow](https://mattbeardart.com/regaining-flow/)
- [Live at Bird's](https://mattbeardart.com/live-at-birds/)
- [Skelican](https://mattbeardart.com/skelican/)
- [Womb Vibes](https://mattbeardart.com/womb-vibes/)
- [Birdsong](https://mattbeardart.com/birdsong/)
- [Departure](https://mattbeardart.com/departure/)
- [Infusion](https://mattbeardart.com/infusion/)
- [Sea Inside](https://mattbeardart.com/sea-inside/)
- [Crossroads](https://mattbeardart.com/crossroads/)
- [Old Coast Highway](https://mattbeardart.com/old-coast-highway/)
- [To the Sea](https://mattbeardart.com/to-the-sea/)
- [Creekmouth Sandbar](https://mattbeardart.com/creekmouth-sandbar/)
- [Laying Tracks](https://mattbeardart.com/laying-tracks/)
- [There's Even a Hot Tub Around the Corner](https://mattbeardart.com/theres-even-a-hot-tub-around-the-corner/)
- [Chasm](https://mattbeardart.com/chasm/)
- [California Poppies](https://mattbeardart.com/california-poppies/) - After this piece I came to the conclusion that the nearly unbearable intensity of the color of California poppies in bright sunshine may just be one of nature's cruelest tricks ever hoisted upon unsuspecting plein air painters. It's just not fair, really.
- [Deep](https://mattbeardart.com/deep/)
- [Tall Cold One](https://mattbeardart.com/tall-cold-one/)
- [Mexican Poppies](https://mattbeardart.com/mexican-poppies/)
- [Wood & Stone](https://mattbeardart.com/wood-stone/)
- [Shelter](https://mattbeardart.com/shelter/)
- [Rocks at Last Light](https://mattbeardart.com/rocks-at-last-light/)
- [South Fork of the Middle Fork of the North Fork](https://mattbeardart.com/south-fork-of-the-middle-fork-of-the-north-fork/)
- [Spring in Mexico](https://mattbeardart.com/spring-in-mexico/)
- [Shipwreck](https://mattbeardart.com/shipwreck/)
- [Fibonacci](https://mattbeardart.com/fibonacci/)
- [Eucalyptus Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/eucalyptus-gold/)
- [It is Well](https://mattbeardart.com/it-is-well/)
- [Balancing Act](https://mattbeardart.com/balancing-act/)
- [Apples & Honeymoons](https://mattbeardart.com/apples-honeymoons/)
- [Wild Spaces](https://mattbeardart.com/wild-spaces/)
- [A Walk in the Wind](https://mattbeardart.com/a-walk-in-the-wind/)
- [Down the Street](https://mattbeardart.com/down-the-street/)
- [Volcanic Valley](https://mattbeardart.com/volcanic-valley/)
- [My Home is Where Her Heart Is](https://mattbeardart.com/my-home-is-where-her-heart-is/)
- [All Good](https://mattbeardart.com/all-good/)
- [Energy, Mass, and Light](https://mattbeardart.com/energy-mass-and-light/)
- [On the Rocks](https://mattbeardart.com/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...
- [Shorebreak](https://mattbeardart.com/shorebreak/)
- [Gravity's Reunion](https://mattbeardart.com/gravitys-reunion/)
- [Hardly Worth Repeating](https://mattbeardart.com/hardly-worth-repeating/)
- [Hobo Undisturbed](https://mattbeardart.com/hobo-undisturbed/)
- [Split the Difference](https://mattbeardart.com/split-the-difference/) - On that day we harnessedHistory’s joyousLaughterBut there was nobodyAround to hear itSo instead weSplitThe difference
- [Road Kill](https://mattbeardart.com/road-kill/)
- [The Higher Laws](https://mattbeardart.com/the-higher-laws/)
- [Fly Over](https://mattbeardart.com/fly-over/)
- [The Day of the Memorial](https://mattbeardart.com/the-day-of-the-memorial/)
- [While the Earth Burned](https://mattbeardart.com/while-the-earth-burned/)
- [Entranced](https://mattbeardart.com/entranced/)
- [Avocados and Beer](https://mattbeardart.com/avocados-and-beer/)
- [A-Frame](https://mattbeardart.com/a-frame/)
- [Coasting](https://mattbeardart.com/coasting/)
- [No Trespassing](https://mattbeardart.com/no-trespassing/)
- [Duck Dive](https://mattbeardart.com/duck-dive/)
- [Peak Demand](https://mattbeardart.com/peak-demand/)
- [Unsolitary Confinement](https://mattbeardart.com/unsolitary-confinement/)
- [Shoebox Series X](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-x/)
- [Black on Black](https://mattbeardart.com/black-on-black/)
- [Mack](https://mattbeardart.com/mack/)
- [A Symmetrical Moment](https://mattbeardart.com/a-symmetrical-moment/)
- [New Year's Day](https://mattbeardart.com/new-years-day/)
- [Approaching Storm](https://mattbeardart.com/approaching-storm/) - Wishing for another momentTo captureTheInconvenient gazeOf a child’sBrightAnd silent futureBefore they comeTo haul it all away
- [Beckoning](https://mattbeardart.com/beckoning/) - Each passing stormBrings a clearingOf mindRevealingSpiral rhythmsOf colorIn your eyesBoth fragileAnd totally free
- [Denied](https://mattbeardart.com/denied/)
- [Fading Light](https://mattbeardart.com/fading-light/)
- [Shoebox Series XI](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-xi/)
- [Walking the Line](https://mattbeardart.com/walking-the-line/)
- [Afternoon Mourning](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-mourning/) - She loved it here beneath these colder mountainsBut now she is gone And even now, after all this timeI’m still struggling to say goodbye
- [Focal Point](https://mattbeardart.com/focal-point/)
- [Five](https://mattbeardart.com/five/)
- [An Impending Situation](https://mattbeardart.com/an-impending-situation/)
- [Confrontations](https://mattbeardart.com/confrontations/)
- [Undecided](https://mattbeardart.com/undecided/)
- [Fetch](https://mattbeardart.com/fetch/)
- [Nuclear Sunrise](https://mattbeardart.com/nuclear-sunrise/) - On that day we harnessedHistory’s joyousLaughterBut there was nobodyAround to hear itSo instead weSplitThe difference
- [One Man Show](https://mattbeardart.com/one-man-show/)
- [Shoebox Series VII](https://mattbeardart.com/shoebox-series-vii/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend's shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike,
- [Pure Joy](https://mattbeardart.com/pure-joy/)
- [Afternoon Glass](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-glass/)
- [Sacred Site: Looking South](https://mattbeardart.com/sacred-site-looking-south/)
- [Sacred Site: Undivided](https://mattbeardart.com/sacred-site-undivided/)
- [Sacred Site: The Triumph of Beauty](https://mattbeardart.com/sacred-site-the-triumph-of-beauty/)
- [Sacred Site: Looking North](https://mattbeardart.com/sacred-site-looking-north/)
- [End of the Trail](https://mattbeardart.com/end-of-the-trail/)
- [Evening Light](https://mattbeardart.com/evening-light/)
- [Sheltered from the Wind](https://mattbeardart.com/sheltered-from-the-wind/)
- [Just as the Clouds Lifted](https://mattbeardart.com/just-as-the-clouds-lifted/)
- [Homestead](https://mattbeardart.com/homestead/)
- [When the Rain Finally Stopped](https://mattbeardart.com/when-the-rain-finally-stopped/) - I’ve been in a storm That seems like it will never end And it still howls and hammers to this very day I’m learning to accept The shivering soaking that follows Whenever I step out of the shelter I’ve built in this old heart It’s walls are made of driftwood Branches and limbs From long
- [Trying to Paint in the Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/trying-to-paint-in-the-rain/) - After two straight days of rain and a not so inspiring view from inside the tent, I broke down and attempted to paint on this masonite panel even though it was still drizzling. Luckily it never became a downpour. The thought of painting in the rain has resonated with me ever since though... She
- [The Other Side of the River](https://mattbeardart.com/the-other-side-of-the-river/)
- [Morning Meditations](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-meditations/)
- [Fire and Ice](https://mattbeardart.com/fire-and-ice/)
- [Fire and Ice II](https://mattbeardart.com/fire-and-ice-ii/)
- [Happy Cows](https://mattbeardart.com/happy-cows/) - While painting this one from behind a rusty barbwire fence running along the overgrowth by the riverbank, I had an odd thought of what would happen if a cow came charging down the little path I was on. I sorta game-planned how I would step back into a little clearing behind my easel to let
- [Right After Breakfast](https://mattbeardart.com/right-after-breakfast/) - Rising up with the sun Oh how we are blessed We’ll get it all done Right after breakfast A lonely spigot Sweet water from rust We’ll refill our jugs Right after breakfast We’ll hang our food high Or else bury it we must We’ll hide it from bears Right after breakfast We’ll commit our
- [While Everyone Slept](https://mattbeardart.com/while-everyone-slept/)
- [Skunked](https://mattbeardart.com/skunked/) - This was the first full studio landscape I completed after spending about 2 years pretty much exclusively painting outdoors. The outdoor approach ended up completely altering my approach to painting in general. Most of the studio landscape work I've done in more recent years that folks know me best for wouldn't exist if I hadn't
- [High Tide Campout](https://mattbeardart.com/high-tide-campout/)
- [Hobo Lady Giving the Finger to a Freight Train # 1](https://mattbeardart.com/hobo-lady-giving-the-finger-to-a-freight-train-1/) - Apologies for the blurry photo, this one got away before I got a good shot of it. Anyway, this one could be a long story that maybe I'll write out one day, but you get the idea from the title. You see some interesting stuff go down at times when you paint outdoors, mainly cause
- [First Hike Up the Canyon](https://mattbeardart.com/first-hike-up-the-canyon/) - This one goes way back... I first became interested in painting outdoors after seeing work from some of the early California Impressionists at a show in Los Angeles. I’d been painting for a solid ten years already, a dedicated artist since the age of 16. But those California Impressionists did something with their art that
- [Canyon Perch](https://mattbeardart.com/canyon-perch/)
- [Canyon Colors](https://mattbeardart.com/canyon-colors/)
- [Snake in the Grass](https://mattbeardart.com/snake-in-the-grass/)
- [Forbidden Ground](https://mattbeardart.com/forbidden-ground/)
- [The Top of the Canyon](https://mattbeardart.com/the-top-of-the-canyon/) - This is from way up the canyon, to the top of the ridge from where it starts. If I painted the scene behind my back you'd be looking at the 5 freeway or the toll road or something near Irvine and a bunch of strip malls and houses. But hiking up here from the trailhead
- [Carl's Crackers](https://mattbeardart.com/carls-crackers/)
- [The Jewel X Friday Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-x-friday-afternoon/)
- [Time Slides Away](https://mattbeardart.com/time-slides-away/)
- [Back to Shore](https://mattbeardart.com/back-to-shore/)
- [Sunday Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/sunday-afternoon/)
- [Winter Light](https://mattbeardart.com/winter-light/)
- [Through the Woods](https://mattbeardart.com/through-the-woods/)
- [Out of the Wind](https://mattbeardart.com/out-of-the-wind/)
- [Dirty Hippy Camp](https://mattbeardart.com/dirty-hippy-camp/)
- [Watch Out For Ticks](https://mattbeardart.com/watch-out-for-ticks/)
- [Something Fishy](https://mattbeardart.com/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.
- [Point Saint Patricks](https://mattbeardart.com/point-saint-patricks/)
- [A River's End](https://mattbeardart.com/a-rivers-end/)
- [Up to the Stairs](https://mattbeardart.com/up-to-the-stairs/)
- [Stone Cold](https://mattbeardart.com/stone-cold/)
- [Norm Called Me A Hobit](https://mattbeardart.com/norm-called-me-a-hobit/)
- [The Jewel IV: Wednesday Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-iv-wednesday-morning/)
- [The Jewel III: Tuesday Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-iii-tuesday-morning/)
- [The Jewel II: Monday Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-ii-monday-afternoon/)
- [The Jewel VIII: Thursday Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-viii-thursday-afternoon/)
- [The Jewel VI: Thursday Morning](https://mattbeardart.com/the-jewel-vi-thursday-morning/)
- [The Jewel V: Wednesday Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Jetty Wave](https://mattbeardart.com/jetty-wave/)
- [The President](https://mattbeardart.com/the-president/) - Two things happened recently. First, I spent a week exploring and painting along one of mainland California’s most remote and mysterious coastlines. Missile launch silos. American flags. Chain of command and all that. But this painting isn’t about that trip at all except for one detail. One morning on the beach, miles from the nearest
- [Better Places](https://mattbeardart.com/better-places/) - Painted on location, well at first anyway, back in 2017. Then I never went back to finish it properly so about a year or two later I took it to a silent disco on the beach below and tried to finish it there, but got so distracted with silent disco-ing that I couldn’t think straight
- [Precipice](https://mattbeardart.com/precipice/) - My sister loved this beach⠀With it’s small rocks worn smooth ⠀Tumbled in their own strange victory⠀A full spectrum of color⠀Joseph’s coat made of earth⠀No wonder his brothers sold him⠀Jealousy runs deep in the quest for treasure⠀What good are these precious stones anyway?⠀Were they not made to be coveted by thy neighbor?⠀And yet my sister envied
- [Between a Rock and a Happy Place](https://mattbeardart.com/between-a-rock-and-a-happy-place/)
- [From the Grave to the Cradle](https://mattbeardart.com/from-the-grave-to-the-cradle/) - A funny thing about life, that we don’t really ever consider the miracle of our birth until we've truly reckoned with the reality of your impending death. Standing here, two feet planted firmly on the path to the cemetery (let the reader understand), this is the first time I ever laid my eyes upon the
- [Mushroom Hunting](https://mattbeardart.com/mushroom-hunting/) - They sit motionless, watching passively Not engaged in the passage of time like you or IYet not outside of it eitherWe travel the worldSearching for new experiencesNew understandings of what it isTo be alive.They watch us come and goAlways returning to their steady gazeChangedYet somehow always the sameThey have no need for comings and goingsYet
- [The Middle Ground](https://mattbeardart.com/the-middle-ground/) - Verbal Sketches Inspired by California's Central Coast This collection of verbal sketches was one of the first times I can recall sitting down to write, just for writing's sake. I remember being shocked just how much I enjoyed it and marveling at where in the world this stuff came from. It was a feeling of
- [Lifting Grays](https://mattbeardart.com/lifting-grays/)
- [Summer Evening](https://mattbeardart.com/summer-evening/)
- [Free Range #8: Disappearance](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-8-disappearance/) - Odometer: 346.4 miles The rough and callousedFingers of landJoin handsWith the soft and nimbleFingers of fogIn aDisplay ofQuiet unity
- [Free Range #32: End of the Line](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-32-end-of-the-line/) - Odometer: 1499.6 miles A common theme when exploring an unfamiliar area is to drive to the end of the road, then get out and walk to the end of the trail until you can't pass any further. Doesn't matter if it's a remote location or just a curious corner of your own local neighborhood, it
- [Up the Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/up-the-coast/) - They took one last look at the riverAnd longed for another timeSaddened by the parade of motorhomes and methStretching from the ends of the earth to right here and right nowThey refused to join the neon funeral processionThey took their standAnd to this day they remainStillAnd beautifulAnd made of solid gold
- [Fall in California is Pretty Much the Best Thing Ever](https://mattbeardart.com/fall-in-california-is-pretty-much-the-best-thing-ever/) - Excuse the long title, but it's true. I've been hunkered down with other projects lately and not getting out to paint as much as I'd like, so I was stoked to not let this gem of a day pass by unpainted.
- [Morning Glory](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-glory/)
- [Water's Edge](https://mattbeardart.com/waters-edge/) - Painted in the midst of a whole herd of landscape artists, several of whom I've looked up to for years, so I was stoked I didn't botch this one, even though it is a rather odd composition. I really only chose it so I could work in the shade of the rockstack behind me, which
- [Just Before the Fog Never Quite Burned Off](https://mattbeardart.com/just-before-the-fog-never-quite-burned-off/) - Plein air from yesterday. Left my brush roll in the studio and had to makeshift with some random brushes dug up in the crevasses of my van. Then hiked up to this spot and went to setup and realized I left my canvas in the van, by the the time I walked all the way
- [Warming Up](https://mattbeardart.com/warming-up/)
- [High Tide Glare](https://mattbeardart.com/high-tide-glare/)
- [Sabbath Day](https://mattbeardart.com/sabbath-day/) - Three things to say about this one… First, at 30” x 24” it was much larger than I usually like to work out in the field, requiring 2 sessions on different days. Secondly, I was nearly pushed off this hill and sent rolling down the steep slope behind me by a large dog. It was
- [Odelay](https://mattbeardart.com/odelay/) - Named this one after the album that shares the same name from Beck, simply because that’s what I was listening to while standing out on a roof overlooking this vista as I recorded the train tracks through the wetlands below on canvas. This entire trip was plagued by a persistent coastal marine layer, but I
- [Same as She Ever Was](https://mattbeardart.com/same-as-she-ever-was/) - Took a grueling hike in the heat of the day yesterday in search of a spot I've been eyeing on the map for years. Like all the best places it requires a drive off the main road until the pavement ends, then a drive down a dirt road until the road ends, then you get
- [Port of Call](https://mattbeardart.com/port-of-call/) - We all travel in a line around here, between mountains and sea, making stops at key destinations along the way, much like boats seeking harbor at successive ports as theysail up or down a coast. This particular voyage brought me to this port late in the day. I parked in a neighborhood somewhere behind that
- [Lost in the Shuffle](https://mattbeardart.com/lost-in-the-shuffle/) - Sometimes I find myself painting subjects that are a bit more involved than I'd like, but in order to eventually cover the entire California coast, I just can't avoid them. Here is one of those. Quite challenging, one day I hope to sort out a better approach to these scenes that look out over rows
- [Fixer Upper](https://mattbeardart.com/fixer-upper/) - I was hoping to go further up the coast but the midday high tide and a deeply eroded beach combined with solid swell prevented me from going much further than this little beach hut. Not that I didn't try, it got pretty dicey around that corner. Timed my way around a few bends between sets
- [I'll be Ever'where, Ma](https://mattbeardart.com/ill-be-everwhere-ma/) - Painted this one two days ago for a friend. Without going into much detail, I chose the title from Tom Joad's farewell to his mother in Grapes of Wrath. As I painted this much loved beach from an overview perspective not often seen, I thought of many that I have had to say goodbye to
- [Poetry of Geological Ideas](https://mattbeardart.com/poetry-of-geological-ideas/) - We really do have some beautiful coastline around here. While still technically a part of the California coast, this zone feels like another time and place altogether. Pretty sure it was Einstein that said pure mathematics was the poetry of logical ideas. In that sense I reckon pure plein air painting is maybe a poetry
- [Lonesome Valley](https://mattbeardart.com/lonesome-valley/) - Plein air from yesterday, super close to home, but at least a world and a half away... Titled after Woody Guthrie's song of the same name: You gotta walk that lonesome valley,You gotta walk it by yourself,Nobody here can walk it for you,You gotta walk it by yourself. Some people say that John was a
- [Rainy Day Melody](https://mattbeardart.com/rainy-day-melody/) - Another recent one from the Orange County coast. With all the weather and rain, I kept feeling like I was painting up north somewhere. Not the typical Socal Blues anyway...
- [House of Romance, 1963: I Was Almost Never Born Here](https://mattbeardart.com/house-of-romance-1963-i-was-almost-never-born-here/) - You ready for some personal Beard family history here? On a recent trip south, a talented photographer friend and I spent a rainy afternoon cruising around to some of his favorite vantage points along the south Orange County coast. One of the stops was a historical site called Casa Romantica. I’d never heard of it,
- [Off in the Distance](https://mattbeardart.com/off-in-the-distance/) - We had some good sunny weather a few days ago, and I got it in my head to go up the coast and hike to the top of our local headland there and paint the view looking north. I had the exact vantage point in my mind with vertical rock faces framing one side of
- [Watch Your Step](https://mattbeardart.com/watch-your-step/) - I had tried to paint from this spot recently but couldn't because of the wind. Even with a better light wind forecast it was still a bit dicey out here at times. Wind funnel slot canyon on a north facing cliff in spring in Humboldt. Yep. Translation: windy, even on a calm day. Took a
- [Doom and Bloom](https://mattbeardart.com/doom-and-bloom/)
- [Keep the Loonies on the Path](https://mattbeardart.com/keep-the-loonies-on-the-path/) - Started this one a bit later in the afternoon than I typically would, after traversing the madness of the L.A. freeway complex, so I was part exhausted, part fired up to be out of the madness, and still in a rush to race the daylight. Turned out to be a very enjoyable paint session, in
- [The Light on the Knoll](https://mattbeardart.com/the-light-on-the-knoll/) - Commission from recent road trip. One of the more challenging commissions I've had in awhile. Mainly because there were incredibly fun lefts peeling over the reefs all morning just down the hill to the right. Left to my own ways I don't think there is ever a time I'd choose to paint up the hill
- [A Change is Brewing](https://mattbeardart.com/a-change-is-brewing/) - Often the main challenge in painting a location is finding an angle that condenses the story of being there into one frame. I’d surfed here years before with a friend, rappellingdown the steep cliff on a wet, gray day. I’ve been fond of the place ever since. That personal connection can make a painting even
- [Hole in the Fence](https://mattbeardart.com/hole-in-the-fence/) - 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
- [Eat the Rich](https://mattbeardart.com/eat-the-rich/) - 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.
- [Back to the Mothership](https://mattbeardart.com/back-to-the-mothership/)
- [Succulents, Rust, and Enlightenment](https://mattbeardart.com/succulents-rust-and-enlightenment/) - Sometimes it's cactus Sometimes it's a rusty barbed wire fenceAnd sometimes it's just plain old self-realizationStanding in our way
- [Walking a Fine Line](https://mattbeardart.com/walking-a-fine-line/) - My work takes me to remote locations way off the beaten paths, other times it sends me right into the most crowded shoulder to shoulder tourist zones you can find. The further out you go, the less rules there are telling you where you can and cannot go. For the protection of the habitat, for
- [Stairing Out to Sea](https://mattbeardart.com/stairing-out-to-sea/)
- [Still Life with Three Donuts](https://mattbeardart.com/still-life-with-three-donuts/)
- [Broke Down Van Blues](https://mattbeardart.com/broke-down-van-blues/) - Seems like my van was in the shop for repairs more often than not last year. One particular stint was over two months long. After awhile it started getting me down. This was from a beautiful day last summer, but I remember having to stop and remind myself how wonderful it was to just be
- [Intertidal Architecture](https://mattbeardart.com/intertidal-architecture/) - The first painting I ever recall painting of a specific location on the California coast was of the Seal Beach Pier. It was for a 7th grade art class. It wasn't painted on location. It was painted with watercolors. And I'm sure it had lots of details conveyed through the awkward lens of a 12
- [Rising Tide- Setting Sun](https://mattbeardart.com/rising-tide-setting-sun/) - About a year ago, I spent a week in San Diego painting with my friend Wade Koniakowsky and wrapped it up with a show in his gallery. It was a hot week, and sometimes challenging to find the motivation. This was at the end of a long day in the bright sun as the afternoon
- [White Hot](https://mattbeardart.com/white-hot/)
- [Eventually](https://mattbeardart.com/eventually/) - That's my dad's 76 VW parked in the prime spot for this painting of this busy beach access trail down in San Diego. I believe Norm painted a closeup of the bus while I tried to bite off this whole scene. I have a habit of doing that, often taking on a bit too much.
- [Dog's Eye View](https://mattbeardart.com/dogs-eye-view/) - This was a quick one at the end of a longish day of painting with Wade Koniakowsky, Norm Daniels, and Jose Emroca Flores. I believe Greg Gorgas joined in for this quick later afternoon session as well. We'd been painting all week together so by now these guys knew when I wandered off with a
- [The North Shore](https://mattbeardart.com/the-north-shore/) - After two days of painting one stretch of coast in this off-the-beaten-path outpost of California, I was eager to see a different part of it before leaving later this day. It would require a 2.2 mile hike, while "carrying a ton*" art supplies up and over the low hills without a soul in sight to
- [Just Past the Ice Cream Truck](https://mattbeardart.com/just-past-the-ice-cream-truck/) - Right before heading down on this trip I started hearing about these epic poppy blooms and being a color junkie I ended up juggling my plans around to get to see this bloom in person. I thought I'd meet up with my friend Wade Koniakowsky and go paint this place with him. Neither of us
- [Movers and Shakers](https://mattbeardart.com/movers-and-shakers/) - A quick trip to the southerlies of California brought me to this vista in search of a similar but different scene I'd painted for a friend a few years earlier. Apparently after some flood damage their place needed extensive work done and movers were hired to take all the necessary belongings out and store them
- [The Onslaught of Spring](https://mattbeardart.com/the-onslaught-of-spring/) - Back in March I made the effort to immerse myself in this infamous superbloom* in southern California. I had so much fun painting these flowers the first time that I stopped on my way back through a few days later, on a weekend no less, and braved the daunting prospect of immersing myself into the
- [Island Time](https://mattbeardart.com/island-time/) - I sort of saw this one developing over a few days out here. First off, the evening light over the nearby island as the full moon rose was always a subtle delight. Secondly the poppies out here, only grow on these islands. Unlike the poppies of California that are very deep orange, or the poppies
- [Rush Hour Traffic](https://mattbeardart.com/rush-hour-traffic/)
- [Out of the Lighthouse and Into the Light](https://mattbeardart.com/out-of-the-lighthouse-and-into-the-light/) - Just a reminder to never abandon your light.You will wind up empty, forlorn.Graffiti on your walls, occasionally funny, sometimes crude.But mostly just the illegible names of spirits brought in by the wind.And the markings of lovers whose bodies were dragged in by the tide.Your doorway darkened by the ghost of a travelling painter.Stealing your light.Haunted.
- [Punctuation Marks](https://mattbeardart.com/punctuation-marks/) - As we hiked our way down the coast yesterday, I made a lot of mental notes for today's paintings. Yesterday was for reconnaissance and smaller, quicker paintings. Today was time to get to work on some larger vistas. This was a scene that really struck me the day before. A sweeping view, punctuated by triple
- [There and Back Again](https://mattbeardart.com/there-and-back-again/)
- [The Dining Room](https://mattbeardart.com/the-dining-room/) - It can be anything you want. Stone stairs lead down to an empty room that couldn’t contain the view so they left the walls and roof off altogether.It can be a community kitchen where breakfast burritos are served to surfers exiting the water on a cold clear morning.It can be a music hall.It can be
- [A Fresh Perspective](https://mattbeardart.com/a-fresh-perspective/) - Long straight sandy beaches are a lifelong nemesis when it comes to composing a scene that holds my interest long enough to see a painting through. Down on the beach it’s all just sand and sky with that little strip of compressed sea level ocean. Aargh. Get me up on a hill. Give me a
- [Between the Music and the Beer](https://mattbeardart.com/between-the-music-and-the-beer/) - This was also a live painting done just recently at a benefit for a local nonprofit called Friends of the Dunes. I've been painting at their annual wine-sipping event for the last 6 years or so and always have a good time. This day was no different, but it was a bright sunny day, unlike
- [Out of the Strong, Something Sweet](https://mattbeardart.com/out-of-the-strong-something-sweet/) - Out of the eater Comes something to eat And out of the reader Comes something to read... You may find me in town Or at home resting my feet We’ll discuss the numbers Of money, milk, and meat We’ll entertain the angels Without offering a seat We’ll speak of the devil Without feeling the heat
- [Fair Wages](https://mattbeardart.com/fair-wages/)
- [Slip and Slide](https://mattbeardart.com/slip-and-slide/) - I don’t know if anyone has ever painted from this vantage point, or ever will again. It’s over 10 miles from the nearest road. The logistics of getting here, along with all of one’s painting gear, are not easily solved. And once here, I imagine most would shy away from painting a barren rockslide, but
- [Nowhere Else to Go](https://mattbeardart.com/nowhere-else-to-go/) - Sometimes there's just nowhere else to go. You might be the raindrop drifting freely from a cloud, your flight abruptly ending in earth. You might be the stream gathered from many mountains rushing down the valley locking into every twist and turn, hypnotized like a teenage race car driver, your mad dash halted by the
- [Redgate Ranch Afternoon](https://mattbeardart.com/redgate-ranch-afternoon/) - Quick afternoon sketch of the scene here. Gonna get weird with some live art after I finish a burger real quick. Good vibes all around, stoked to be here.
- [From the Shadows](https://mattbeardart.com/from-the-shadows/) - I painted this one alongside my friend Norm Daniels on a wet, dark and gray day, that began with a lot of grumbling on my part. I didn't leave the rain in Humboldt and drive all the way to San Diego for this... Norm is a great artist and a great guy to hang out
- [Wall to Wall](https://mattbeardart.com/wall-to-wall/) - Kicking this tour off with a bit of urban lore, some ghosts of 80s punk rock, some working class grind, and beach house lounge jockeys all woven together in an iconic Southern California juxtaposition. With waves. Don't leave anything valuable in your car.
- [This Spot is Gone But You're Still Here](https://mattbeardart.com/this-spot-is-gone-but-youre-still-here/) - I’d heard about a homegrown skatebowl on some farmer’s field overlooking this coast for years. I even went looking for it once, but in all the wrong places. I’d gotten a tip from a knowledgeable source this time, though, so I’d be making a visit on this trip and hopefully coming away with a painting
- [All That Remains](https://mattbeardart.com/all-that-remains/) - 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
- [Ones and Zeroes](https://mattbeardart.com/ones-and-zeroes/) - 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
- [Living Quarters](https://mattbeardart.com/living-quarters/) - Yep, an old water tower, a 76 VW bus, or... I guess an actual house fits the bill too. All of them quite livable. But only one of them will get you where you're going and then strand you there with no way to leave. I'm not telling which.
- [Red and Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/red-and-gold/) - Corralina, it's the Italian word for coral, and though no coral is found in this cold water, there is a red seaweed with a hard calcareous surface named corralina that does grow in these rugged tidepools. There's also gold poppies that bloom in the spring here. I’m a sucker for poppies. I had a strict
- [Pacific Coast Higher Way](https://mattbeardart.com/pacific-coast-higher-way/) - I know where this is going I just don’t know the way The road turned inland Behind steeper hills What lies beyond them? Who can come close Or ever even try to say? Only those who travel The Pacific Coast Higher Way The twists and turns Down here below Far from the straight and narrow
- [Quiet Water](https://mattbeardart.com/quiet-water/) - To be honest, Santa Cruz stresses me out a bit. Crazy, crazy place... but I like it. That said it was great to get out of the hamster maze for a bit today. A friend treated me to some epic midday views up a private road way up the coast and I followed that up
- [Chatting With Suess #2](https://mattbeardart.com/chatting-with-suess-2/) - From the day I was shown this view, I looked forward to painting it. A sweeping vista of the coast revealed a summary of the region: a densely populated zone, but scattered with open spaces of arid beauty. A fertile ground from which to gaze out and ponder the absurdities of life that we take
- [Imminent Domain](https://mattbeardart.com/imminent-domain/) - Had to spend a few afternoons​ here to complete this larger-than-I-normally-work plein air at the site of what once was the central hub of this coastal town, complete with a railroad station, dance hall, hotel, schoolhouse and an enclosed tidal pool for the turn of the century folk who would settle there. Remains of the
- [Twenty Twenty-One](https://mattbeardart.com/twenty-twenty-one/) - This is a follow up piece to a painting I did back in 2020. You might remember that one, it was a little darker, a little stormier, a little more 2020. This one is 2021. It’s still dark and stormy but there is a break in the clouds at least for a moment. I was
- [Time Zone # 1](https://mattbeardart.com/time-zone-1/) - 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
- [Free Range #4: Entrance](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-4-entrance/) - Odometer: 179.8 mi Last one from my home territory. Hitting the road tomorrow a.m. Huge thanks to everyone that has made suggestions, requests, and commitments for the pieces I'll be painting each day of this trip. You have all helped make this trip possible and you have my gratitude. I'll try not to blow it.
- [Free Range #21: The Beginning of the End](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-21-the-beginning-of-the-end/) - Odometer: 1030.2 miles Every trip comes to an end sometime, and this one ends in southern California. Although I still have many miles to travel in the next few days, with the live music and party vibe emanating from the pier while I painted, this was my first tastes of the end of the line.
- [Room with a View](https://mattbeardart.com/room-with-a-view/)
- [Fair Weather](https://mattbeardart.com/fair-weather/)
- [Down the Path](https://mattbeardart.com/down-the-path/)
- [Dog Days](https://mattbeardart.com/dog-days/)
- [One Last Dance](https://mattbeardart.com/one-last-dance/)
- [Timezone # 3](https://mattbeardart.com/timezone-3/) - 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
- [Strawberry Fields For Awhile](https://mattbeardart.com/strawberry-fields-for-awhile/)
- [Not My First Rodeo](https://mattbeardart.com/not-my-first-rodeo/) - This was the only painting I painted today. Oh, I had plenty of time to do another one, maybe even two, but I hadn’t explored this particular piece of coast before other than a quick surf check that consisted of a total of 5 minutes in the carpark below before moving on to seek a
- [Moment of Silence](https://mattbeardart.com/moment-of-silence/) - The hills burn and we breathe the smoke as they exhale. Second hand exposure to long forgotten memories. The mountains never forget.
- [Resting Place](https://mattbeardart.com/resting-place/)
- [Eucalyptii](https://mattbeardart.com/eucalyptii/)
- [I'm Only Bluffing](https://mattbeardart.com/im-only-bluffing/) - Have you everwatchedA treeBlowing awaySo slowlyThat its rootsHave timeTo catch and holdThe earth below? I have
- [Forgive Us Our Trespasses](https://mattbeardart.com/forgive-us-our-trespasses/) - The first sign saidNo Trespassing After climbing over the gateAnd walking across the forbidden landThe second sign saidPermission to Pass We couldn’t help but wonderFor whom was this one written? It is always goodTo be forgiven
- [Without Regard For Rules or Regulations](https://mattbeardart.com/without-regard-for-rules-or-regulations/) - Found a few more paintings from my recent Ventura/Santa Barbara trip lurking in my van when I unpacked. This one's title has nothing to do with ignoring the state park rules, but more about my decision to drop that palm in the foreground, chopping off a chunk of the composition against all of my better
- [And This](https://mattbeardart.com/and-this/) - This may or may not have been painted on my way down the coast a few weeks ago, or on my way back home today. I'm not talking. But I am exhausted and my back hurts and my knee is all tweaked and I could use a good long nap.
- [HBG](https://mattbeardart.com/hbg/)
- [Demolition: Speed of Love](https://mattbeardart.com/demolition-speed-of-love/) - I see them on their good daysAnd it’s hard to believeThe damage that the fairer of the twoSometimes inflictsWhen she lashes outUnseenOn her darker days The gaping holes wrecked into the seawall hereSpeak of forces beyond comprehension I go out here like everyone elseJust to watch on the really big daysBut the seawall always seems
- [I May Not Play the Fiddle, But I Was on the Roof](https://mattbeardart.com/i-may-not-play-the-fiddle-but-i-was-on-the-roof/) - Pretty stoked to paint this one from a rooftop today. Seriously, why paint in a studio when you can climb ladders and crawl through a skylight and set up in a place like this instead? Big thanks to my friend Charles for opening the door... um skylight... to make this one possible.
- [Silent Conversations: Long Departed](https://mattbeardart.com/silent-conversations-long-departed/) - I’ve heard this site was one of the oldest human settlements in North America. Long departed now, nothing remains but a hill of discarded shells surrounded by windblown dunes. And the wind. The wind has always been here. It was already blowing steady with undertones of far greater force to come and it was only
- [Isthmus Interrupted: Most of the Time She Can't be Reached](https://mattbeardart.com/isthmus-interrupted-most-of-the-time-she-cant-be-reached/) - The isthmus here is only passable at the lower tides, leaving the rock island on the right unreachable for most of every day. I've always been fascinated by the bending of wave energy around both sides of the island on the higher tides. Getting to this vantage point with all my paint gear wasn't easy,
- [Salt Haze](https://mattbeardart.com/salt-haze/) - This was a rough one. The coast fog was super thick when I rolled up to paint here, but the sky was blue behind me on the hills looking inland and being only late morning when I was setting up, and with a nice forecast to look forward to, I'd reckoned things would likely clear
- [Rolling In](https://mattbeardart.com/rolling-in/)
- [How the West Was Born](https://mattbeardart.com/how-the-west-was-born/)
- [Observation: South](https://mattbeardart.com/observation-south/) - While I am generally drawn to cliffside overlooks with sweeping views out to the water, I also find the occasionally more unusual perspective pretty irresistible, especially when it's one that requires a key and a scientist on your side to gain access to a pier and observation deck that are otherwise closed to the public.
- [My People](https://mattbeardart.com/my-people/)
- [Observation: North](https://mattbeardart.com/observation-north/) - The view looking north from this science research pier. I could have approached this totally differently and used the perspective to really go after the unique view of the coast from just offshore, leaving out all the railing and hoists and sciency stuffs, but that wouldn't really tell the whole story would it? Big thanks
- [Eden Revisited](https://mattbeardart.com/eden-revisited/) - Just after I had things blocked in on this one with a crisp afternoon light, a thunderhead developed to the south and within minutes the whole sky went gray. Had to make a choice, follow the changing conditions, or just wing it and make stuff up. Sometimes clouds bring out colors that sunlight washes out
- [Untouched](https://mattbeardart.com/untouched/) - 3rd day on the road, 8th painting completed, 2nd one this day. Making what I could of a rather dark gray day... Well “Untouched” may be a misnomer for a title, this place has seen a lot of feet treading it's paths being as close as it is to town. That said, it’s been spared
- [The Wind Blows Where it Wishes](https://mattbeardart.com/the-wind-blows-where-it-wishes/) - 3rd day on the road, 7th painting completed, 1st one this day The wind was blowing lightly onshore this morning but the fog was moving slowly out to sea on a seemingly different program altogether. You never know what, or who, will blow in with the wind. Besides fog, here’s what else the wind blew
- [Ticks Are Evil](https://mattbeardart.com/ticks-are-evil/) - 7th day on the road, 20th painting completed, 2nd one this day This is another place I’ve wanted to paint for a long time, but it’s quite a walk from the road and just hadn’t had the time on previous trips. I knew the angle I was looking for, but it would require a fair
- [B.Y.O.B.](https://mattbeardart.com/b-y-o-b/) - 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
- [Now and Then](https://mattbeardart.com/now-and-then/)
- [Guns and Flowers](https://mattbeardart.com/guns-and-flowers/) - A brief stopping point in the middle of one of California’s Coastal military bases. Access is difficult in these zones so my only option was to pant from a roadside viewpoint- just a quick row of parking spots for travelers to pull off the highway and snap a photo or two of the sunset, or
- [Endangered Spaces](https://mattbeardart.com/endangered-spaces/) - It had been a long time since I’d explored these trails. I don’t recall them being quite so constricting. I was hoping to find a little nook in the sandstone with a view and some shade. But it was not to be, you can't step foot off of the clearly marked paths here, without risking
- [Dielectric Union](https://mattbeardart.com/dielectric-union/)
- [The Unveiling](https://mattbeardart.com/the-unveiling/) - Painted on location while giving a somewhat distracted interview with a Bay area newspaper editor... Donuts cooking on the dashboardAs I jumped out to meet the pressWe discussed life and art and historyA dozen different ways to make a royal mess We dodged the ticks and poison oakAnd spoke as loud as we likedOut of
- [Her View of the Canyon](https://mattbeardart.com/her-view-of-the-canyon/)
- [Bass and Treble](https://mattbeardart.com/bass-and-treble/) - 3rd of 4 paintings painted this day- a larger piece for a single session plein air, but I was warmed up and found some shade so I settled into this one for the afternoon. Speaking of shade, how shady are some of the characters in this parking lot? Saw some things that can't be unseen,
- [Her New Road](https://mattbeardart.com/her-new-road/) - I imagine it was only a seasonal closure, something about nesting birds on the sand dunes, but it rattled my whole game plan. This isn’t a place one just passes through on the way down the coast, you have to really make the effort to get off the beaten path to find yourself out here.
- [Southern Vista](https://mattbeardart.com/southern-vista/) - This was painted months before the somewhat recent fatal bluff collapse incident. You can see the warning on the beach here, that circle of boulders isn't some hippy stonehenge setup, it's the remainders of a previous collapse. The sand and soil has washed away, leaving just this ring as a reminder of the footprint these
- [Headwinds](https://mattbeardart.com/headwinds/) - This is the last painting I recall painting along our local coastline before the summer road trip season kicked in. I had recently rebuilt my painting kit to be lighter and fit on a smaller pack with the ability to carry multiple freshly painted still-wet stretched canvases hands-free on a single outing. This was the
- [Along the Way](https://mattbeardart.com/along-the-way/)
- [Postcard from Paradise](https://mattbeardart.com/postcard-from-paradise/)
- [Decommissioned](https://mattbeardart.com/decommissioned/) - With a long-term goal of painting as much of California's coast as I possibly can, I end up all sorts of places. Sometimes it's out on the edge of an offshore island marching off into the distance without a trail to follow, other times it's being invited to visit some of the more exclusive and
- [A Hard Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/a-hard-rain/) - Written on March 17, 2020 With my annual spring road trip season hanging in the balance as we all hold our breaths, I'm reflecting back on my tour of Southern California last May. Throughout the trip I was met with less than stellar weather. At first it was frustrating, but later it was liberating as
- [Winter in Summer](https://mattbeardart.com/winter-in-summer/) - A further experiment in letting the paint run and not developing every part of a painting equally. In this case the showers in the distance were rendered by the unpredictable drips and runs of thin paint washes, with a bit of occasional help from the rain itself. With the exception of the yellow bloom in
- [Inclement](https://mattbeardart.com/inclement/) - For much of this trip I faced inclement weather, and eventually made peace with it by embracing the moody darkness it often brought to a scene, punctuated by the bursts of light whenever the clouds would break. Kind of experimental, and kind of a lot of fun. I had no intention of creating these darker
- [There Goes the Neighborhood](https://mattbeardart.com/there-goes-the-neighborhood/) - You never know where tomorrow will bring you, which is why these folks commissioned this deck-top view from their home awhile back- so they'd always have this painting, even if they didn't always have this view.⠀⠀But there was more to the neighborhood than the view of the western sky over their neighbors' houses. There were
- [Down by the Bay](https://mattbeardart.com/down-by-the-bay/) - It's not always hard to reach edge-of-the-earth places. My long time goal of painting the entire California coast means that some days I'm just down at the end of the street painting a quick commission for some friends that are moving out of their cozy little home by the bay.
- [A Dissonant End](https://mattbeardart.com/a-dissonant-end/) - I've got no ear for harmonies, seriously. I might not be tone-deaf, but I am certainly tone-dumb. But I have heard that in the language of jazz, the end of a song is often concluded with what is called a dissonant chord. I couldn't really pick a dissonant chord out of a crowd, but I
- [Drink Up](https://mattbeardart.com/drink-up/) - The final panting of this trip. To keep our packs as light as we could (since I was carrying an entire studio) we carried little water with us- just enough to get to our next destination point and keeping our eyes out for water sources along the way. We brought a small filter and there's
- [Head Games](https://mattbeardart.com/head-games/)
- [Mountain of Mien Mo](https://mattbeardart.com/mountain-of-mien-mo/) - Titled after Kerouac’s name for this mountain, a looming white peak visible from the canyon beneath the bridge where Kerouac stayed and wrote his novel, and also visible from this ridge a good distance down the coast. This peak is full of stories. Creation stories. Secret caves stories. Lost civilization stories. Mysterious dark figure stories.
- [Wreathed in Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/wreathed-in-gold/) - May. 2020. Arriving late in the day. The winding road to the coast dipped at turns and barreled straight through the blinding sun around each bend- a supercharged conduit for heavy traffic heading both ways in a rush toward whatever version of “stay-at-home” they were playing today. A motorcyclist behind my van wasn’t having it.
- [Two For One](https://mattbeardart.com/two-for-one/) - I was here to paint the view for a couple who were married here. I painted a quick one the night before and seeing how crowded it was here on the covid coast of California, I was very thankful to have permission to park and camp behind this private property’s gate. It’s hectic out there,
- [Repeater](https://mattbeardart.com/repeater/) - Repeating patterns everywhere you look. Some patterns we wish we could break. Some patterns break us instead. And some patterns touch the heavens as her clouds roll in on those darker days. Not this day. This day was bright like the eyes of a child whose father makes it home alive. The man in uniform
- [Hiding in Plain Sight](https://mattbeardart.com/hiding-in-plain-sight/) - Access to this pocket of reef beneath sandstone cliffs is now through a private club serving coastal California's elites. An old friend of mine grew up surfing here before the club existed. The owner of the club is a rather infamous self-important jerk of sorts, and was probably here for an event, when security recently
- [No Van is an Island](https://mattbeardart.com/no-van-is-an-island/) - Another view from the roof of my van. This was the next morning and only about 600 feet south of my last post. To be honest I pretty much just painted here because the prime parking spot had just opened up in this lot. It was a busy morning on a summerishly spring day and
- [Silver and Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/silver-and-gold/) - Silver and gold I may not have But what I have I give to you I've got the golden sun On a morning bright enough to Cast out shadows From the depths of hell I've got the silver sea On a morning calm enough to Cast a sweet spell Up to the heights of heaven
- [A Deeper Shade of Maybe](https://mattbeardart.com/a-deeper-shade-of-maybe/)
- [None Shall Pass](https://mattbeardart.com/none-shall-pass/) - 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
- [Tower of Song](https://mattbeardart.com/tower-of-song/) - There’s a tower that watches over the city here and has been tolling its chimes on the quarter of the hour between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm since 1925. Unless Jani Eisenhut is feeling musical. I’ve heard that this lifetime local hops in and and plays whatever she wants on the organ’s chimes, whenever she
- [Better Times](https://mattbeardart.com/better-times/) - Even though the title says Better Times, it’s not a commentary on that time, this time, or any other time we all collectively think of. It’s a quote from the friend who commissioned this painting who had some of his greatest memories here, followed by some incredibly difficult and tragic years. It’s deeply personal and
- [Burn No Bridges](https://mattbeardart.com/burn-no-bridges/)
- [Spring in July](https://mattbeardart.com/spring-in-july/)
- [A Pier Then Disappear](https://mattbeardart.com/a-pier-then-disappear/) - Ok, let’s circle back to the Italian dairy farms that took root here in 1860's... I painted this small dairy farm building one afternoon from beside an old ranch house where a not-so-Italian* friend of Wade's was living. Another not-so-Italian* fellow had long ago purchased this land and set up operations here all the way
- [Grounded](https://mattbeardart.com/grounded/) - I painted this boat a few years ago, grounded hopelessly on the rocks in a small cove on the Central Coast. I had just learned that it had previously belonged to a friend's family for years. It was even named after her brother, the “Craig G” until it was sold and the new owner renamed
- [A Man Among Giants… and Also His Cat](https://mattbeardart.com/a-man-among-giants-and-also-his-cat/) - Over 20 years ago I read a story in the local press about an artist that would spend weeks on end out in the high mountain backcountry, living out of tent and cave, painting daily. Surviving snow and rock and ice and fire. On his return he’d see civilization’s blur of concrete and impatience through
- [Because of Ken](https://mattbeardart.com/because-of-ken/)
- [Carry My Body](https://mattbeardart.com/carry-my-body/) - Not quite a proper backstory, and not quite a poem, this one took a rare detour into something else... either way, hope you enjoy the tale. Food running low. The hunter prays for a kill as he reaches into the dusty cabinet for his last handful of oats before the sun sends the shadows scattering
- [The Deep South](https://mattbeardart.com/the-deep-south/) - Written on March 23, 2020 Looking north from about as far south as you can go on the California coast. The showers that threatened and taunted all morning finally passed, the sun burned the darkened watery grays right off the earth, evaporating in a humid mist rising, an all-hands invite to the impending mosquito feast.
- [The Other Side](https://mattbeardart.com/the-other-side/) - Due to late season rains, the road here was closed so I had to walk in the last 2 miles to the spot. After tromping off in the wrong direction and ending up at the border about a mile from the coast under the watch of border patrol agents and confronted by a myriad of
- [Oh No, Not Today](https://mattbeardart.com/oh-no-not-today/) - Written on April 3, 2020 You might think this empty parking lot scene is a reflection of our current times, but the reality is that I had planned to spend a day here goofing off after a busy flurry of painting on the road last year. At the time I thought, "I'll just head down
- [Midday Flats](https://mattbeardart.com/midday-flats/) - 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
- [No Harm, No Foul](https://mattbeardart.com/no-harm-no-foul/) - I was thinking this would be a simple little painting to start my day. It was in some ways. But it was also a bit nerve-wracking. Nestled between boulders I painted the morning away, and marveled at just how quiet the trains that run this line have become. I barely heard them coming. The stretched
- [To God the Best and the Greatest](https://mattbeardart.com/to-god-the-best-and-the-greatest/)
- [Late Arrival](https://mattbeardart.com/late-arrival/) - There’s something about immersing myself in the places where I paint that is hard to describe. It's not the art studio, it's a wild world out there and it always has been. The past emerges and mingles with the present. Undercurrents of metaphor and meaning rise to the surface and sometimes I try to venture
- [Hold Your Ground](https://mattbeardart.com/hold-your-ground/) - I spent this morning drinking a bit too much coffee in the kitchen of a bunkhouse with a group of college students. Well not drinking coffee with them, I was just on a trip here with them. They had science to do, and science doesn't care if it's raining or not, so they were out
- [Strata Various](https://mattbeardart.com/strata-various/) - This headland took some serious work to get to. All said, this ended up being the furthest point reached on an eleven mile round trip solo hike, which required several creek crossings up to my calves, washed out bridges, wet sloggy socks, and by the end of the day getting soaked to the bone in
- [Prey For Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/prey-for-rain/) - Deep in this prehistoric canyon, I was watching the weather shift quickly as I made my way back to the cabin. I was still a solid hour and a half of hiking from dry shelter and warm food. A spattering of occasional raindrops peppered the hike with questions of doubt. Will I make it back
- [Moonshine](https://mattbeardart.com/moonshine/) - Painted on location from a pier on one of California's offshore islands during a full moon back in April. We'd bodysurfed that right in shorepound on this very beach earlier in the afternoon. Super fun. I can't imagine too many paintings have ever been painted at night on this pier though. Pretty cool eh? The
- [Simon Says](https://mattbeardart.com/simon-says/)
- [Respect the Elders](https://mattbeardart.com/respect-the-elders/) - In other times what appears to be an old road must have collapsed into the sea here, the slabs of concrete line the point and have been beaten and weathered into pieces, at times rounded smooth, at times broken and jagged. The locals here have gathered together some of these slabs and arranged them into
- [Sons and Daughters](https://mattbeardart.com/sons-and-daughters/)
- [Bluegrass & Dunegrass](https://mattbeardart.com/bluegrass-dunegrass/)
- [Afternoon Martinis: Side A](https://mattbeardart.com/afternoon-martinis-side-a/)
- [Our Farther](https://mattbeardart.com/our-farther/) - I usually grumble about my heavy pack whenever I have to hike more than a mile. This turned out to be a six mile round trip to make this painting happen. But I could not complain about the heavy pack this time. My hiking companions on this morning sunrise walk were a couple of scientist
- [Torrey Pine Sentinel](https://mattbeardart.com/torrey-pine-sentinel/) - When most folks hear the words “Torrey Pines” they think as much about a rare variety of pine tree as they do a very specific location in San Diego- the state park named for the tree and often touted as the only place in the world where these trees grow. But don’t worry, I’m not
- [451](https://mattbeardart.com/451-2/) - Another rainy day morning here has me thinking back to hotter times, like summers in San Diego. I've realized later in life that a lot of folks actually and truly like hot weather. Like it feels good to them or something. I imagine folks from these climates heading north and braving the cold (55 isn't
- [East of the 5](https://mattbeardart.com/east-of-the-5/)
- [South Swells and Sunlight](https://mattbeardart.com/south-swells-and-sunlight/) - Summer is kinda over, except fall really is the best summer around here. That said, rain is in the forecast once again, which means I'll be hunkered down and catching up on a bunch of studio work over the next few months. Looking forward to spring and summer 2020 road trip season already. This was
- [Borrowed Time](https://mattbeardart.com/borrowed-time/)
- [48mph: The Speed of Memory](https://mattbeardart.com/48mph-the-speed-of-memory/) - I'd driven past this little dip in coast bluff several times over the prior week while painting with Wade Koniakowsky, Norm Daniels, Jose Emroca Flores, and Greg Gorgas a couple summers back. One crispy clear afternoon the scene here really caught my eye. A day or two later I'd dragged Wade and Norm back here
- [Hot Water](https://mattbeardart.com/hot-water/) - I recall that I really wanted to focus on creating a graphic band of information across an otherwise quiet composition here. It was liberating to not feel the need to indulge in extra information in the sky above or grass lawn below. The busy action that cuts across the canvas puts the busyness of our
- [Moonlight Sessions](https://mattbeardart.com/moonlight-sessions/) - Fueled up after a feast at Besta Wan Pizza in Cardiff, and armed with a headlamp, moral support from my pals in mischief Pierce and Petra Kavanagh, and further fueled by the french fries and milkshakes they brought back after dropping me off in this park just up the way from a pack of howling
- [First Things First](https://mattbeardart.com/first-things-first/) - A quick one first thing in the morning after spending a week painting with Wade Koniakowsky down in his neighborhood awhile back. I guess I wasn't done painting yet. Pretty sure I did 4 paintings on this day to celebrate being done with a busy week of... painting? Don't judge. Just like mourning, we all
- [Unagi](https://mattbeardart.com/unagi/) - This is from a quiet little beach near our home. The inlet to the sea out there was letting these perfect little 8-inch waves into the bay and watching them spin along this quiet beach is a rather hypnotic way to spend an afternoon. These flat and expansive beach landscapes have always given me trouble
- [Morning to Remember](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-to-remember/)
- [The Blue Canoe](https://mattbeardart.com/the-blue-canoe/)
- [Here Today, Gone Tomorrow](https://mattbeardart.com/here-today-gone-tomorrow/)
- [Sometimes You Don't](https://mattbeardart.com/sometimes-you-dont/) - 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
- [Russian Interference](https://mattbeardart.com/russian-interference/) - 8th day on the road, 22nd painting completed, 1st on this day The Russians are planning to claim this coast for themselves. It’s true. From San Francisco to Trinidad Harbor, they’ve left secret signs, “possession plaques” buried at various strategic locations. This painting is located near the first of these plates, and within a year
- [Avoiding the Evil Leaf](https://mattbeardart.com/avoiding-the-evil-leaf/) - Some days are easy, other days you have to dig deep. Those are the days you find out what you are made of. I’m just a painter, but compared to working in the studio, plein air painting can seem like a battle with the universe itself. Confession. I am naturally lazy. A water person. I
- [Machine Work](https://mattbeardart.com/machine-work/) - A bit of old California here. Not too many places are left like this along the coast. An old industrial building (built long before the man/nature dichotomy narrative had reached its current crescendo and even man’s industry was a thing to be celebrated as a wonder of nature itself) placed right above a small fishing
- [Maybe Another Time](https://mattbeardart.com/maybe-another-time/)
- [A Matter of Convenience](https://mattbeardart.com/a-matter-of-convenience/) - Chumash land: just the way it always was… Spanish imperialism: all of your earths is ours now Mission San Miguel: we graze our cattle on all your lands now Mexican land grant: all of your ground is Mr. Pico’s now George Hearst: I found gold, I buy your dirt from Pico. Willam Randalph Hearst: Thanks
- [The Sea Before Dark](https://mattbeardart.com/the-sea-before-dark/) - 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
- [Leave No Trace: Side B](https://mattbeardart.com/leave-no-trace-side-b/) - 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
- [Stick a Fork in It](https://mattbeardart.com/stick-a-fork-in-it/) - I've been on the road for 2 weeks now. I’ve slept in my van in grocery store parking lots, picking ticks off my face that must have crawled out of my painting gear as I slept. I’ve wrestled the sun and cursed at the wind. My back is tired, my feet ache, my lips are
- [Short Term Memory Loss](https://mattbeardart.com/short-term-memory-loss/)
- [In the Beginning](https://mattbeardart.com/in-the-beginning/) - Arriving to Tahoe for the first time we approached from the south after traversing Echo Summit. The exposed granite boulders of the Pie Shop (what they call that hill in the mid upper right) in the distance gave just a hint of the aroma of the delicious feast of Earth's wonder that was to come
- [Morning Blues: Side A](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-blues-side-a/)
- [Morning Blues: Side B](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-blues-side-b/)
- [Nothing is Easy](https://mattbeardart.com/nothing-is-easy/) - 1st day on the road, 2nd painting completed I pulled off the highway here on my first day down the coast. The light was of the flat midday sort where the shadows are still hiding underneath their rocks staying cool in the heat of the sun, waiting till things cool off to come out again
- [Glass at Dusk](https://mattbeardart.com/glass-at-dusk/) - 3rd day on the road, 9th painting completed, 3rd one this day Not so long ago, and prior to the age of plastic’s dominance, one coastal town decided it’s beautiful bluffs overlooking the sea would be a great place for the town dump. It made all sorts of sense, what with the flat ground being
- [Open Lanes](https://mattbeardart.com/open-lanes/) - 6th day on the road, 16th painting completed, 1st on this day I was hoping to paint the view north from this location, but when I got here I wasn’t feeling it. The linear elements of this reef meeting the microscopic 8inch lines of windswell wrapping around it got my interest though, especially with the
- [In a Different Light](https://mattbeardart.com/in-a-different-light/) - 5th day on the road, 14th painting completed, 1st one this day Occasionally when I mention to folks that I travel up and down painting the California coast, they will suggest that I do paintings of all the lighthouses. I usually think that’s because someone once gave them a calendar with a different lighthouse on
- [Get Off My Lawn](https://mattbeardart.com/get-off-my-lawn/) - 6th day on the road, 17th painting completed, 2nd one this day A big inspiration in my art life came from an unlikely source. It makes perfect sense in hindsight, but at the time when my older brother got a copy of Bank Wright's classic book “Surfing California” when I was maybe 11 years old,
- [All of the Above](https://mattbeardart.com/all-of-the-above/) - The name of this spot is translated in the native Indian tribe's dialect as "Above", referring to their settlements location above the floodwaters of this creek. Given it's proximity to the Metropolis in the distance, it's definitely a place where one sees anything and everything at times. It was also very hard to find parking
- [Breach of Contract](https://mattbeardart.com/breach-of-contract/)
- [Another Facet](https://mattbeardart.com/another-facet/) - One of the most often painted stretches of beach in California, I've even painted from similar vantage points up here myself. It's always fun to come back though- every day, every time, every painting by myself or others, each simply reveals yet another facet of this Jewel of California.
- [The Day Before the Rain #2](https://mattbeardart.com/the-day-before-the-rain-2/)
- [The Day Before the Rain #3](https://mattbeardart.com/the-day-before-the-rain-3/)
- [Morning Walk](https://mattbeardart.com/morning-walk/)
- [The Day Before the Rain #1](https://mattbeardart.com/the-day-before-the-rain-1/)
- [Curb Appeal](https://mattbeardart.com/curb-appeal/) - You can't go wrong with coastal real estate in California. This extremely well constructed home, built around the turn of the year is a charming example of Beach Hobo architecture. Well thought out floorplan with charming curb appeal. Great place to raise a family. Seller is motivated.
- [High Tide: Empty Lot](https://mattbeardart.com/high-tide-empty-lot/)
- [Sunday Skylark](https://mattbeardart.com/sunday-skylark/) - A recent studio commission. I reckon if I'd tried to paint this one on location standing in the middle of PCH, I'd likely have ended up dead, hospitalized, or in jail before finishing. It's no secret that I prefer the Studio of the Open Sky these days, but that's not to say I don't appreciate
- [Lunch Bucket](https://mattbeardart.com/lunch-bucket/)
- [While Lovely Rita Was Sleeping](https://mattbeardart.com/while-lovely-rita-was-sleeping/) - Plein air capturing the early morning marine layer view of the Orange County coast. Couldn't see much out there in all that wet gray, so I pulled up on the side of the Coast Highway, and set up inside the van to paint the one thing I could see all too well. Since I blocked
- [Home Renovation](https://mattbeardart.com/home-renovation/) - Bunches of quail, several deer, otters, and even a fox on the beach. They were all very gracious hosts. Even though I'm sure I smelled pretty bad to them, none of them said so. They live in a beautiful home.
- [Losing his Mind While I Lost the Plot](https://mattbeardart.com/losing-his-mind-while-i-lost-the-plot/) - After several long days of painting I sometimes hit a wall. Pushing through it where I can, sometimes this art gig becomes work. Fun work, but still work. I wanted to paint this spot just because I've had some fun waves here over the years, but didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to put
- [No Rancho](https://mattbeardart.com/no-rancho/) - Have you ever tried to touch your nose with your eyes closed, while sitting in a tiny boat, with two friends fishing? It’s like being rather drunk, but it’s only the dramamine. And the moving sea. Now try to paint the scene. I dare you
- [Welcome Home](https://mattbeardart.com/welcome-home/) - The night before I painted this I stepped into a small bar in an even smaller town to sip a beer and charge my dead phone. Open mic night was raging for a handful of locals and passer-throughs like myself. Nursing my beer in the corner by the pool table (only spot near an outlet),
- [Pass the Potato Chips](https://mattbeardart.com/pass-the-potato-chips/) - The hills are on firePass the potato chipsWe mean no disrespectBut what else is there to do?
- [Further Up, Further In](https://mattbeardart.com/further-up-further-in/)
- [Odd Lefts](https://mattbeardart.com/odd-lefts/)
- [Higher Education](https://mattbeardart.com/higher-education/) - My favorite part of painting this one wasn't painting at all. It was watching my home-schooled 13 year old daughter charging the waist high lefts out there all alone, figuring out the lineup, waiting for sets, eating it, making others, and just generally getting after it. Ok. Carry on...
- [Boulder Dash](https://mattbeardart.com/boulder-dash/) - Two hundred things to get done before I leave, and I go and spend the day boulder hopping with my paint gear all over the Humboldt coast. It truly is a problem. I'm not looking to fix it or anything, but maybe find a nice support group... where they serve donuts and coffee... on the
- [November Rhythms](https://mattbeardart.com/november-rhythms/) - Plein air from up the coast yesterday. Well basically plein air. I was on location and working fast to get the feeling of the place and time, but I wasn't technically outdoors. I cheated and painted this one from the back of the van, nice to be out of the wind- it was howling out
- [Above the Lookout](https://mattbeardart.com/above-the-lookout/) - Quick sketch from a recent session. Spent most of this day scouting for a vantage point for a different painting that I've had in mind for a while. Spending nearly half a day hunting for a painting and not getting anything done is a lot like searching for waves and getting skunked so I hammered
- [Today's Special](https://mattbeardart.com/todays-special/)
- [Old Haunt](https://mattbeardart.com/old-haunt/) - Painted this one two days ago. Used to spend a lot of time up on this bluff and out in the shifting sloppy beach break out front. Haven't painted up here in about 8 years. Shortly after setting up another painter walked up and cut right to it, "where you from?" I was laughing inside,
- [Free Range #20: Overwhelmed](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-20-overwhelmed/) - Odometer: 935.8 miles The coast of California is not fair. For every spot surfed or vista painted there's a multitude of others that will have to wait for another day. Been enjoying this paint tour, but my heart breaks for all that I've seen and haven't had time to stop for. It doesn't matter how
- [Free Range #18: Punk Rocks](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-18-punk-rocks/) - Odometer: 862.3 miles Beautiful coast here. Almost too beautiful for painting as it draws throngs of visitors from all over the world in a constant stream of selfie sticks, bored kids on family vacation that will not be impressed by anything analog, and well, bearded painters too I suppose (though I was the only one
- [Free Range #17: Oh the Humanity](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-17-oh-the-humanity/) - Odometer: 800.1 miles This town is nuts. Lineups crawling with surfers of all skill levels. Surfed one wave about 3 feet from the cliff with 2 other surfers in front of me on a soft top and a stand up paddle board. I don't think they even knew I was there. Watched soft top's board
- [Free Range #23: Location, Location, Location](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-23-location-location-location/) - Odometer: unknown, the numbers kept spinning, I'll have to get it checked out, must be busted or something...Plein air12 x 12 One of the most enjoyable parts of this trip has been having the time to explore some dog legs off the main roads that I've wondered about for years and peer around a few
- [Free Range #22: Third Try](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-22-third-try/) - Odometer: 1038.8 miles Sometimes it takes a lot of driving around spot-checking before settling on a spot to paint. The morning light was fading quickly to noon day brightness, so I jumped on this one after scouting two other locations. Any one if them would have worked, not sure why I was so hesitant, but
- [Free Range #28: For Those Who Have Gone Before Us](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-28-for-those-who-have-gone-before-us/) - Odometer: 1296.1 miles There's a lot of history here. Native history, Spanish colonial history, surfing history, and countless other threads entwine around this focal point of the coast. As I painted this one I chatted with a local who a long time friend of a fellow coastal artist who passed away not too long ago.
- [Free Range #27: Jeepers Creepers](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-27-jeepers-creepers/) - Odometer: 1274.8 miles Ok. I know I can seem a little creepy to some folks all hovelled up in my van dwelling, but sometimes even I get creeped out by the local humans. This was an empty stretch of road but it produced some odd characters in fairly rapid succession. I'm glad I wasn't abducted.
- [Free Range #26: Morning Funk](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-26-morning-funk/) - Odometer: 1209.7 miles In order to make the most of the daylight hours and paint as much as time and geography allow, I've been flying under the radar and sleeping in the van in random offbeat commercial locations. Wake up early and move on daily. Some mornings are rougher than others and our good old
- [Peanut Butter & Jelly](https://mattbeardart.com/peanut-butter-jelly/)
- [Light Horizon](https://mattbeardart.com/light-horizon/)
- [Summer Calm](https://mattbeardart.com/summer-calm/)
- [Time Zone # 2](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Crossing Lines](https://mattbeardart.com/crossing-lines/)
- [Free Range #3: Maybe Later](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Free Range #7: Just Around the Corner](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-7-just-around-the-corner/) - Odometer: 221.8 miles
- [Free Range #5: Getting Lost](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-5-getting-lost/) - Odometer: 205.1 miles
- [Free Range #10: U-Turn](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-10-u-turn/) - Odometer: 507.1 miles
- [Free Range #9: Angles](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-9-angles/) - Odometer: 389.1 miles The fog bank stuck around all day, threatening to shut down my art operations at any moment. When I rounded a point that marks a significant change in the angle the coast faces, from northwest to southwest, I figured the little micro climate created in the lee of the point would be
- [Free Range #14: Red Not Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-14-red-not-gold/) - Odometer: 672.9 miles
- [Free Range #13: Over the Hill](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-13-over-the-hill/) - Odometer: 654.7 miles
- [And They Said It Would Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/and-they-said-it-would-rain/)
- [Shower Power](https://mattbeardart.com/shower-power/)
- [Wedding Chapel in the Church of the Open Sky](https://mattbeardart.com/wedding-chapel-in-the-church-of-the-open-sky/)
- [Between Sessions](https://mattbeardart.com/between-sessions/) - This was a rough day. Had to surf twice, before and after painting this one. All in a day's work I guess...
- [Neighborhood Hangout](https://mattbeardart.com/neighborhood-hangout/)
- [The Dirty Ol'... Where?](https://mattbeardart.com/the-dirty-ol-where/)
- [Free Range #29: This Too Shall Pass](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-29-this-too-shall-pass/) - Odometer: 1361.2 miles Painted this after driving through the largest freeways of this trip on a hot humid day, suffering a random nosebleed in the fast lane, and arriving to this spot covered in a sweaty layer of cloudfunk. Figured I'd make the most of it as since I was here. This place has history
- [Expression Session](https://mattbeardart.com/expression-session/)
- [Free Range #33: Last Rites](https://mattbeardart.com/free-range-33-last-rites/) - Technically, this would be the 33rd piece in the Free Range series. Odometer maybe at 1525 miles or so. Painted it on location in La Jolla at the VIP party for UCSD's Legends of Surfing Invitational that benefits Moores Cancer Center. This little one raised $1200 to fight cancer that night. Shortly after that I
- [Back in Black](https://mattbeardart.com/back-in-black/)
- [Hot Tomales](https://mattbeardart.com/hot-tomales/)
- [Windless](https://mattbeardart.com/windless/)
- [Out of Sight, Out of Mind](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Beautiful from Here](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Then They Took Him Away](https://mattbeardart.com/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
- [Again](https://mattbeardart.com/again/) - 1981 She sat in her chair Laughing (with concern) When I put 27 grapes in my mouth at once And got one stuck up my nose Again 1982 She sat in her chair Sleeping (blissfully unaware) While I dug a hole All the way to China Again 1983 She sat in
- [Parts and Pieces](https://mattbeardart.com/parts-and-pieces/) - I forged you in an open field On a bright and cloudless day Rare elements and minerals Mixed within the clay You took the form my eyes beheld And there was no other way I gave to you part of myself And let the chips fall where they may I gave you more and more
- [My Father's Song](https://mattbeardart.com/my-fathers-song/) - There’s a song my father used to sing Not really a song at all Just a rhythm of syllables Rising and falling With every step And a pause with Every breath There were never any words Neither for the song itself Nor for the way It brings me home It would often be sung Out
- [Another Barb on the Wire](https://mattbeardart.com/another-barb-on-the-wire/) - 3 days. One family of 5. One campsite. 2 children lost (only temporarily). 7 miles hiked. 6 paintings completed. 3 paintings I wanted to paint but was thwarted by barbed wire. 1 global pandemic making things awkward. One long and awkward poem to show for it all... I. Going Nowhere Another Barb on the Wire
- [Her Name was California](https://mattbeardart.com/her-name-was-california/) - He’d laugh this little howling cackle that pulled you into his slipstream as you made your way along the path, down the makeshift rope, repelling into the cove below that you’d never seen breaking before and now was suddenly cracking it’s sonic water booms on the reef below. Everything made him laugh. And almost everything
- [Cloud Theory: 1969](https://mattbeardart.com/cloud-theory-1969/) - Woven Recollections from the Return of One of Italy's First Surfers, 50 Years Later I’ve long thought it would be interesting to explore combinations of longer format story-telling with my art in a more intentional way. Back in early 2019 an opportunity finally presented itself. The only problem was that it would require flying to
- [Important Matters](https://mattbeardart.com/important-matters/)
- [Drink Deep](https://mattbeardart.com/drink-deep/) - For the ordinary soul who owns not a boat or a plane, the only way there is by your own two feet, one step at a time. Unless you are the ordinary soul’s dog, in which case it’s more like your own four feet, two steps at a time or something like that. In other
- [Eureka- Finding California](https://mattbeardart.com/eureka-finding-california/) - Stories of California: Memories, Recollections, Truth, Lies, and Points in Between The following collection of short tales was an early attempt to establish a narrative to accompany my art in a book format. A handful were printed to test the waters, but it never went into actual production and publication. Later on, it was submitted
- [Thou Shalt Not Steal](https://mattbeardart.com/thou-shalt-not-steal/) - In the home where I grew up⠀ A porcelain monk lived on the kitchen counter⠀ Belly full of cookies⠀ Admonishing us not to steal⠀ Back when the house was full of sneaky fingers⠀ ⠀ I saw him enter the kitchen one day⠀ 30 years ago⠀ Something clearly wrong⠀ Part of him had vanished⠀ Struggling for
- [Verbal Alterations](https://mattbeardart.com/verbal-alterations/) - A collection of short poems originally penned in 2012, now detached from their original purpose... __________________________ A fine line Divides the pursuit Of overwhelming Joy From sheer And loathsome Irresponsibility The high tide line Divides The rest __________________________ On that Day we harnessed History’s joyous Laughter But there was nobody around to hear it So
- [When our Day Arrives](https://mattbeardart.com/when-our-day-arrives/) - 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
- [California Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/california-gold/) - “Welcome to California. Now get lost.” Getting lost is an easy feat in the old city of one way streets and construction work dead ends, where the 2 a.m. limousines cruise the darkened streets and the drunk Russian couple leans out the window and invites you to their apartment for crepes and cigarettes and possibly
- [The Unexpected](https://mattbeardart.com/the-unexpected/) - It happened again the other day. Cruising up the coast for a surf, minding my own business, getting passed by a speeding funeral hearse, and in one instant flash, the course of my life was altered. No, it wasn’t an accident, at least not of the car wreck variety. It was more of an accident
- [Death is Unoriginal](https://mattbeardart.com/death-is-unoriginal/) - There is nothing creative about death. Destruction and decay follow the course that’s been laid from the foundation of the world. Turning life into death is the natural order of things and always has been. Tune into the program nightly and witness the procession of fast-food destruction served up on microwave-safe trays for public consumption
- [Traveling Light](https://mattbeardart.com/traveling-light/) - Now let me get this straight, I’m supposed to want what you’ve got? Ain’t no wagon big enough to hold all the worldly possessions you offer, the shine and pop glittering off your leadbolten chains sunk and anchored deep in the molten core of the earth. No offense, friend, but I’m aiming to travel a
- [Weight-Bearing](https://mattbeardart.com/weight-bearing/) - Load upon load and weight to bear weight these beams bear witness to our memories lost in the fire on the night we crossed the bridge to the hobo camp passing driverless cars and the rising tide forced us to climb over the rocks in order to round the headland where lovers loved and dreamers
- [Upholstery and Smoke](https://mattbeardart.com/upholstery-and-smoke/) - She was just a child Leading the Rebellion With discarded toys. Striking out At them. At us. At herself. And though she made a fool of the Enemy Throughout the Ten Year War She lost the Final Battle yesterday. And now she is gone. She left home too soon. There was heaviness in the entry
- [Fini](https://mattbeardart.com/fini/) - The artist. You created this. You accomplished everything. Did what you never thought you could. Lived circles around your own preconceptions. Saw your children grow and scatter to the four winds. Heard their glowing reports from the four corners of the world. You’ll live your last days here in the shelter you’d always sought after. Not working
- [Depth Together](https://mattbeardart.com/depth-together/) - Here is the heart of war Against the hardness of life Against discomfort and difficulty The battlefield a narrow expanse Fertile beyond belief Due to the wonders of modern agriculture Also known as Coffee Lined with strip malls And donut stalls And the same house on every corner Where surf movies play on repeat While
- [Two Cents Worth of Advice for the Aspiring Artist](https://mattbeardart.com/two-cents-worth-of-advice-for-the-aspiring-artist/) - All art is a lie. All you really need is red yellow blue and white. Work fast, don’t worry about results too much. just keep going. Don’t paint the things you’re looking at, paint the air between them and you. Every piece goes through an ugly stage, just keep going and trust your instincts to
- [Winter Solstice Song](https://mattbeardart.com/winter-solstice-song/) - If we look to the seasons we see that darkness comes in cycles, offset by rhythms of light. And yet the darkness has never felt so loud as the discordant anthem of this asymphonic night. We are tempted to see this present moment as the cold oppression of a tangible force. A standing army of
- [All That Still Remains](https://mattbeardart.com/all-that-still-remains/) - Cerebral flapjacks cooking on the whiskey bar Artificial roller coaster couldn’t beat the bumper car Creepers in the bushes, don’t look now It ain’t no good Sanitize it, light the wick Then give ‘em all your food Paint the cave and take a bath But what about the money? Stick parade, children laugh, hiding from
- [Solid Gold](https://mattbeardart.com/solid-gold/) - They took one last look at the river And longed for another time Saddened by the parade of motorhomes and meth Stretching from the ends of the earth to right here and right now They refused to join the neon funeral procession They took their stand And to this day they remain Still And beautiful
- [Heaven and Waffles](https://mattbeardart.com/heaven-and-waffles/) - We’ve spent long days here North of the river We’ve spent Our last two dimes On Heaven And waffles And a good night’s sleep Sheltered From the falling snow Until the storm blew over And now we ourselves Are spent Worn out Like the two Ragged Dog blankets In the back of the van One
- [Grandmother Rock](https://mattbeardart.com/grandmother-rock/) - They sit motionless, watching passively, not engaged in the passage of time like you or I, yet not outside of it either. We travel the world searching for new experiences, new understandings of what it is to be alive. They watch us come and go and always return again to their steady gaze. Changed, yet
- [Rabbit Trails From the Sky](https://mattbeardart.com/rabbit-trails-from-the-sky/) - As the old roads evolved into flight paths We considered the implications Of exploring Rabbit trails From the sky And determined For all the expansive visions That pass through an elevated state of mind There are other paths that are still better Traveled on foot Where you can hear the Crunch of gravel And feel
- [She Will Not Be Moved](https://mattbeardart.com/she-will-not-be-moved/) - Out from her Slumber Eyes blinking At the newly minted greens Of a silver spring day The forest is full Of dollars But she is hungry For the fish That used to swim Up the river Today She will Stand still on the old Logging road And even though The whole earth shakes On this
- [The Choir](https://mattbeardart.com/the-choir/) - 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 choir is singing a new song. Out here under the open sky, the choir sings the newest song. The angels sing softly on
- [Our Father](https://mattbeardart.com/our-father/) - Our father Kept us moving Even though We stopped a bit too often To read the signs And ponder Their meanings When it was time to move on We would often Have to push with all of our might Barefoot On the rough pavement Our father Drove a Volkswagon
- [Washed Away](https://mattbeardart.com/washed-away/) - We came to this mountain in search of gold We’ll leave with pockets full of solitude We speak to the wind We are here now Everything else is gone 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
- [Bigger Than It Looks](https://mattbeardart.com/bigger-than-it-looks/) - Hovering over the water Weightless over the face of the deep The storm rides silently off to the hills To darken the eyes of the cattle And drown out the country music The light that remains Clear and unfiltered Falling from above Reveals an orchestra of liquid geometry At once carnal Yet also divine Each
- [The Mountains Never Forget](https://mattbeardart.com/the-mountains-never-forget/) - The hills are burning And we breathe the smoke Of their exhalation Second hand exposure To long forgotten memories The mountains never forget
- [Our Good Fortune](https://mattbeardart.com/our-good-fortune/) - Even though she was royalty We continued to stare At the lines Around Her blue eyes And at the Shape of her Trembling Lips That encircled Her delicate mouth Meeting her was Our good fortune She showed us grace And mercy We did not Earn Little did we know then Just how good The Queen
- [Book of Etiquette](https://mattbeardart.com/book-of-etiquette/) - Who wrote this book of etiquette? All of the pages are blank As though the ink has spilled right off the paper Leaving us to write our own rules with pencils And skin And burning eyes After reading from cover to cover we are left Just as we were before Somewhat crude And still rather
- [Dividing the Rest](https://mattbeardart.com/dividing-the-rest/) - A fine line Divides the pursuit Of overwhelming joy From sheer And loathsome Irresponsibility The high tide line Divides The rest Consider us divided And Conquered Even the Spaniards On the tall ships Know... Both victory And defeat Taste better With a dash of salt And lime
- [The Morning I Was Created](https://mattbeardart.com/the-morning-i-was-created/) - On the morning I was created⠀ I crawled out the back of the old yellow van⠀ Wide-eyed and blinking⠀ Wondering where my brother had ran?⠀ He ran to the sea⠀ He ran for his life⠀ Past the razor’s edge of the earth⠀ Into the mist where the horizon is long⠀ Where the black dots line
- [17 Mile Ghosts](https://mattbeardart.com/17-mile-ghosts/) - Pay the toll⠀ A piece of your soul⠀ And leave it there as a sign⠀ A cardboard box⠀ Full of rocks and socks⠀ From which we will rise in their mind⠀ Extrapolated⠀ And captivated⠀ Forever to walk this lonely line⠀ They’ll see us standing⠀ Calling out in the night⠀ With bare feet wet from the
- [Anaheim Bay](https://mattbeardart.com/anaheim-bay/) - I was born in Anaheim⠀ Happiest place on earth⠀ I once got stuck in Hell there⠀ When Mr. Toad’s wild road broke down⠀ And I swear on my life⠀ I have seen with my own eyes⠀ Snow White⠀ Sucking on a cigarette⠀ We weren’t supposed to see that⠀ And we weren't’ supposed to be here
- [Medicine Cabinet](https://mattbeardart.com/medicine-cabinet/) - When the music ends⠀ The lights go on⠀ And everyone slowly leaves⠀ Yet somehow the room is strangely dim⠀ Somehow darker than it was before⠀ When the house lights were off⠀ And the music filled the spaces⠀ Between the empty glasses ⠀ That are now also slowly leaving⠀ White rings on the wood tables⠀ As
- [My Father's House](https://mattbeardart.com/my-fathers-house/) - What do you see?⠀ A land taken by zeros?⠀ More zeros than you’ll ever know?⠀ By money changers⠀ That take all they want⠀ In exchange for their soul?⠀ If that’s all that you see⠀ You’ve only read headlines⠀ In the red letter press⠀ This isn’t your land⠀ This isn’t my land⠀ This is my father’s
- [Solstice Song: 2020](https://mattbeardart.com/solstice-song-2020/) - Before there was light⠀ There was water⠀ And before there was life⠀ The water broke⠀ Staring up into that black ocean⠀ Eyes blinded by the falling seas⠀ On this winter’s solstice⠀ No stars tonight⠀ Just a child⠀ Floating weightless and free⠀ In a fish bowl for all to see⠀ ⠀ Mary and Joseph⠀ They live
- [2021: A Few Questions](https://mattbeardart.com/2021-a-few-questions/) - Can you just tell us now ⠀ What it is that you’ve got?⠀ Triple sevens for heaven’s jackpot⠀ After 2000 years in the casino hall⠀ Finally old enough to buy alcohol⠀ Make mine a double⠀ Or nothing at all⠀ If it’s the last call⠀ And that’s all you’ve got⠀ ⠀ It’s a new beginning⠀ And

## Pages

- [WELCOME!](https://mattbeardart.com/) - Explore Matt Beard's original California coast paintings and fine art prints featuring plein air landscapes and surf-infused contemporary impressionism.
- [Print One, Plant One!](https://mattbeardart.com/print-one-plant-one/) - We've recently expanded our print and frame offerings by working with a Canadian Fine Art Print-House who has committed to planting one tree for every print they produce for us. They do this through a partnership with Trees for the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing hunger, poverty, and environmental decline through tree-planting with their
- [ABOUT OUR PRINTS](https://mattbeardart.com/fine-art-print-options/) - CATALOG ▸ ABOUT OUR PRINTS ★ MADE IN CALIFORNIA The California Coast is my home. As a third generation Californian, I am proud to to say that the vast majority of our Fine Art Prints are printed right here on the California Coast. *Depending on frame inventory, framed Prints are sometimes produced on the East Coast,
- [AidCurrent Donation Totals](https://mattbeardart.com/aidcurrent-donation-totals/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Believes in Doing More with Art. Funds raised for various nonprofits since 2013: 93175.48 RUNNING TOTALS PROUDLY POWERED BY AIDCURRENT.COM MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP DONATION TOTALS I believe in doing more
- [Bio: Recognitions](https://mattbeardart.com/honors-and-awards-and-shows/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Recognized in the grocery store occasionally. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP HONORS, AWARDS & SHOWS Funds raised for various nonprofits since 2013: 93175.48 VIEW DONATION TOTALS
- [Bio: Art Map](https://mattbeardart.com/art-map/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Grumbles about barbed wire fences. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP CALIFORNIA COASTAL ART PROJECT MAP ★ SELECT ANY RED DOT TO VIEW ARTWORK PAINTED ON
- [Bio: Watch](https://mattbeardart.com/videos-to-watch/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Can get awkward when the cameras roll. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP WATCH
- [Bio: Ulterior Motive](https://mattbeardart.com/ulterior-motive/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Thinks about surfing a bit much at times. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE It’s true, I do have an ulterior motive driving
- [Bio: Publications](https://mattbeardart.com/press-and-publications/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. You might have seen his work here or there. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP PRESS & PUBLICATIONS 2018- Published Artwork– The Surfer’s Journal, Volume
- [Bio: My Story](https://mattbeardart.com/my-story/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Currently lives in Humboldt County, CA. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | AIDCURRENT | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP MY STORY I consider both art and surfing wonderful problems to have and stopped
- [Available Originals](https://mattbeardart.com/available/) - These are all of my currently available original paintings. This is all I've got. If it's not showing on this page, it's already sold! REGION Select contentAll RegionsThe California Coast (8) Northern California (7) Humboldt (7) Central California (1)I Made This One Up (1) SHAPES Select contentAll Shape FormatsVertical Vertical ✛ Vertical ✛ ✛SquareHorizontal METHOD Select contentAll MethodsStudio LandscapesOther Studio Work California Coastal Commissions Information
- [California Coastal Commissions](https://mattbeardart.com/info/california-coastal-commissions/) - My long-term goal as an artist on the California coast is to paint as much of the Golden State's coastline as I possibly can. Plein air road trips, studio work, whatever it takes, I've been steadily filling in gaps for the last few years, but it's a big state and there's still a lot of
- [CURRENT DEALS!](https://mattbeardart.com/current-deals-and-special-offers/) - CURRENT DEALS: Fortune favors the brave... and also those who check this page for deals. Thanks for looking, we're stoked to hook you up. Deals for 2026 (online orders only, gallery prices differ) 10% off anything! use code: everybody-loves-a-deal Enjoy 10% off any order of anything on this site. No fine print necessary for this one.
- [100% Secure Site Checkout](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-secure-site-checkout-verified-ssl-encryption/) - PRIVACY POLICIES We do all that we can to earn your trust and do not take it for granted. We know the internet is a shady world. And like to keep our footprints to a minimum as well. We've taken a few measures to assure your privacy during any transactions, the first is to
- [MATT BEARD ART CATALOGUE](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/) - MATT BEARD ART CATALOGUE FINE ART PURCHASE OPTIONS FINE ART PURCHASE OPTIONS | BOOKS | +MORE! ★ THE SHOP If it can be purchased through this site, it's available here. Hundreds of paintings, each one a part of my journey as an artist, and all of them available in a variety print formats. Plus,
- [Artwork Archives](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-archives/) - Welcome to the Archives. All my work is here. Hundreds of paintings, each one a part of my journey as an artist. Feel free to dive deep and explore using the powerful filters we've set up. For those that want to go even further down the rabbit hole here, once you open an image to
- [Shop](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/shop/) - CATALOG ▸ SHOP SHOP ARTWORK ARTWORK Prints Available Large Prints Available X-Large Prints Available Original Artwork + MORE + MORE Other Stuff Books Greeting Cards Trucker Hats SHOP - SNEAKY DEALS Sneaky Deals! ARTWORK ARTWORK Prints Available Large Prints Available X-Large Prints Available Original Artwork + MORE + MORE Other Stuff Books Greeting Cards Trucker
- [Search](https://mattbeardart.com/search/) - I hope you find what you're looking for. This search bar seems to have a mind of its own sometimes. Best of luck. Search for:
- [SNEAKY DEALS!](https://mattbeardart.com/current-deals-and-special-offers/sneaky-deals/) - CATALOG ► SNEAKY DEALS! Pssst. Sneaky Deals! Sometimes we have prints on hand that we can offer at extra special prices. Sometimes we just have cool things with my art on them. If we have anything interesting, we post it here... Ready to ship right away! (Blank Inside) ORDER HERE ⌕ $16.95 Hand-signed,
- [FAQ](https://mattbeardart.com/faq/) - GENERAL Do you offer a free Local Pickup option to pick up at your Gallery in Eureka? Yes! If you select the Local Pickup option during checkout, we will notify you once your order is ready and available for pickup. My Gallery is located inside Eureka Art and Frame Co, at 1636 F St
- [Contact Us](https://mattbeardart.com/contact/) - Loading... NEWS AND UPDATES: CHOOSE WISELY! EVERYTHING: High Tide: This one is for anything and everything- deals on originals, discounts on print orders, notifications about upcoming events, and occasional random thoughts. Basically this is everything you'd expect from an independent artist's newsletter, including infrequency. Seriously. It takes time to put newsletters together and I get easily
- [Yep!](https://mattbeardart.com/yep/) - LOOKING FOR PRINT/ORIGINAL PURCHASE OPTIONS FROM A RECENT POST? Search by title in the space below* Find the image you're looking for in the results Click the ART INFO button On the details page there will be a link to View Purchase Options. Go with it. Holler if you have any questions! Search for: *This
- [Newsletter Signup](https://mattbeardart.com/contact/newsletter-signup/) - NEWS AND UPDATES: Choose wisely! EVERYTHING: High Tide: This one is for anything and everything- deals on originals, discounts on print orders, notifications about upcoming events, and occasional random thoughts. Basically this is everything you'd expect from an independent artist's newsletter, including infrequency. Seriously. It takes time to put newsletters together and I get easily distracted.
- [100% Made by a Human](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-made-by-a-human/) - It's a wild time out there. I've seen what this A.I. business can do and holy moly, we're in for it. While I have indeed found some fun uses for this monster-spawn of humanity, I am proud to say that all of the paintings, and all of the writing on this site were generated by
- [Original Inquiry](https://mattbeardart.com/contact/original-inquiry/) - Loading…
- [THE BOOK!](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/the-book/) - CATALOG ▸ BOOKS ▸ PAINTING THE CALIFORNIA COAST PAINTING THE CALIFORNIA COAST: VOLUME ONE $75 ORDER HERE Books are usually received in 5-10 business days. - Foreword by Chris Ahrens - 200 Pages - 8 1/2″ x 11″ - 175+ Paintings - Hardbound - Second Edition - Printed on the West Coast, USA The California
- [ABOUT OUR PRINTS (new)](https://mattbeardart.com/about-our-prints-new/) - CATALOG ▸ ABOUT OUR PRINTS ★ MADE IN CALIFORNIA The California Coast is my home. As a third generation Californian, I am proud to to say that all of our Fine Art Prints are printed right here on the California Coast. ★ MADE TO LAST Our prints are made to stand out, and made to last
- [Privacy Policy](https://mattbeardart.com/privacy/) - Privacy Policy This privacy policy describes how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use our website and services. 1. Information We Collect We collect information that you provide directly to us, such as when you create an account, make a purchase, or contact us for support. This may include your name,
- [Framing Options](https://mattbeardart.com/info/framing-options/) - Aged Rustic Redwood Lath Solid wood strips attached directly to the sides of the canvas, provides protection and a casual rustic look, with a minimalist approach. Stretcher bar sizes vary depending on size of print and availability. Unframed If you’re interested in having your own frame made for your artwork, or
- [Revelations of the Artist](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/revelations-of-the-artist/) - CATALOG ▸ BOOKS ▸ REVELATIONS OF THE ARTIST REVELATIONS OF THE ARTIST: BOOK 2 $40 PRE-ORDER HERE ETA TBD 20 Artists share their Art and Thoughts on the Theme of Deep Calling Unto Deep I’m excited to share that I’ve been featured in Revelations of the Artist: Book 2 — a limited-edition collection that highlights 20 artists
- [Books](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/books/) - NEW! Theme Parks: Collections of Poems | 50+ original poems by Matt Beard, published by Noví Albion Publishing | Available for pre-order now!
- [Portfolios](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS Organized collections of best-sellers and personal favorites according to a variety of themes... enjoy! Portfolios: California Coastal Regions Studio Landscapes California Coast Plein Air California Coast From Above California Poppies VW Vans The Art of Surfing Graffiti Waves & Clear Waters Live Art Visual Music Water | Abstractions Birds & Bones &
- [Bio](https://mattbeardart.com/bio/) - I consider both art and surfing wonderful problems to have and stopped trying to quit either of them years ago. Growing up surfing the California coast, hunting the elusive “secret” spot, memorizing entries from Bank Wright’s classic Surfing California, the diverse beauty of this state’s coastline has always captivated me, and continues to inspire my artwork
- [PURCHASE OPTIONS](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/) - If you've browsed the art on this site already, you'll know that nearly every painting has some purchase options available, whether it's the original painting itself, or any of our large variety of print order options. We've got you covered. Simply browse the art and you'll see the options with each image. OVERVIEW FINE ART
- [Limited Edition Canvas](https://mattbeardart.com/signature-limited-edition-canvas/) - CATALOG ▸LIMITED EDITION CANVAS PRINTS In addition to our regular Fine Art Prints we also offer a large selection of our favorites here as signed and numbered Limited Edition Canvas prints featuring our popular Aged Redwood Lath Edge frame. Over And… Original Size: 36" x 24" PRINT & PURCHASE OPTIONS ☰ INFO ⌕ Working Up
- [Portfolios: California Coastal Regions](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS California is a big state. We've organized these collections of our favorite images by regions along the coast so you can find the best images from your local coastal zone. Del Norte Humboldt Mendocino Marin | Sonoma San Francisco | San Mateo Santa Cruz Monterey Big Sur San Luis
- [Portfolio: Monterey](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-monterey/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ MONTEREY Looking for Big Sur paintings? Check out my Big Sur Portfolio. Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear
- [Portfolio: Imaginations & Made Up Places](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolios-elsewheres-not-the-california-coast/portfolio-imaginations-and-made-up-places/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ ELSWHERES ▸ IMAGINATIONS AND MADE UP PLACES Sometimes I just like to let the imagination run, it's like a pressure release valve from my typical work that usually seeks to convey specific places using the landscape itself or photos for reference. These have no references, just pure imagination allowed to roam it's
- [Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not the California Coast)](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolios-elsewheres-not-the-california-coast/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ ELSEWHERES (NOT THE CALIFORNIA COAST) It's true that I maintain a pretty sharp focus on California's coast, but sometimes life and art takes me... eslewheres. These are those. The Pacific Northwest The Southwest Desert Italy California's East Coast (Lake Tahoe) Imaginations & Made Up Places California Art Map Looking
- [Portfolio: Birds & Bones & Other Oddities](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/birds-and-bones-and-other-oddities/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ BIRDS & BONES & OTHER ODDITIES Sometimes this stuff happens too. Art can be anything. Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves &
- [Portfolio: Water | Abstractions](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-water-abstractions/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ WATER ABSTRACTIONS Various degrees of abstraction show up in my work from time to time, but usually with an emphasis on flow... like water. Most of my other work is more representational, hanging on the wall like windows to the California Coast or beyond- but these water abstractions are the opposite-
- [Portfolio: Visual Music](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-visual-music/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ VISUAL MUSIC Most of these paintings were painted live during musical performances of various kinds, with the theme of music itself working its way into the visuals. Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not
- [Portfolio: Live Art](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-live-art/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ LIVE ART Painting live for crowds to watch often feels like a "public meltdown with a smile". Especially when folks approach me at work, clearly full of doubt, wondering why they let me in the door to be part of the event with such unimpressive art on the easel in the
- [Portfolio: Waves & Clear Waters](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-waves-and-clear-waters/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ WAVES & CLEAR WATERS I can paint waves all day long and not get tired of them. Clear water is a fun challenge to make it interesting. And besides, in this mad and confusing world we can all use a little more clarity at times. Consider it a prayer. Print Portfolios
- [Portfolio: Graffiti](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-graffiti/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ GRAFFITI Ok, I don't paint graffiti, never have, and not much desire to do so either, but I sure do enjoy when I'm out on the coast looking for subjects to paint and find a wall or some ruins with layers of graffiti all over them. Trying to invoke the various
- [Portfolio: The Art of Surfing](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-the-art-of-surfing/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ THE ART OF SURFING It's true, surfing is my ulterior motive for painting the entire California Coast. It's the reason I started travelling and looking around all the corners in the first place, always looking for an uncrowded wave off the beaten path. It's only natural the act of surfing itself
- [Portfolio: VW Vans](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-vw-vans/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ VW VANS My folks bought a brand new yellow VW van in 1976 when I was just one year old. That van still sits in my dad's garage to this day (not running, but in good shape and could be revived quite easily if anyone is interested with a solid offer).
- [Portfolio: California Poppies](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-california-poppies/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA POPPIES Whether it's just a few bursts of vibrant orange, or a full on eruptions of floral lava across a rolling hillside, the California Poppy (and the Island Poppy as well) is always a joy to behold. Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California
- [Portfolio: California Coast from Above](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-california-coast-from-above/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COAST FROM ABOVE Occasionally when painting in my studio, I like to explore aerial perspectives that I would never be able to achieve from the ground. I wish I could say I paint these from my customized hot air art ballon studio, but no... these paintings are generally a mix
- [Portfolio: California Coast Plein Air](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-california-coast-plein-air/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COAST PLEIN AIR Working in the outdoors, or "plein air", is always an adventure. It forces one to work fast and respond to the landscape without overthinking it. It's a rare contemplative and immersive outdoor activity that produces a tangible artifact of it's own environs. And in this age of
- [Portfolio: Studio Landscapes](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolio-studio-landscapes/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ STUDIO LANDSCAPES Most of my studio work is done upon request, because when left to my own rhythms I would hardly ever work in the studio at all, much preferring the open air and ocean breezes. But the studio has it's advantages, allowing larger and more developed works to be completed
- [Portfolio: San Diego](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-san-diego/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ SAN DIEGO I'm not from San Diego, I've never lived in San Diego, and yet I consider it a home in many ways. Lots of great memories, and even greater friendships have been formed here over the years. I've painted over a hundred different locations on this county's varied
- [Portfolio: Big Sur](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-big-sur/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ BIG SUR Technically Big Sur is just a part of Monterey County and could have been represented there, but it really is a world of it's own... so here it is in a portfolio of its own as well. Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast
- [Portfolio: Trestles | San Onofre](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-trestles-san-onofre/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ TRESTLES | SAN ONOFRE I don't normally name spots, so I know this bends that rule just a bit, but this is such an important zone full of California surfing history. And since it sorta falls between two counties, I thought it deserved its own portfolio. Print Portfolios Select
- [Portfolio: Humboldt](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-humboldt/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ HUMBOLDT Humboldt has been my home for more than 30 years, and it's a beautiful place, so this portfolio is a little bigger than most of the others. It wasn't easy to weed out this selection from the over 150 paintings I have completed from this incredible stretch of
- [Portfolio: The Pacific Northwest](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolios-elsewheres-not-the-california-coast/portfolio-the-pacific-northwest/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ ELSWHERES ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water
- [Portfolio: Italy](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolios-elsewheres-not-the-california-coast/portfolio-italy/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ ELSWHERES ▸ ITALY Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del Norte (12) Humboldt (49) Mendocino (18) Marin |
- [Portfolio: The Southwest Desert](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/portfolios-elsewheres-not-the-california-coast/portfolio-the-southwest-desert/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ ELSWHERES ▸ THE SOUTHWEST DESERT Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: Santa Cruz](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-santa-cruz/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ SANTA CRUZ Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: California's East Coast (Lake Tahoe)](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-east-coast-tahoe/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ CALIFORNIA'S EAST COAST (TAHOE) Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water |
- [Portfolio: Del Norte](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-del-norte/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ DEL NORTE Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: Los Angeles](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-los-angeles/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ LOS ANGELES Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: Marin | Sonoma](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-marin-sonoma/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ MARIN | SONOMA Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's
- [Portfolio: Mendocino](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-mendocino/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ MENDOCINO Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del Norte (12) Humboldt (49) Mendocino (18) Marin
- [Portfolio: Orange County](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-orange-county/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ ORANGE COUNTY Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: San Francisco | San Mateo](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-san-francisco-san-mateo/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ SAN FRANCISCO | SAN MATEO Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water
- [Portfolio: San Luis Obispo](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-san-luis-obispo/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ SAN LUIS OBISPO Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's
- [Portfolio: Santa Barbara](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-santa-barbara/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ SANTA BARBARA Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del
- [Portfolio: The Channel Islands](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-the-channel-islands/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's
- [Portfolio: Ventura](https://mattbeardart.com/catalog/print-portfolio/california-coastal-regions/portfolio-ventura/) - CATALOG ▸ PRINT PORTFOLIOS ▸ CALIFORNIA COASTAL REGIONS ▸ VENTURA Print Portfolios Select contentAll PortfoliosPortfolios: More California Themes (166) Studio Landscapes (44) California Coast from the Air (12) California Coast Plein Air (83) California Poppies (15) VW Vans (8) The Art of Surfing Itself (14) Graffiti (12)Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast) (48) Imaginations & Made Up Places (24) Pacific Northwest (6) Southwest Desert (7) Italy (12)Portfolios: Additional Themes (67) Visual Music (12) Waves & Clear Waters (23) Birds & Bones & Other Oddities (14) Live Art (26) Water | Abstractions (17)Artist's Favorites (296) Del Norte (12) Humboldt (49) Mendocino (18) Marin
- [FINE ART PRINT OPTIONS (old)](https://mattbeardart.com/fine-art-print-options3/) - The following print options are available for most of the images found on this site. Simply browse the artwork and select the "PRINT WORKS" links to choose from the options below for any given image. Stretched Canvas Our elegantly textured canvas features a soft-matte surface with a semi-gloss coating. Available in 1.5" depth
- [BIO PAGE HEADER](https://mattbeardart.com/bio-page-header/) - Matt Beard Artist. Occasional writer. Currently lives in Humboldt County, CA. Committed to painting the entire California Coast. MY STORY | HONORS & AWARDS & SHOWS | PRESS & PUBLICATIONS | AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE | WATCH | ART MAP PAGE TITLE
- [California Coastal Art Project Map](https://mattbeardart.com/map/) - It's been a long term goal to paint this entire coastline. The red dots are locations I've painted, and I'm filling in gaps all the time. Zoom in to explore the places I've planted my easel so far, representing every coastal county in California, and then some... Enjoy!
- [Plein Air Pricing](https://mattbeardart.com/info/plein-air-pricing/) - There's a lot that goes into free range/outdoor/plein air painting. Awhile back I thought it would be fun to come up with a scale for adjusting the price of paintings based on the realities of the conditions one must deal with to haul one's studio miles from home and sometimes miles from the nearest road.
- [Macaroni](https://mattbeardart.com/bio/macaroni/) - A few of the feathers I've stuck in my cap along the way... Funds raised for various nonprofits since launching AidCurrent in 2013: 93175.48 Shows, Awards, Accomplishments & Recognitions 2021- Featured Artist- Museum Exhibition: Finding California Surf, at the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, CA ≡ 2021- Official Live Artist- CASA Humboldt Big Night, The Eagle
- [Press and Unpress](https://mattbeardart.com/bio/press-unpress/) - An assortment of links to various interviews, articles and features scattered across the webs in no particular order Hollister Ranch Collection @hollisterranch.com The Coast News Group- Painting the California Coast: Volume One Times Standard- Painting the California Coast: Volume One Explore North Bay 2019: Coastal Views The California Coast: California Coastal Commission Blog Club of
- [100% Keep it Quiet Policy - No Spots Named!](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-location-free-policy-no-spots-named/) - Many will ask when they examine this curious website full of paintings of the California Coast why no specific locations are named anywhere on this site. If this thing was supposed to be some sort of guide to the California Coast, it would surely be one of the worst ever made. So be it. For
- [Publications](https://mattbeardart.com/publications/)
- [An Ulterior Motive](https://mattbeardart.com/bio/an-ulterior-motive/) - It’s true, I do have an ulterior motive driving my work to a certain degree… Why travel up and down the California coast over and over again painting along these shores? Because of the simple joy these photos represent. When I got into making art I tried a lot of different directions, but as in
- [Watch](https://mattbeardart.com/bio/watch/)
- [Terms and Conditions](https://mattbeardart.com/info/test-page/) - We will do our best to serve you and ensure that your order is fulfilled to the highest expectations in a timely manner. There are occasionally delays that are beyond our control. Unfortunate things can happen during shipping. And yes, sometimes we make mistakes. But we've got a great track record after 10+ years of
- [Private Collection: The Greatest Collector Ever](https://mattbeardart.com/private-collection-the-greatest-collector-ever/)
- [All Artwork](https://mattbeardart.com/artworks/)
- [WOOCOMMERCE AND THEME PAGES](https://mattbeardart.com/support-the-arts/)
- [INFO PAGES](https://mattbeardart.com/info/) - and some words and other stuff if I add it.
- [100% Self-Employed Artist - Small Family Business](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-self-employed-artist-small-family-business/) - By purchasing work from this site, you're supporting a small family business. Our corporate office is the kitchen table. Board meetings may involve a serious discussion about legos. If things get tense, it's usually because there's shoes and socks all over the place. Our shareholders demand ice cream. Almost daily. It's nuts. They don't actually
- [100% Archival Print Materials- Made Well, Made to Last](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-archival-print-materials-made-well-made-to-last/) - In everything we do, we strive to do it well. And that means using the best materials we can in our prints. Pigment based archival inks on acid free archival substrates. Nothing lasts forever (especially under direct sunlight or UV flourescent lights), but our prints will stand the test of time. You can be confident
- [100% All Prints From Artist - No Drop Shipped Orders](https://mattbeardart.com/info/100-all-prints-from-artist-no-drop-shipped-orders/) - Every print I sell on this site passes through my hands. We have a 10+ year relationship with a great printer. Canvases are stretched at Eureka Art and Frame Company, a local frame-shop that also houses our gallery. We handle the rest, touch-up, varnishing, framing with our basic lath frames, signing, numbering limited editions, certificates,

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://mattbeardart.com/category/uncategorized/)
- [Just Words](https://mattbeardart.com/category/just-words/) - Writing is an entirely different sport than painting. I hope you find some enjoyment between these lines. ___
- [Other Stuff](https://mattbeardart.com/category/other-stuff/)
- [Books](https://mattbeardart.com/category/books/)
- [Artwork Notes](https://mattbeardart.com/category/artwork/artwork-notes/) - These paintings contain notes, thoughts, and written scribblings for those inclined to read…
- [Poetry & Free Verse](https://mattbeardart.com/category/words/poetry-and-free-verse/) - Poems, and “sorta poems” that poured out in the places where other words might have belonged…
- [Artwork](https://mattbeardart.com/category/artwork/)
- [Artwork Notes & Backstories](https://mattbeardart.com/category/words/backstories/)
- [Writing](https://mattbeardart.com/category/words/) - A different way to enjoy my work, through the written words, notes, and poems that pour out alongside the artwork, and sometimes all on their own…
- [Stories](https://mattbeardart.com/category/words/stories/)
- [Events & News](https://mattbeardart.com/category/events-news/)

## Tags

- [ACTUAL WILD CATS WANDERING BY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/actual-wild-cats-wandering-by/)
- [ABOVE THE SNOW LINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/above-the-snow-line/)
- [A SINGLE DAY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/a-single-day/) - These pieces were born from an idea to spend an entire day in the field on one painting, dividing up the canvas and working on each section for a period of time and then moving to another with each shift of the light and weather. I still like the idea and hope to explore this further one day…
- [AERIAL VIEWS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/aerial-views/) - Visions from an elevated state.
- [AFTERNOON LIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/afternoon-light/)
- [AGATES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/agates/)
- [AGRICULTURE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/agriculture/) - Raising cattle, farming, gardens and vineyards. We’re all living off the land one way or another.
- [AIRBRUSH ON A SKETCHY 70'S VAN?](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/airbrush-on-a-sketchy-70s-van/) - Nope. despite the way this may look, it was not copied from an airbrush on a sketchy 70’s van- although I do agree it would look good on one.
- [ALDERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/alders/) - I’m no arborist, it’s just a guess.
- [ALMOST-PASSED-OUT-FROM-BREATHING-EXHAUST-FROM-THE-TACO-TRUCK-PARKED-BEHIND-ME](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/almost-passed-out-from-breathing-exhaust-from-the-taco-truck-parked-behind-me/) - It’s true. Art comes from suffering. But good tacos never hurt.
- [ALOE VERA BLOOMS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/aloe-vera-blooms/)
- [AMERICA!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/america/)
- [AMUSEMENT PARKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/amusement-parks/)
- [AN-OPOSSUM-CRAWLED-ACROSS-THIS-ONE-WHILE-IT-WAS-WET-AND-THE-FOOTPRINTS-CAN-STILL-BE-SEEN-IN-THE-RIGHT-LIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/an-opossum-crawled-across-this-one-while-it-was-wet-and-the-footprints-can-still-be-seen-in-the-right-light/) - True story.
- [ANATOMY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/anatomy/)
- [ANCIENT RUINS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ancient-ruins/) - Remnants of a time long past.
- [AQUEDUCTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/aqueducts/) - If rivers are the lifeblood of the land, these are the coronary bypasses.
- [ARCHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/arches/)
- [ARCHITECTURE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/architecture/) - “Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- [ARCING CLOUDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/arcing-clouds/)
- [ARTIST COLLABORATION with Skye Walker](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/artist-collaboration-with-skye-walker/) - I hid his reference material when he stepped out for a minute, he had to wing it after that. We’re still friends.
- [ARTIST COLLABORATION with Spencer Reynolds](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/artist-collaboration-with-spencer-reynolds/) - We painted this together at Redwood Curtain Brewery. The beer was very good. We traded the brush back and forth all night and whenever I wandered back to the bar for more beer I’d send all my friends up to tap him on the shoulder and ask for the brush. About 25 people painted on this one. I don’t think he was super stoked about that, but he was the first to hand the brush to some kids to let them add some marks, and once that genie gets out of the bottle, it’s very hard to put it back in. I’m pretty sure we’re still friends though.
- [ARTISTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/artists/)
- [BACK ALLEYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/back-alleys/)
- [BANJOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/banjos/)
- [BARBED WIRE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/barbed-wire/)
- [BARNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/barns/)
- [BASED ON CLIENTS' PHOTOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/based-on-clients-photos/) - I prefer to work out in the field from life, but occasionally I’ll paint something using a friend or client’s photograph as a starting point.
- [BAYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bays/)
- [BEACH BREAKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beach-breaks/)
- [BEACH GLASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beach-glass/) - Quite literally, it was the town dump. All that’s left is the glass that’s been tumbled in the shorebreak for the last 40 years. And a few curious bits of metal. Old eyeglass frames. Stuff like that. They put signs on the road advertising all the beach glass, but then close off the beach because people come and take the glass…
- [BEACH HOUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beach-houses/) - I could live in a few of these. In fact I HAVE lived in a few of these: the occasional driftwood shelter (which can be a type of heaven on earth), and the vans (which are really just small beach houses with long-term commitment issues).
- [BEACH SHACKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beach-shacks/) - Organic architecture. Like a bird’s song.
- [BEER BOTTLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beer-bottles/) - 99 bottles of beer on the wall… If you do the math, we’re apparently already 95 bottles of beer into this party already. That must be why there’s so much beach glass washing up.
- [BEER DROP!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beer-drop/) - Yup. I dropped a full beer in front of a crowded hall as this painting was about to be auctioned at the California Gold Vintage Surfboard Auction. They said my name and asked if I was in the hall. I let out a hoot and raised my beer, well I thought I was raising it anyway. The beer had a mind of it’s own and I was left with all eyes on me, hand in the air, standing in a puddle of beer on the gymnasium floor. I hate it when that happens.
- [BEETLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/beetles/) - Beetles, bones, and smoking stones…
- [BELL TOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bell-towers/)
- [BENDING LINES OF SWELL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bending-lines-of-swell/) - There’s few things I love to watch as much as the way lines of swell refract and bend as they approach the shallow waters near the shore.
- [BIKE PATHS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bike-paths/) - A few of these are definitely bike paths, a few others are paths frequently biked, a few more would be weird to bike on, and a few others still might get you a citation for biking there for all I know, but I’m sure if you knew what you’re doing you could pop a wheelie on any of these.
- [BIKES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bikes/) - Tonight, we ride.
- [BIRDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/birds/) - Bird is the word.
- [BLUEBIRD DAYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bluebird-days/) - Not a care in the world on days like these.
- [BOAT HOISTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/boat-hoists/) - If fish were a bit more industrial they’d dig channels just a little ways inland and then have platform lifts to raise their little cars out of the water until they were level with the road, then they’d go out on Sunday drives in their little cars full of water.
- [BOATS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/boats/) - I am not a sailor. I will crash your boat. I will steer it into a sandbar and all the knots I’ve tied will come undone. True story. I will happily recline in your captain’s quarters though. Especially if there are snacks.
- [BORDERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/borders/) - Paintings with defined edges. (and one with an actual geo-political international border…)
- [BREAKWATERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/breakwaters/) - Can water really ever be broken?
- [BRIDGES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bridges/)
- [BRIDGES THAT ARE REALLY JUST FALLEN TREES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bridges-that-are-really-just-fallen-trees/) - Proceed with caution.
- [BRIGHT MIDDAY SUN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bright-midday-sun/)
- [BUBBLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bubbles/) - Tiny bubbles, in the brine.
- [BUILDINGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/buildings/) - These things are everywhere.
- [BUOYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/buoys/) - At least we know that outdoor shower isn’t gonna sink. It might float to Japan though.
- [BUSTED UP CONCRETE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/busted-up-concrete/) - Nothing is set in stone.
- [CACTUS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cactus/) - I have not yet fallen in a cactus patch. I hope the trend continues.
- [CALIFORNIA BORDER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/california-border/)
- [CALIFORNITALIA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/californitalia/) - Links between two worlds.
- [CAMPFIRES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/campfires/)
- [CANYONS AND VALLEYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/canyons-and-valleys/)
- [CARS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cars/)
- [CARS THAT DON'T ALWAYS START](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cars-that-dont-always-start/)
- [CASINOS THAT WERE NEVER USED FOR GAMBLING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/casinos-that-were-never-used-for-gambling/)
- [CASTLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/castles/) - They might just be little white specs on the distant hills, but technically these paintings all have castles in them.
- [CATS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cats/)
- [CATTLE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cattle/)
- [CATTLE SKULLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cattle-skulls/)
- [CEMETERIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cemeteries/)
- [CHAIN LINK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/chain-link/)
- [CHAOS AND CONFUSION](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/chaos-and-confusion/) - Sometimes the world is a crazy place. Sometimes the place is a crazy world.
- [CHURCHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/churches/) - Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.
- [CIGARETTES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cigarettes/) - Coping with stress through poison. A questionable strategy, especially with such soothing alternatives at one’s feet.
- [CITIES AND TOWNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cities-and-towns/) - Collections of boxes full of people and their belongings.
- [CLIMBED OUT A WINDOW](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/climbed-out-a-window/) - True story. I climbed out a window and up onto a roof to get these views that would be mighty hard to come by any other way.
- [COAST CHAPARRAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/coast-chaparral/) - I don’t know if that’s a technical botany term or not, I do know these scratchy bushy buggers are just about everywhere.
- [COBBLESTONES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cobblestones/)
- [COFFEE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/coffee/) - It’s part of this nutritious breakfast.
- [COLD BEER FROM RASTA MAN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cold-beer-from-rasta-man/) - After a hot day painting here, the constant flow of foot traffic brought a lot of comments from the peanut gallery heading to and from the beach below. My favorite interactions are the ones were they see your painting right as your starting, then see it again an hour or so later and their minds are blown. Even better when it’s a friendly rasta man carrying a satchel full of cold beers on a hot day.
- [COLLABORATIONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/collaborations/) - I work very well with others. They may or may not agree with me on that though.
- [COLLABORATIONS WITH MOVING SKATEBOARDERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/collaborations-with-moving-skateboarders/) - I had a group of 15 dads and kids riding skateboards in a circle past this canvas and right before each of them passed by I handed them a brush full of paint and had them drag it across the canvas as they flowed past it. I finished the painting later while trying to preserve their initial marks.
- [COLLABORATIONS WITH NON-ARTISTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/collaborations-with-non-artists/) - Not to be confused with collaborations with con-artists, these collaborations were straight-forward and nobody was conned into anything. It’s just that the folks who joined in the painting of these paintings were simply art-lovers of all backgrounds and did not necessarily consider themselves “artists”. There is a certain challenge and joy in responding to their unplanned initial strokes and building paintings around them while preserving something of their original essence. The finished paintings have an element of the “other” in them that I could never manufacture in my studio alone. Plus there’s usually beer, so that is good too.
- [COLLEGE CAMPUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/college-campuses/) - I feel smarter just looking at these focal points for higher learning.
- [COMMERCIAL CARGO/TANKER SHIPS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/commercial-cargo-tanker-ships/) - Large boats have been delivering the goods since pretty much forever. The same as it ever was.
- [COMMISSIONED WORK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/commissioned-work/) - Paintings completed as specific requests from collectors.
- [COW-DODGING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cow-dodging/) - Halfway through this painting I had a premonition of a cow running down the path I was standing on. I dismissed it as a ridiculous idea due to the barbed wire fence that enclosed their pasture. Not long after this, I heard rustling in the brambles down the path drawing closer and louder quite quickly. I just had time to grab my easel and jump back into the brambles myself before a confused brown cow came barreling down the path and out on it’s quest for freedom. I knocked on the ranch house door to let them know and they brushed it off. Happens all the time I guess. But not to me it doesn’t.
- [CRABS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/crabs/) - The good kind. Lots of em. This was commissioned by the daughter of the man in the bottom of the painting. She was young when the photo-reference was taken, but she recalled eating very well that year. I reckoned all that crab was good eating and she said, “no, we didn’t eat the crab, we actually went out to eat at restaurants with the money dad made from selling all that crab.” I stand corrected. And pass the butter.
- [CRAZY LADIES THAT STOP TRAINS WITH ONLY THEIR MIDDLE FINGER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/crazy-ladies-that-stop-trains-with-only-their-middle-finger/)
- [CREEPY MEN LURKING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/creepy-men-lurking/) - Occasionally while out painting alone I’ll get some seriously creepy vibes from guys lurking about. I can’t even imagine what the ladies out there must have to put up with on a regular basis. Seriously guys- step it up and stop being so creepy.
- [CROWN OF THORNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/crown-of-thorns/) - A painful symbol of mockery toward the one who deserved it the least. Be careful when you dismiss another human being and resort to mockery. You might not really know them as well as your quick judgment has led you to believe.
- [CRUCIFIXION](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/crucifixion/) - An act of love in the face of hate. A pivotal moment worth considering.
- [CRYPTIC SCRIBBLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cryptic-scribbles/)
- [CYMBALS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cymbals/) - These are largely cymbalic paintings.
- [CYPRESS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cypress/) - The stately cypress tree is a prominent fixture up and down the coast of California.
- [DA VINCI KNOCKOFFS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/da-vinci-knockoffs/) - The Vitruvian Man really gets around. A fine Italian fellow- drives a lamborghini, but rides an old single-fin log.
- [DAISIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/daisies/)
- [DARK AND MOODY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dark-and-moody/) - It’s not all sunshine and daisies. Some days (or nights) just hang a little heavier than others.
- [DEAD TREES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dead-trees/)
- [DEER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/deer/)
- [DESERTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/deserts/) - Pretty much all of Southern California is a desert anyway, but here’s a handful of the desertiest ones I’ve done.
- [DIPTYCHS AND TRIPTYCHS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/diptychs-and-triptychs/) - Paintings made to go together. Often side by side views of the same scene, each with their own focal points.
- [DIRT ROADS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dirt-roads/) - Somewhere between a rabbit trail and 16 lanes of speeding intestate lies the simple dirt road and it’s noble effort to connect modern man in his insulated metal rolling boxes back to the earth one jarring bump at a time.
- [DOCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/docks/)
- [DOGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dogs/)
- [DOLOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dolos/) - Giant engineered concrete blocks designed to break up wave energy, invented by a couple of South African fellows and given the name “dolos”, thought to be derived from the Afrikaans name for ox or lamb knuckle bones used by children at play.
- [DONUTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/donuts/) - They say there are no perfect circles in nature. They are wrong.
- [DOUBLE-TRACK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/double-track/) - The best dirt roads are just two trail side by side. Especially when walking along one with a friend. I am certain that some of the best conversations that have ever been had in all of human history must have taken place on double-track.
- [DRAMAMINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dramamine/) - I wasn’t sure how it would go painting this one from a tiny boat moored off a buoy near this pier. I don’t get carsick easily, but I sure can’t read a book in the backseat on a winding road. Trying to focus on a painting with all the constant movement of the sea I thought best to take no chances and instead take dramamine. It worked swimmingly.
- [DRIFTWOOD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/driftwood/) - One of nature’s greatest inventions. If you can’t appreciate driftwood for the genius of nature’s handiwork that it is, I think you might be an actual robot.
- [DRIFTWOOD SHACKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/driftwood-shacks/) - There is a small but beautiful facet of what it means to be human that cannot be grasped until one has spent days and nights in an improvised driftwood shelter on the edge of the earth tucked away from the winds beside a small fire roasting freshly caught fish (or harvested mussels in a pinch) and sleeping soundly to the roar of the sea…
- [DRIFTWOOD THAT REMINDS ME OF A PIG'S HEAD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/driftwood-that-reminds-me-of-a-pigs-head/) - Well. Now you can’t unsee it either. Sorry bout that.
- [DRIPS AND RUNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/drips-and-runs/) - Not everybody digs these, but there is something about just letting the paint be paint and follow it’s own course that seems right to me at times.
- [DRUMS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/drums/) - Animal was the coolest muppet. This cannot be denied.
- [DRY GRASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dry-grass/) - “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” -Psalm 103:15-17
- [DUDLEYA FARINOSA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dudleya-farinosa/) - I tried to explain to my kid recently how these little succulents are being ripped out of the ground all over California and sent to Japan where they are purchased for more than a hundred dollars apiece and housewives there put them in pots in their windowsills as a symbol of wealth and status. He told me that was weird. I agreed.
- [DUNEGRASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dunegrass/)
- [DUSK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/dusk/) - At the end of the day… it is just a thing called dusk.
- [EAGLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/eagles/)
- [ESTUARIES AND WETLANDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/estuaries-and-wetlands/)
- [EUCALYPTUS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/eucalyptus/) - The good old twisted eucalyptus. Brought here from Australia for railroad ties because it grows so fast. But in California’s climate it grows with a twist rendering it unusable for it’s original purpose. Now it’s everywhere, it smells great, it’s as beautiful as a tree can be, and I love it. If I had to have a favorite invasive species, it would have to be this one. Momma, can we keep it? Please?
- [EVASIVE MANEUVERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/evasive-maneuvers/) - Without getting into details, each of these paintings required a degree of strategy to evade authorities for various reasons. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
- [EVENING LIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/evening-light/)
- [EVERGREENS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/evergreens/)
- [EXCEPT NOT REALLY DRUMS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/except-not-really-drums/) - I mean, yeah, this one was inspired by drums, but look at it… looks more like a cluster of UFO’s to me. Maybe drummers don’t really die of all those odd accidents like we were told in the movie Spinal Tap- maybe they are simply beamed up when the timing is right.
- [FENCES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fences/) - A joke my grandma used to tell: A teacher asked little Johnny to come up with a sentence using the words “defense”, “defeat”, and “detail”.Unfazed, Johnny replies “Decow jumped over defense, defeat went before detail.”And there you have it. The genius of youth.
- [FERNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ferns/)
- [FERRIS WHEELS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ferris-wheels/) - And the wheel in the sky keeps on turning… but the ones on the piers have a harder time, and they’ll set you back 10 bucks a seat if they’re even working at all…
- [FIRE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fire/)
- [FIRE PITS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fire-pits/) - For firing responsibly.
- [FISH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fish/) - If birds often symbolize insights from spiritual dimension, fish must be the conveyors of the subconscious, navigating freely beneath the surface where we can only enter briefly with held breath.
- [FISHING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fishing/) - Because fish tacos don’t just happen by themselves
- [FLAGS AND WEATHER VANES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flags-and-weather-vanes/) - Did you know the word “vane” comes from the Old English word for “flag”? If we ever start a new country lets make our flag just a rusty metal shark instead. We would rule.
- [FLOWER GARDENS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flower-gardens/)
- [FLOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flowers/) - A million simple reminders that life on earth is a beautiful thing.
- [FLOWING INTO THE SEA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flowing-into-the-sea/) - All the rivers flow into the sea, and yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. -Ecclesiastes 1:7
- [FLOWING WATER VIBES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flowing-water-vibes/) - Paintings with an abundance of flow… Like water.
- [FLYING FISH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/flying-fish/)
- [FOAM TRAILS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/foam-trails/) - I love watching these little foam trails that form after a set of waves crash into the shore and currents carry the foam off as they please. There’s a lot to learn of the ocean by observing these ephemeral records written on the surface of the sea- surface current direction, speed, time between sets of waves. If you wrap your head around them just right it’s like listening to a record’s needle dance in the grooves and all you hear is beautiful music.
- [FOG](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fog/) - When out on the open road I often think of my father, but when surrounded by fog it’s my mother that usually comes to mind.
- [FOG BANKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fog-banks/) - When hunting long views of the coast, the Fog is often present, even if just watching from afar.
- [FOG CREEPING OVER THE HILLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fog-creeping-over-the-hills/)
- [FOR CARVER SKATEBOARDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/for-carver-skateboards/) - These pieces were used by Carver Skateboards for their deck graphics.
- [FOX ON THE BEACH!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/fox-on-the-beach/) - An actual fox. You don’t see them on the beach very often. It trotted by so quickly I just watched and didn’t include it in the painting, but I still thought it was pretty cool to see.
- [FREE BEER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/free-beer/) - A special selection of work. Each of these paintings involved, in one way or another, free beer. If you were part of making this happen for any one of these, thank you.
- [FREE FOOD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/free-food/) - Some folks simply refuse to let an artist starve. If that’s you, you are the best. Thank you.
- [FREE SHOTS FROM THE BAR](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/free-shots-from-the-bar/) - When Dwight Harrington (the first* surfer in Italy) and I rolled up to this busy evening on the streets of Gaeta, Italy, we were feeling a little self-conscious about setting up and doing our thing here. Not that we thought anyone would mind if I painted him playing and singing his heart out on the street, we were just a couple of out-of-place american tourists in a town full of Italians. The language barrier was daunting. The bartender caught wind of us and promptly brought us both shots of whatever we liked. Nerves settled. What’s really funny is the name of the bar was RUDE. I beg to differ.
- [FREEWAYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/freeways/)
- [FROM THE BEACH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/from-the-beach/) - A confession: I don’t like to paint on the beach. It’s true. I prefer to find a perch high above, but it’s not always possible. I am slowly making peace with this closer-to-sea-level perspective though. It just takes a different approach to the composition, and sometimes a bit more sunscreen.
- [FUNK AND SPLATTER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/funk-and-splatter/) - Sometimes with studio paintings I like to rough ’em up a bit between sessions so I don’t get too attached to any particular area too early in the process. It forces me to keep building the whole painting to a richer finish. Sometimes the splatter and funk becomes a visible part of the finished paintings as well. These are those.
- [GARIBALDI](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/garibaldi/) - Well, yes, it’s the official state fish of California. I’m not sure why a state need’s an official fish, but I can tell you that the bright red/orange garibaldi was named for the red/orange vests worn by the Redshirts led by Giuseppe Garibaldi as he fought for, and achieved, the unification of northern and southern Italy.
- [GAS MASKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/gas-masks/) - An interesting theme that emerged in a few live paintings several years before the coronavirus pandemic.
- [GATED COMMUNITY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/gated-community/) - Places that exist behind locked or guarded gates.
- [GAZEBOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/gazebos/)
- [GEOLOGY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/geology/)
- [GEOMETRY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/geometry/) - Geometry: a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. A donut is a torus. So there.
- [GOLDEN LIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/golden-light/) - Not everything that glitters is gold. But California on a late afternoon is generally, completely, made out of solid gold.
- [GOOD TACOS THOUGH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/good-tacos-though/) - Each of these paintings brings back memories, even if vague, of very good tacos.
- [GOTHIC ARCHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/gothic-arches/)
- [GRAFFITI](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/graffiti/) - I am a graffiti artist. But it’s not how that sounds…
- [GRANITE BOULDERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/granite-boulders/) - Forgive me if these aren’t all granite. I’m no geologist. I’m more of a visual genie. You wish for a boulder and I’ll granite.
- [GRAPEVINES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/grapevines/)
- [GREEK MYTHOLOGY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/greek-mythology/) - I’m more familiar with the story of Icarus from the Iron Maiden song, but I’m pretty sure they stole it from the Greeks. And neither of them involved beetles or flying fish or any of this…
- [GREEN GRASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/green-grass/) - The grass is always greener…
- [GROUND-LEVEL VIEW](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ground-level-view/) - I’d rather stand and paint, but sometimes the stuff on the ground is what it’s all about.
- [GUITARS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/guitars/)
- [GULCHES THAT WERE INHABITED BY A RUSSIAN DEFECTOR FROM FORT ROSS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/gulches-that-were-inhabited-by-a-russian-defector-from-fort-ross/)
- [HANDPRINTS OF FILMMAKERS FROM FILM FESTIVAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/handprints-of-filmmakers-from-film-festival/) - Filmmakers in attendance at the 2014 San Diego Surf Film Festival were asked to trace their hands onto this canvas anywhere they chose as I worked them all into the painting during the course of the festival. A questionable aesthetic decision perhaps, but I like the fact that this painting was made while their films played to a packed hall and a piece of each of them is reflected on the finished painting.
- [HANGING MOSS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/hanging-moss/)
- [HARASSED BY A CHERRY SALESMAN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/harassed-by-a-cherry-salesman/) - He was not happy with where I parked. It was on a roadside pullout, public space, no cars around, 50 yards from his stand, but with this good view of the cove below, especially if I stood in the back of the van. He said I was too close to his sign. I told him I had driven all the way down the entire coast to paint views like this, and he cut me off and told me he drove all the way from Modesto. I had nothing on him there… poor guy.
- [HARBORS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/harbors/)
- [HAUNTED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/haunted/) - They say she comes out on foggy nights, dressed in white lace, perhaps a wedding dress, and sometimes walks right down the center of the road. Smart lady. The best place to walk on a dark foggy night would be the center of the road where you can follow the line and know you won’t trip over a rock or a log and stub your ghost toe. Maybe someone should leave a headlamp hanging from a gnarled old tree branch so she can see better in the woods and not have to wander around on the road freaking everyone out.
- [HAVE A SEAT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/have-a-seat/) - People sitting or just places to sit…
- [HEAVY CONVERSATION](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/heavy-conversation/) - I rolled up to scour the cliff edges for some suitable vista on a gray morning here as the clouds began to burn away. While picking my way along the eroded edges of disaster, I encountered a young college kid staring over a steep edge. At first I thought he was just checking the surf, but as we got talking he began to tell me of people he knew, who had died on the beach below, after falling off this cliff. And how life didn’t seem to have a very strong grip on him. I did my best to talk him through some things but it was heavy. I told him about hard times I’d gone through, how they were only temporary. I prayed for him. I didn’t know what else I could do. He seemed ok afterwards, but to this day I wonder. Life is hard.
- [HELICOPTERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/helicopters/) - Okay, just one. But it circled close by over and over. I could see the guys in the military helicopter looking down at me. I’m not sure they cared one bit- I may have just been a curious site on their otherwise routine flights, but it sure seemed like they kept coming right back to me again and again. I waved at them, but they never responded. I figured if they were going to keep showing up, I may as well put the chopper in the painting.
- [HIDING FROM POLICE HELICOPTERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/hiding-from-police-helicopters/) - It’s not every day that a plein air painter has to hide from the police. There had been an oil spill across the highway here and out into the ocean from a burst pipeline and after two days of citizens rescuing birds and other wildlife covered in oil, the police decided to close the entire area, four miles of highway above and below the spill, while cleanup crews dumped a toxic dispersant into the water to break up the oil and make it less visible so the beaches could look pretty again. I thought it would be an interesting thing to capture in a painting. I had a friend drop me off (since there was nowhere to park and the whole highway was heavily patrolled) where I thought I’d be able to make my way out to the point just below the spill. We miscalculated and I quickly found myself within a stones throw from ground zero. Hazmat suits and cleanup crews and sheriff patrol cars everywhere. I had no chance of painting here. While pondering what to do from the railroad tracks just out of sight of the highway, a police helicopter circles overhead. I hop half under the nearest bush I could and covered my legs with my pack and held still. The helicopter kept circling. A few minute later I could hear a highway patrol truck pull up and leave it’s engine running on the highway shoulder just over the embankment from my hideout. I waited a good long time until the helicopter was well out of sight, then carefully made my way back to our drop-off/pick-up spot and called my buddy to come and shuttle me a bit down the road away from ground zero. This time I was able to make my way up to a high perch with a good view of the cleanup operation, but well out of view of the highway. Never saw the helicopter again. Not sure what would have happened if caught- probably not much, but I really wanted to get a painting done and avoid risking it with a confrontation. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission right? And if they caught me once, there’d likely be steeper consequences if they found me down the road a little later. Better to avoid all that if possible.
- [HONEYBEES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/honeybees/) - It’s pretty rare I slow down enough to focus on the fine details like the insects in a painting. Usually I’m more concerned about them buzzing in my ears and mistaking my yellow paint for flowers. But this was a nice afternoon in a garden, with plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers… and notice the bees.
- [HORSESHOES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/horseshoes/) - I don’t know, I feel like I’ve painted horseshoes hanging this way to catch good luck more than once, but this is the only one I could find…
- [I STILL LIKE THIS POEM THOUGH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/i-still-like-this-poem-though/) - Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn’t a good idea to alter these paintings with poetry, but either way, I still kinda dig the poems themselves… one day I will write a poetry book, just poetry, no art or pictures or visuals at all, and a few of my friends and family might even read some of it.
- [ICEPLANT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/iceplant/) - Introduced to stem erosion around the railroad tracks laid in the early 1900’s but quickly spread all over the coastal bluffs of California, iceplant lands just behind eucalyptus as one of my favorite invasive species. The colors from green to red create amazing displays for a painter, and since it’s invasive you don’t have to feel bad about tromping all over it. Just doing my part.
- [INLETS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/inlets/) - Where the ocean’s breath inhales and exhales twice every day.
- [INSECT WINGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/insect-wings/) - Somewhere between leaves and bird feathers in this exploration of life’s archetypal forms.
- [ISLAND POPPIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/island-poppies/) - Found only on the channel islands, these poppies have two-toned petals, yellow like mexican poppies on the outside, and deep orange like california poppies on the inside. Best of both worlds.
- [ISLANDS IN THE DISTANCE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/islands-in-the-distance/)
- [IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time/) - There’s something about each of these that I question in hindsight. And that’s ok. That’s what it takes to go forward with art, otherwise we only do the same things over and over.
- [ITALIAN CYPRESS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/italian-cypress/) - I come across these all around California too, but surprisingly when I went through my archives to find some that I had painted, there were none. So here we have a few from Piergiorgio Castellani’s vineyard in Italy and that is all.
- [ITALIAN PINES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/italian-pines/) - These perfect umbrellas of pine grow all over Italy with no need for trimming or shaping- this is just their natural shape- perfect for a bit of shade without obstructing the view beyond. Well played, Italy.
- [JESUS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/jesus/) - To know Him is to know the love of God- and to want to know Him more. Also, he appears to be a goofyfoot.
- [JETTIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/jetties/) - They make waves, and they destroy them. Love them or hate them, they’ve reshaped and redefined coastlines all over California and beyond.
- [JUST NATURE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/just-nature/) - Yep. Not a soul in sight. I might have missed one here and there, but these paintings are for those that crave pure nature. Aside from an invasive species here and there, these scenes contain no obvious sign of humanity’s presence. No people. No roads. No trails. No buildings. Just Nature.
- [JUST WATER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/just-water/) - Just the water, the whole water, and nothing but the water…
- [KAYAKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/kayaks/)
- [KEELED OVER IN PAIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/keeled-over-in-pain/) - During the course of this painting, created live at an upscale fundraiser event at an oceanfront home, surrounded by guests and surf legends, and beautiful shiny happy people I began to feel some unusual pains in my lower left abdomen. They grew sharper as the night went on. Until after this piece was auctioned I could hardly stand up. A friend took me to the Emergency Room and after a bunch of scans and tests they turned up… nothing. Well some other minor things did turn up, but nothing to explain the searing pain. I was sent on my way and for the next two weeks the pain came and went. But yeah, it was weird. I thought for sure my innards were exploding and I’d be a goner. Guess it was only a dress rehearsal this time…
- [KEEP OFF THE GRASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/keep-off-the-grass/) - Just places with smooth green grass, lawns, yards, etc… Most of it carefully manicured by humans, except one that the cows seem to be doing a fine job with.
- [KELP BEDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/kelp-beds/) - We’ve lost 90% of our kelp forest from San Francisco to Oregon in the last decade. It’s heart-breaking. I hope we see it bounce back.
- [KICKED OUT BY COPS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/kicked-out-by-cops/) - I can only recall being literally kicked out of an area mid-painting by actual police once and once only (so far), so for now that makes this one extra special.
- [KINDA WEIRD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/kinda-weird/) - Things do get a little weird sometimes. Not much I can do about it. Keeps things interesting, and occasionally it makes for a good painting anyway.
- [LAGOONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lagoons/)
- [LAKES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lakes/) - Okay, pretty much only one lake, but did you know this lake on California’s border is larger than the Sea of Galilee, and large enough to occasionally produce surfable waves? And when you cross this lake you land on the shores of an entirely different country called “Nevada”. Welcome to California’s East Coast.
- [LEFTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lefts/) - For the goofies out there.
- [LESSON LEARNED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lesson-learned/) - After finishing this one I laid it carefully in the back of my van and drove home with that satisfied feeling having pulled of what I felt was a real nice one. I hit one little bump and the series of bangs and smacks and thuds in the back of the van reminded me that I had forgotten to secure my pack with all my painting gear. An easel got loose and like a trapped wild animal continues lashing out even after being freed from it’s cage, the easel attacked this painting with one fierce swipe, ripping a 3 inch hole right down the middle. Nuts. Lesson learned:Wild easels do not belong in captivity.
- [LIFE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/life/) - A collection of paintings that in one way or another are about life, and life itself. What is to be alive, to have the breath of life in us, to be a living being at all.
- [LIFEGUARD TOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lifeguard-towers/)
- [LIGHTHOUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/lighthouses/) - I’ve never really set out to paint lighthouses, but haven’t tried to avoid them either. Here’s the handful that have found their way into my paintings so far. Some of these are pretty obscure/off in the distance/non-operational, etc… but I’m counting them anyway.
- [LIMONIUMS (SEA LAVENDER/STATICE)](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/limoniums-sea-lavender-statice/) - I always hear them called by different names, but whatever name they go by, I sure do enjoy when these little purple fireworks decide to explode.
- [LITTER AND TRASH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/litter-and-trash/) - Not something I go out of my way to focus on, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, and other times it’s the star of the show in it’s own strange way. Even if the light shines on something we consider ugly, the light itself is still beautiful.
- [LIVE MUSIC](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/live-music/) - Music happens.
- [LONG WALK TO THE LIQUOR STORE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/long-walk-to-the-liquor-store/) - I was 13 years old. I certainly wasn’t buying liquor. But everyday, all summer long, my mom would drop off my brother and I and our two friends (also brothers) up the beach and we’d walk to the end of this private community and set up forts on the last patch of sand, and surf the wedging rebound waves that formed here. We were too young to be hassled much by the locals, though they did smash our nicer forts when we weren’t around. There was a liqour store about a mile away, that was the closest place to procure the substances we prefered to abuse in those years- sodas and chips and candy bars. When it was our turn, we’d have to take everyone’s order and walk back juggling all the carbohydrate contraband. The thought of a long walk on a beach sounds nice now, but at the time, being that this was the highest pinnacle our burdens of responsibilities to our fellow man had ever yet ascended, it was a pretty stressful ordeal.
- [LOOK THIS UP](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/look-this-up/) - What Nature’s God Hath Wrought, by William Wendt. My painting buddy, Wade Koniakwosky, and I went hunting for the exact vantage point where William Wendt painted his masterpiece. Pretty sure we found it. We both painted a quick rendition of the mountain from that spot just to do it. Not to try to paint another version of his painting. Neither of us looked at his painting during our paint session- we just wanted to react to the same mountain he had reacted to in that painting. A humbling experience indeed. But yeah, look up that painting! You’ll be stoked!
- [LOOKING BACK TOWARD LAND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/looking-back-toward-land/) - These are some of my favorite angles to paint- out on some finger of land looking back across the water to the shoreline wrapping away in the distance. As a rule of thumb I just included any painting here that has its entire horizon line obstructed by land in one way or another.
- [LOOKING DOWN FROM STEEP CLIFFS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/looking-down-from-steep-cliffs/) - Generally this is where I like to be, with a commanding view of the coast, right down to the beach and waves crashing below.
- [LOOSELY BASED ON A RON STONER PHOTOGRAPH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/loosely-based-on-a-ron-stoner-photograph/) - There’s a shot Ron Stoner took of Skip Frye paddling out on a glassy California-perfect day with a couple of pelicans gliding by on the outside that has been burned into the collective psyche of surfers everywhere as a vision of purity and perfection. That was the starting point for this tribute to Skip Frye, painted from start to finish in the presence of Skip himself as he was honored at the 2017 San Diego Surf Film Festival.
- [LOVE AND INDECISION](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/love-and-indecision/) - The choice between the bliss of being enveloped in her loving embrace (and enticing curves), or the embrace of a woman can be a tough decision.
- [MACHINE SHOPS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/machine-shops/)
- [MAILBOXES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/mailboxes/)
- [MARINAS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/marinas/) - Parking lots for boats.
- [MARINE LAYER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/marine-layer/) - It’s an ever present fact of life on the coast- and the bane of every weather forecast. It will do as it pleases.
- [MATHEMATICS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/mathematics/) - I had a high-school art teacher that once told me he thought I did math when I painted. I never did get what he meant by that. But I am one of the only art majors I’ve ever heard of that bothered to get through all of Calculus. So there may have been something to his observation after all.Either way, I can say that at the very least, the handful of paintings in this collection were absolutely consciously constructed using various mathematical principles.
- [MAYBE A BIRD?](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/maybe-a-bird/) - When painting live, it isn’t uncommon for friends and strangers alike to bring me beers as a show of appreciation for the entertainment provided. It also isn’t uncommon for me to drink them. Combined with a particularly grooving set of live music, this can lead to the complete inability to accurately render a bird, while at the same time creating an undeniable inspiration to paint one. These paintings are what happens at those times.
- [MEMORIALS AND TRIBUTES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/memorials-and-tributes/) - Sometimes it’s from a very personal connection, others it’s at someone else’s request, but either way it is always a sacred honor to use my art to honor the lives that have touched us during our brief time together before moving on.
- [mermaids](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/mermaids/)
- [MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/message-in-a-bottle/) - Genisis 3:15 Revelation 4:1-8
- [MILITARILY SPEAKING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/militarily-speaking/) - Paintings on, of, or near military bases, installations, etc.
- [MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/missions-of-california/)
- [MOONLIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/moonlight/) - They say if you sleep with moonlight hitting your face you’ll go crazy. Become a lunatic. But who hasn’t slept with moonlight on their face at one time or another? Uh oh.
- [MORNING LIGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/morning-light/) - Crisp and clear.
- [MOTORCYCLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/motorcycles/) - Don’t judge. It was dark. I tried.
- [MOUNTAIN LION COUNTRY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/mountain-lion-country/) - Kinda like sharks. You know they’re out there, but it’s best not to overthink that fact.
- [MULTI-PIECE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/multi-piece/) - Experimental abstracts with multiple canvases.
- [MURALS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/murals/) - Paintings of murals other people painted, or actual murals that I’ve painted myself. One or the other, but not both.
- [MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/musical-instruments/)
- [MY LADY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/my-lady/) - Paintings of, or for, my lady. She is beautiful. And delicate like a mountain. And strong like a flower.
- [MY VANS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/my-vans/) - My vans have been all over the place, including in these paintings.
- [mythology](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/mythology/)
- [NIGHT SCENES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/night-scenes/) - Nocturnes. “It is a special thing to contemplate the beauty of a quiet night, for it is in the absence of light that our imaginations oft run unchecked, and to be still, and to still the running of the mind until all that is left is the faintest of ideas- only then do we see the night for what it truly is- our innermost essence externalized.”-me (but I felt like it should be in quotes- who says “oft” anyway?)
- [NIGHTSHADE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/nightshade/) - Sometimes I wish I were more of a botanist and I actually knew the plants I encounter out in the field. But in this case I am glad I did not know that this little bushy plant with the drooping white flowers was a deadly nightshade growing right beside a monument to the area’s indigenous people, right in the middle of their sacred burial site. If I had known this little plant was so associated with death, I might have edited out of the scene or been tempted to give it added symbolic emphasis. As it happened, I painted it because it was there and only found out what it was later.
- [NIMBUS SURF CLUB](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/nimbus-surf-club/) - The oldest surf club in Italy. We were the invited guests of Piergiorgio Castellani, a 6th generation winemaker in the Tuscany region. I was travelling as the guest of Dwight Harrington, the first* surfer in Italy, and Piergiorgio had arranged a meeting here between Dwight and Allesandro Forte, the first Italian surfer. But that is another story… When I learned this party would have live music, live art, and as much surf-stoke as this small but passionately sea-loving nation of people could muster, I couldn’t help but want to set up an easel myself and paint the scene. We first met Italian artist Vincenzo Ganadu painting this beautiful abstract on a nice clean mid-length single-fin. Then came a surprise reunion with Ricki Brotini, an artist I had admired since I met him in San Diego over 10 years earlier. Ricki was making recordings of earth’s gravitational properties beneath a wooden pyramid because Italian’s don’t mess around- they think deeply about life and the world- and contemplating, exploring, and understanding it is part of their cultural heritage. Despite the language barrier, I was at home here and before I knew it, Vincenzo and I were dueling brushes on a single large panel while Luca Battistini’s band wailed their music into the Italian night. After getting home I snuck in a reference to our live painting, the leaning panel on the ground on the left side of the painting is an approximation of the abstract results of our 45 minutes of paint-slinging.
- [NO HEADLAMP](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/no-headlamp/) - Yep. Painted at night with NO headlamp. Just by the dim light of the overcast full moon. Brutal. But a fun challenge anyway.
- [NO NEED FOR SKY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/no-need-for-sky/) - I generally love the pulled back view to include the horizon and at least a bit of sky in a painting, to give the fullest sense of the place. But occasionally the sky is not needed or helpful and a painting gets along better without it.
- [NORFOLK PINES THAT WERE PLANTED IN ORDER TO USE FOR MASTS FOR SAILING SHIPS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/norfolk-pines-that-were-planted-in-order-to-use-for-masts-for-sailing-ships/)
- [NORTHERN LIGHTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/northern-lights/) - I’ve never seen the northern lights in person, so painting them was a good challenge. I must have painted and repainted them 7 times in the studio, never happy with how they looked, too forced, too subtle, just not right, etc… Finally I came up with this version that seemed to work well for this painting and I quit while I was ahead.
- [NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/nuclear-power-plants/) - Although just one of these can supply up to 10% of the state’s electricity demand, they are costly to operate, and come with troublesome nuclear waste. After 50+ years of running these things we still have no good answers for what to safely do with the stuff for the next 100,000 years or so… A question we’ll still have to wrestle with long after the last operational facility closes in 2025.
- [OAKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/oaks/) - Maybe… maybe not in every case, but some of these HAVE to be oaks. I can’t be wrong about all of them…
- [OFF THE ROCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/off-the-rocks/) - Waves that well up and break right beside prominent rock outcroppings.
- [OFFICIAL ARTWORK OF THE REDGATE RANCH MUSIC FESTIVAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/official-artwork-of-the-redgate-ranch-music-festival/) - These images were used for the official posters for the Redgate Ranch Music Festival- an amazing day and night of music on a working cattle ranch tucked away in the hidden hills of California’s past.
- [OFFICIAL ARTWORK OF THE REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/official-artwork-of-the-redwood-coast-music-festival/) - These paintings were used for the official posters for the Redwood Coast Music Festival- Humboldt County’s longest running music festival.
- [OIL SPILLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/oil-spills/) - Okay, really just three paintings of one event, although the experts on the news said the tarballs that began washing up en masse several days after the large spill up the coast were unrelated. Viva petroleum!
- [ON THE ROCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/on-the-rocks/) - Waves that are either rideable, or just potentially rideable, that break closely into various piles of rockiness.
- [OR MAYBE A DINOSAUR?](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/or-maybe-a-dinosaur/) - Bird or dinosaur? Hard to say… but I hear they are related anyhow.
- [ORIGINAL ARTWORK THAT HAS LITERALLY RIDDEN WAVES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/original-artwork-that-has-literally-ridden-waves/) - How many paintings out there have been created as a general homage to the beauty of California’s coast and then have been literally been paddled out and surfed by the artist, and at one of California’s most revered surf spots? This one has. True story.
- [OUT OF DARKNESS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/out-of-darkness/) - And into the Light
- [OVERCAST](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/overcast/) - Days of grays.
- [PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/pacific-coast-highway/) - The longest hallway in my studio.
- [PAINTED FROM A TINY BOAT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-from-a-tiny-boat/) - I have wondered about painting from the moon, or anywhere in space, and whenever I seriously consider the idea, I recall this excursion on a buddy’s tiny little fishing boat, moored off this little pier, attempting to paint while they fished and crawled around cracking beers and jokes and bobbed up and down and around on a gentle rolling ocean. It was like trying to paint while exceedingly drunk, but without the confusion. Just like the drunk can’t touch his nose, I could not place a single stroke where I tried and it became a law-of-averages that prevailed and brought the painting through. I can’t even imagine what space would be like, but after this I reckon it might be pretty rough. I’m game though. If you’ve got a little fishing rocket and want to take an artist along while you cast your lines for spacefish- I’m your guy.
- [PAINTED FROM LIFEGUARD TOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-from-lifeguard-towers/)
- [PAINTED LIVE AT THE REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-live-at-the-redwood-coast-music-festival/) - Each of these paintings was created live, from scratch, while various musicians played, at the Redwood Coast Music Festival in Eureka, CA.
- [PAINTED LIVE ON THE RADIO](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-live-on-the-radio/) - Well, I’m not sure how well it went over, but for what it’s worth, these paintings were painted live on the air on KHUM radio in Humboldt. There were even microphones set up to broadcast the “swish” of the brush on the canvas between songs. Awkward, yes… but awesome as well. Thanks KHUM!
- [PAINTED QUICKLY FOR FEAR OF GETTING CAUGHT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-quickly-for-fear-of-getting-caught/) - I really wasn’t supposed to be in any of these places, but I was there anyway. No offense intended, and no trace left behind. Just painting the world around me and moving on… thank you.
- [PAINTED RIGHT AFTER GETTING SEVEN STITCHES ON MY FACE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-right-after-getting-seven-stitches-on-my-face/) - All hopped up on vicodin and on stage with the Motherlode at the Arcata Playhouse with my face still throbbing from a seven-stitch gash under my right eye from a recent surf accident, I felt like a pirate that would not stop for anything and in hindsight I suppose this was indeed a self-portrait.
- [PAINTED UNUSUALLY FAST](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-unusually-fast/) - For various reasons these paintings were painted unusually fast (for me). Often I had others waiting on me, or the weather forced my hand, or any number of other circumstances pressed the issue. Whatever they were, there was no time to mess around.
- [PAINTED WHILE BEING AWKWARDLY FILMED AND/OR INTERVIEWED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-while-being-awkwardly-filmed-and-or-interviewed/) - Once in awhile someone wants to catch up with me while I’m painting out in the field. I get a bit nervous about these interviews. The painting keeps my attention so I lose the ability to filter my thoughts when answering questions and find myself just blabbing like a patient on a leather couch. Someone out there has the goods on me now. There goes my career in politics, over before it began. But at least I got a few paintings out of it…
- [PAINTED WITH BORROWED PAINT AND PALETTE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-with-borrowed-paint-and-palette/) - Big thanks to my art buddy Wade Koniakowsky.
- [PAINTED WITH MY FEET IN WET SAND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/painted-with-my-feet-in-wet-sand/) - It’s the simple pleasures…
- [PAINTINGS OF MURALS THAT CHRIS DEL MORO ORIGINALLY PAINTED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/paintings-of-murals-that-chris-del-moro-originally-painted/) - The first time I recall meeting Chris Del Moro was in my booth at a busy surfboard show where he boomed from across the crowded floor, “do you have any paintings of *** ****?”. I didn’t know who he was and I just shot back “Who wants to know?”, with all the don’t-name-spots fire I could muster. My buddy sat on the ice chest holding back laughter. I got talking to Chris and turned out he’s one of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet. He purchased a print or two and eventually commissioned a painting from me as well. When I had the opportunity to visit Italy in 2019 I knew I wanted to paint this painting of a mural he painted a few years prior. I haven’t given it to him yet, but it’s his- he just doesn’t know it, so keep it shush okay? I’ll get it to him soon.
- [PALAPAS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/palapas/) - They’ve been built and rebuilt over the years as needed, but as long as these stand, it means someone cares about the history of these places.
- [PALM TREES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/palm-trees/)
- [PARKING LOTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/parking-lots/) - Marinas for cars…
- [PARKING METERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/parking-meters/) - The worst. The absolute worst. And 25 cents gets you about 3 minutes now. I never remember this and usually end up scrounging my change for coffee on a road trip long before I get to the deep south of California where these meters are a way of coastal life and by then I’m out of luck and have to park miles from the beach and pound pavement to get a view of the coast. Unless I paint from the van right in front of an expired meter. That works too…
- [PARTS OF LARGER PAINTINGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/parts-of-larger-paintings/)
- [PATHS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/paths/) - We all take different paths through life, and yet life is a path unto itself upon which we all travel together.
- [PELICANS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/pelicans/) - I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the open road is my father, and the fog is my mother. If that is so, then certainly the pelican is my brother.
- [PEOPLE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/people/) - I’ve never made a point to perfect the figures in my work, I just approach them like another tree or rock or bush. But then I haven’t made a point to perfect anything in my work at all. It’s all just an honest reaction to the world before and no matter how accurately a human is rendered, they are still human, and that in itself is an awkward predicament for all of us, isn’t it?
- [PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/peoples-choice-award/) - Yep. This one did win the people’s choice award at a live art throw-down at a cannibis festival here in Humboldt. There was some incredible work being done at that event by a bunch of talented local artists. I didn’t think I stood a chance. To this day all I can think is that the people may have been a wee bit stoned that day.
- [PERFECT CIRCLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/perfect-circles/) - Well, not quite. Most of these were drawn by hand with a compass or a string and as such can only approach perfection but not achieve it. The only true path to perfection is through glaze and proximity to coffee.
- [PERSONAL FAVORITES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/personal-favorites/) - Now this is a hard category for me to select above the rest, but each of these paintings stood out to me as having some measure of some intangible quality which I continue to wish I could do more of and more often.
- [PETROLEUM](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/petroleum/) - Oil rigs, oil refineries, oil spills. The world still runs on burning dinosaur blood, and as long as our streets are filled with their ghostly shrieks and cries with every screech of a city bus’s brakes, these fixtures will remain a vital part of our coast and lives. Viva Petroleum!
- [PIANO KEYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/piano-keys/) - I don’t play piano, but I did buy one with six-figure price tag a few years ago- although to be fair, it did come with an entire house as well. And my daughter fell in love with music because of it, and now my home workshop is regularly filled with her relentless outpourings on those keys. For that I will always be thankful for residential mortgage lenders and the work they do to further the love of music in the world.
- [PICNIC TABLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/picnic-tables/) - Are you really looking for paintings of “picnic tables”? I’m not gonna judge or anything. Here’s a few paintings that happen to have picnic tables in them. Enjoy.
- [PIERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/piers/) - If I ever find myself in a state between life and death, I will head for the nearest pier and see if it just keeps going. I bet it will then. They only stop out over the water because we are still alive and here now, and our time to go over the horizon has not yet come.
- [PIRATE'S BOOTY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/pirates-booty/) - Legend says Drake buried $25,000,000 in stolen Spanish gold here back in 1579. Professor, what’s another word for ‘treasure’?
- [PLACES NOBODY MIGHT HAVE EVER STOOD AND PAINTED BEFORE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/places-nobody-might-have-ever-stood-and-painted-before/) - I can’t say for sure, but too my knowledge it seems plausible that these were the first paintings ever created by any artist from these specific vantage points due to their overall obscurity, or difficulty of access. Ok, let’s clarify, I’m talking about oil or acrylic paintings on canvas 12″ x 12″ or larger. I know you quick sketch/small watercolor folks really get around. If you have painted from one of these vistas, let me know! I’d be stoked to see what you came away with and remove my claim here. It’s all in good fun. Not trying to start any turf wars here.
- [PLACES THAT AREN'T REAL PLACES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/places-that-arent-real-places/) - Any similarities with real places are purely coincedental, I made these up. My first art teacher used to say “all art is a lie”. I don’t know what he thought he meant by that, but it’s rattled around my head ever since and comes out at times like these.
- [PLACES THAT WERE BOMBED IN WW2](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/places-that-were-bombed-in-ww2/) - Yup. It’s true.
- [PLATE TECTONICS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/plate-tectonics/)
- [PLEIN AIR PAINTERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/plein-air-painters/) - Friends and heroes alike. These are my people.
- [PLUGGED UP VOLCANOES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/plugged-up-volcanoes/) - Or so I’ve been told.
- [POCKET BEACHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/pocket-beaches/) - Little pockets of sand book-ended by rocks and/or cliffs.
- [POINT BREAKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/point-breaks/) - Yes, please.
- [POPPIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/poppies/) - California’s red carpet, and the only one worth walking. Just tread lightly.
- [POST AND CHAIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/post-and-chain/) - Well… it’s a thing.
- [POWER PLANTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/power-plants/) - The kind that keep the lights on, not the algae-swamp superfoods… sorry hippies, I didn’t mean to lead you on.
- [PRIMARY COLOR ELEMENTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/primary-color-elements/) - 3 chords and the truth. That’s all you need in music, and the same goes for art. I only use 3 colors + white (not a color) on every painting I paint. Along with the truth, it’s all you need. Whenever I need to include a handful of human-made elements in a painting (cars, surfboards, kayaks, boats, etc) I often make them red, yellow, blue and white in honor of the primary colors from which all others are mixed.
- [PROPOSED TOLL ROAD PROJECTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/proposed-toll-road-projects/) - If there’s others I’ve painted I’m not aware of them, but good grief this peaceful watershed has been saved from becoming a toll road so often it’s almost become an annual event. I have a feeling the tollsters will eventually get their way by sheer determination, but I’m proud of the fight that they’ve had to face.
- [PUBLISHED IN 'BLUE' MAGAZINE (GERMANY)](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-blue-magazine-germany/) - It’s true, Germany has a surf magazine. A big fat one, that they publish once a year. It was one of the bigger honors I’ve known to be called out of the ‘blue’ by their editors seeking an artist profile. Germany! That’s a whole entire country I have never been to and yet they knew about me out there. Far out. Danke, Deutschland!
- [PUBLISHED IN 'EXPLORE' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-explore-magazine/)
- [PUBLISHED IN 'LONGBOARD' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-longboard-magazine/) - All the surfing artists I know miss longboard magazine. Most of us never really read it, but they had an entire issue devoted to art once a year and it was bananas! I can’t believe they ran with it, when most of the surf media is afraid of publishing the wrong sort of art that might not be cool enough to impress hip New Yorkers. But then again, Longboard went belly up after a fairly short run, so it might have been all of us artists dragging it down with our surfy cartoons after all. Who knows. But anyway, thanks Longboard! And sorry ’bout that.
- [PUBLISHED IN 'NMP' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-nmp-magazine/) - I don’t know if NMP magazine ever had more than a handful of issues, but a friend of mine knew the guys and they ran some work once. Need More Pot? New Millenium Press? Not My Potato? I could never figure out the acronym. That middle one sounds right, but I’m pretty sure I made it up in my own head…
- [PUBLISHED IN 'SURF STORY: VOLUME ONE'](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-surf-story-volume-one/) - This was an incredible book and idea from artist/surfer Robb Havassy. He wrangled up over 80 surfing artists and had each submit some art along with a “surf story” of their own. It was over 300 pages, huge, and weighed more than most of my children when they were born. I’m still reading it 10 years later.
- [PUBLISHED IN 'SURF STORY' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-surf-story-magazine/) - An honor to be featured in Humboldt County’s fledgling one-issue wonder Surf Story magazine. Wish we could have seen more of them!
- [PUBLISHED IN 'SURFER' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-surfer-magazine/)
- [PUBLISHED IN 'SURFING' MAGAZINE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-surfing-magazine/)
- [PUBLISHED IN 'THE SURFER'S JOURNAL'](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-in-the-surfers-journal/) - This is the holy grail of distinguished surf periodicals. An honor to be a TSJ alumni.
- [PUBLISHED WORK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/published-work/) - The following images have been published in various print periodicals and books (not my own). Always stoked and honored to see that happen.
- [PULP MILLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/pulp-mills/) - Pulp truth, as opposed to fiction.
- [RADAR TOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/radar-towers/) - Only one, but in two different paintings
- [RAILROAD TRACKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/railroad-tracks/) - A fixture on much of California’s coast, especially below Point Conception.
- [RAIN AND SHOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rain-and-showers/) - I guess you could say these are all paintings of outdoor showers.
- [RAINBOWS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rainbows/) - Even Johnny Cash said he’d love to wear a rainbow every day.
- [READ KEROUAC](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/read-kerouac/) - I hadn’t read much Kerouac when I came across the graffiti on the wall beside Chris Del Moro’s mural in Marina De Pisa, Italy. 6 months later I’d be staying in a small cabin overlooking the Big Sur coast, hosted by a fire chief and his mystical wife who agreed that she knew more about me than I knew about myself, and that is where I found Jack Kerouac’s novel ‘Big Sur’, much of which is set in the valley beneath this iconic bridge and within days I’d be sharing cigarettes and drinking bourbon with strangers on the side of the road in an odd twist of Keroacian fate and after reading a bit more from this hitch-hiking free spirit I’ve come to the conclusion that he was indeed a verbal genius, but it may be best to keep your moral compass locked away in his presence lest it be magnetized to his spiral and you find yourself starving in the bed of a truck headed the wrong way with nothing but a book of french poems for collateral to get to the Great South for one final cup of coffee with your father before he goes into hiding and you are left wondering where the woman you love is camped out at… true story.
- [REAL CASTLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/real-castles/) - Actual castles, made for war and defense. Not just some rich newspaper guy’s fancy mansion.
- [REDWOODS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/redwoods/)
- [REFLECTIONS IN WET SAND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/reflections-in-wet-sand/) - A subtle effect of light and water creating a natural mirror on the sand. My favorite is when I put these in a painting without noticing them. Just reacting to the colors and then later when it’s done, realizing what happened. That’s kinda fun.
- [RESPECT](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/respect/) - Paintings that remind me of people for whom I carry deep respect.
- [RETAINING WALLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/retaining-walls/) - The earth is a flood in constant wait, so we have dammed the earth as well.
- [RICKI BROTINI'S COSMIC TEEPEE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ricki-brotinis-cosmic-teepee/) - Ricki Brotini getting cosmic in the background and recording earth’s gravitational affect on suspended cans of paint swinging from a string beneath a driftwood teepee at the Nimbus Surf Club in Italy. I had met Ricki years prior in San Diego, CA and even though it was only brief connection back then, when his familiar face emerged from the salty sea of Italians and came into focus here at this beach party, it was like a reunion between the oldest and best of friends. My respect for his work only deepened when I saw the modern-primitive mega-spirograph he had developed. Ingegnoso, fratello mio!
- [RIGHTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rights/) - Not all rights are created equal… some are much better than others. For the regulars out there.
- [RIGHTS AND LEFTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rights-and-lefts/) - Or lefts and rights. Take your pick.
- [RIVERMOUTHS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rivermouths/) - From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- [RIVERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rivers/) - They run, but they do not grow tired.
- [RIVERS AND STREAMS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rivers-and-streams/) - I’ve heard it said if you’re not careful you might end up living in a van down by the river. I disagree, with a bit of care and luck you just might pull it off after all.
- [ROADS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/roads/) - Roads? That means road trip!
- [ROCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rocks/) - My rock collection. This isn’t even all of them either.
- [ROCKSLIDES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rockslides/)
- [ROMAN CONCRETE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/roman-concrete/) - Nothing lasts forever. But Roman concrete’s done pretty well for the last 2000+ years. Eat your heart out CalTrans.
- [ROOTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/roots/) - The roots of one’s mind run throughout the body. We are the earth in which we are planted. Our thoughts are our branches, whose leaves seek inspiration from the Light above.
- [RULES AND REGULATIONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/rules-and-regulations/) - I remember listening to punk rock records from my sister’s collection when I was in my early teens. One song line has stuck with me for some reason (but I can’t recall who sang it): I know one thing, that’s for sureLife can’t be without structureOh, and these are paintings with visible signs posting various rules and regulations on them.
- [SACRED SITES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sacred-sites/) - I know nothing. Just going on occasional word of mouth and a gut feeling here and there. Isn’t the whole earth sacred anyway?
- [SAGE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sage/) - Purple sage, all in my eyes… Just kidding, it’s not all purple. In fact I’m not even sure it’s sage. Nevermind.
- [SAILBOATS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sailboats/) - Much respect to those that know how to sail, there’s a lot going on out there. I’m just blown away by the knots alone. I wear slip-ons because I can’t take the time to tie my shoes. When I hang out with boat people who know what they’re doing I can’t help but feel like a plastic-man toy version of a human being hanging out with real people at last.
- [SALVADOR DALI](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/salvador-dali/) - When I was researching this site for this painting, I came across a photo in the Getty Museum’s archives of Salvador Dali sitting on a boulder on this point back in 1963, with his wife, sketching this gnarled old Cypress. The tree blew down shortly afterwards in a storm and the grounds have since been trampled by thousands of visitors (of which I am one) so the grass is gone and just dirt and boulders remain. After careful comparisons of the old photos, I was able to determine exactly which boulder he sat on in that photo and I hopped a little fence and crawled up and sat on it myself (and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner) with the awe and care of a pilgrim at a holy site. If you blow up this image you can just barely make out the figure of Dali and his wife beside the dying tree.
- [SALVATION](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/salvation/)
- [SAME BOAT DIFFERENT TIME](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/same-boat-different-time/) - Two paintings of the same boat, about 2 years apart.
- [SAND DUNES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sand-dunes/)
- [SANDBARS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sandbars/)
- [SANDY BEACHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sandy-beaches/)
- [SAXOPHONES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/saxophones/) - Complicated little windpipes, aren’t they?
- [SCALLOPED BEACHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/scalloped-beaches/)
- [SEA ARCHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sea-arches/)
- [SEA STACKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sea-stacks/)
- [SEALS THAT AREN'T DEAD BUT ONLY JUST SLEEPING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/seals-that-arent-dead-but-only-just-sleeping/) - I thought he might be dead. He was laying motionless on this beach covered in big tar balls. My eyes burned. About 30 minutes after I set up and started painting, trucks rolled up with sirens, and this little guy was taken away. As soon as they went to get him, he started moving. I was glad to see he wasn’t dead. But either way it was disturbing as he may have poisoned or ill and being taken away to hopefully recover… or he was just having a good deep sleep and got arrested for it. Behind me just down the beach a model showed up with a camera crew and began posing for photos in various states of nipply outfits trying her best to pretend they weren’t so nipply, and I just couldn’t wrap my head around the tragedy of the absurd that was taking place beneath the watching eye of our collective thirst for petrochemicals.
- [SEEDS AND SPROUTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/seeds-and-sprouts/) - Everything starts as a single idea. The idea takes life when the conditions are right for it. It’s just life, and life only.
- [SHADOWS OF CLOUDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shadows-of-clouds/) - Mountains are old and refined. Mature. One of their defining features is their immovability. Clouds, on the other hand, are much younger. Toddlers even. They scream and cry and never, ever, ever hold still. You have to catch them when they are tired and tell them a very good story if you want them to slow down enough to paint their shadows before they run off again.
- [SHARK STORY!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shark-story/) - Not much of a story, but it’s the only I’ve got… Just before painting this one I thought I’d paddle out in the midday doldrums for a few waves and as soon as I reached the outside lineup and sat up on my board I saw an odd looking dolphin just about 15 yards away. It wasn’t really moving, just sort basking in the sun. I kept looking at it’s dorsal fin and thinking “wow, that’s a really triangular fin…” It finally dawned on me this might not be a dolphin. I never saw the second point of the tail, but when it’s snout emerged, it was all points and angles, like a stealth fighter jet, no rounded bottle-nose, not like flipper at all. Chills.Ok. I think I’ll paddle in now, quickly, but not too quickly. Just nice and steady. The waves aren’t that good anyway. On my way in I notice a group of high school kids about 50 yards down the beach surfing the inside reforms. They’d paddled out the same time I did. I figured I wouldn’t live with myself if I paddled in and didn’t tell them and then something happened to them, so I made my way up the beach to let them know what I saw. They said it wasn’t a shark, they see dolphins all the time here. I told them I had surfed all over California my whole life and never seen a dolphin like that and quickly caught a wave to the beach. I had fulfilled my duty. When I got back up to the top of the bluff, I looked back out and those kids had gone in too. Kinda funny having surfed over 20 years in the notoriously sharky water of northen california, where more friends than I can count on one hand have been bitten by sharks up there, and I’d never seen one myself- then here in San Diego of all places I come face to snout with one. A swimmer had been fatally attacked just a week earlier up near the county line, so there was also that. They’re out there…
- [SHARK TEETH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shark-teeth/) - The mind of a predator wears a halo of shark teeth and fishing hooks.
- [SHIFTY CAMPGROUND HOSTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shifty-campground-hosts/) - Campground hosts that try to tell you there’s no day use area when you know that there is.
- [SHIPWRECKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shipwrecks/) - No vessel can stay at sea forever. There is no honor in being pulled from the sea and landlocked, neither in sinking unnoticed in the depths. But the noble shipwreck, half at sea, yet sailing never again, a reminder of a life well spent for all who gaze upon it. Every curious onlooker’s stare, every child’s exploration, each a glorious flower on the tombstone of the life once lived and even still not forgotten.
- [SHOREPOUND AND WOMP](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/shorepound-and-womp/) - Some waves expend their lives out on the reefs and sandbars, others gather themselves and come crashing full-steam right on the beach.
- [SINE WAVES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sine-waves/) - Theoretically speaking, the sine wave might be the purest expression of a wave, a simple oscillation between two points over time. Wave phenomena expressed in the natural world rarely follow such simple formulae, but nevertheless hold to it’s basic patterns. Light waves, sound waves, the lengthening of days and shortening of days as the earth spins on it’s axis, there’s no end to examples of the wave phenomena in nature.But hold up, this is nuts… think about this one… I’m about to make a big claim here… and it’s this:There is only ONE wave phenomena in nature that exists at a scale that allows our human bodies to interact with, play with, be driven along and tumbled by, to be nearly killed, to makes us grin like children, to ride it’s single solitary wavelengths one at a time. Waves in water.I challenge you to think of another. I’m stumped. All others we experience either passively (they can’t move us along with them) or collectively (like sound where we perceive its vibrations but our bodies are not moved by individual waves within those vibrations). Drop me a line if you think of one!
- [SINGING BADLY WHILE PAINTING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/singing-badly-while-painting/) - There’s a time and a place for everything. Like singing badly while painting. It usually happens when there’s a lot of people around and I need to create a more personal space. I guess it’s natural defense of sorts. But not when people I know are around. That would be incredibly awkward.
- [SINGLE-FINS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/single-fins/) - One God, one country, one fin.
- [SKATE SPOTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/skate-spots/)
- [SKELETONS OF WHALES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/skeletons-of-whales/) - Just because you can barely see the whale skeleton in this painting, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
- [SKIP FRYE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/skip-frye/) - This tribute to Skip Frye was painted from start to finish in the presence of Skip himself as he was honored at the 2017 San Diego Surf Film Festival. I think it’s pretty cool to know the only painting I’ve painted of him was done with him literally in the same room. It’s based loosely on a classic Ron Stoner photograph.
- [SKULLS AND BONES AND SKELETONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/skulls-and-bones-and-skeletons/) - The inner workings of things.
- [SMOKE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/smoke/) - Where there is smoke…
- [SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/smoke-from-wildfires/) - Hazy days from nearby wildfires…
- [SNAKES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/snakes/) - One serpent whose head is being crushed in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, and two paintings whose titles reference the crowds of “snakes” who frequent their waters.
- [SNEAKY RAIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sneaky-rain/) - I know it may not look like it, but it did actually rain for awhile in the middle of painting these paintings. Not bad enough to call things off, but enough to notice and maybe seek cover or have to fix some drips and runs after the cloud passed on an otherwise pretty nice day.
- [SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/snow-capped-mountains/)
- [SOLD OFF THE EASEL TO A PASSERBY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sold-off-the-easel-to-a-passerby/) - Some paintings never make it to the gallery wall. Occasionally they don’t even get photographed. Here’s a few I managed to snap before they were sent on their way.
- [SOUND HOLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sound-holes/)
- [SPARKLING WATER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sparkling-water/) - The shimmer and sparkle on the water’s surface on a nice clear day (or night). Nothing wrong with that.
- [spearfishing](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/spearfishing/)
- [SPINDRIFTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/spindrifts/)
- [STAND-UP BASS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stand-up-bass/)
- [STANDING IN A CONVECTION OVEN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/standing-in-a-convection-oven/) - Ok, it wasn’t a convection oven exactly, but the dark picnic table I stood on for this view was definitely absorbing the suns heat and convection sent it all right back up my way. I thought I might pass out.
- [STANDING UNDER THE STAIRS WAS A GOOD IDEA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/standing-under-the-stairs-was-a-good-idea/) - Summer heat wave, humid air, my northern acclimated body doesn’t do well in these conditions, so I hunkered under a stairway for some much needed shade. It was almost wonderful.
- [STANDING UNDER THE STAIRS WAS A NOT-SO-GOOD IDEA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/standing-under-the-stairs-was-a-not-so-good-idea/) - It sounded good for a bit of shade but every time someone came or went up the staircase, showers of sand would rain down on me, my palette, the painting, my drink, everything. Sheesh. Lesson learned.
- [STARS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stars/)
- [STEEP CLIFF FACES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/steep-cliff-faces/) - My happy places. Unless it’s windy- the venturi effect is no joke and it will send your canvas flying if you let it.
- [STEPS AND STAIRWAYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/steps-and-stairways/) - We’ve gotta get down there somehow. These are so much better than scrambling, sliding, and/or falling. Nicer to go back up too.
- [STINK-EYE FROM RICH FOLK'S KIDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stink-eye-from-rich-folks-kids/) - It’s just a pattern and a fact of life, the kids in some wealthy communities (and if they live at the beach in certain areas, well…) tend to have a certain… sense of entitlement. If you look like you even might be a surfer, or checking the surf, or might go for a surf after you’re done painting, they’ll be sure to let you know they’d rather you not. It’s just how it is. No harm, no foul.
- [STONEWORK](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stonework/)
- [STORM CLOUDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/storm-clouds/)
- [STREETS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/streets/) - I was always told as a kid that I was book-smart, as opposed to street-smart. I think that was pretty accurate. Sometimes I just have no clue what is going on out there. Pretty ironic that I make my living by painting up and down the coast and spend so much time on the road up and down the coast. I know my zones, though. It’s like I’m home the whole time.
- [STRINGED INSTRUMENTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stringed-instruments/)
- [SUBMERGED ROCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/submerged-rocks/) - Watch out for rocks. Easier to do when the water is clean and clear like this…
- [SUBMERGED ROMAN CONCRETE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/submerged-roman-concrete/) - What lies beneath the surface… can cut you right up if you’re not careful and next thing you know you’ll be on the beach getting bandaged by a Russian spy in Italy and following her on a moped across town to learn the ways of a thing called “apertivo” and “limoncello” and “grappa”. I mean, what I meant to say is that those square blocks in the water are the submerged bases of some long-gone Roman structure and if you happen to brush against them while swimming here, they will cut you right up. Then, yeah, all that other stuff too…
- [SUCCULENTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/succulents/)
- [SUN GLARE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sun-glare/)
- [SUN RAYS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sun-rays/)
- [SUNRISE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sunrise/) - I’m no early-bird. Where’s the coffee?
- [SUNSETS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/sunsets/)
- [SURFBOARDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/surfboards/)
- [SUSPECT WATER QUALITY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/suspect-water-quality/) - I’m sure there’s a lot more that should be on this list, but for whatever reason, on these days at these places things seemed just a touch… suspect.
- [SWIMMING HOLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/swimming-holes/)
- [THE '76 VW THAT I GREW UP IN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-76-vw-that-i-grew-up-in/) - I was born in ’75 so I was only one when my folks got this van. My dad still owns it and has kept it running to this day. It’s a beauty. We drove everywhere in that thing. I’ve pushed it for jump-starts in nearly every coastal county in California. Oftentimes barefoot. My wife and I were married in Long Beach, CA and right after the wedding we borrowed this van and drove it for the next 3 months all the way to Long Beach, Vancouver Island, in Canada. It’s part of my life and part of who I am today. Good call, moms and pops!
- [THE BEST LASAGNA IN THE WORLD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-best-lasagna-in-the-world/) - No joke. just out of the frame on the right is a little restaurant, more of a lunch shop really, not much atmosphere, just some tables and chairs on a little deck jutting into the middle of the road. Plastic tables, plastic chairs. Nothing to give the feel of a high-end food experience. But. Oh. My. When they served this little plate of lasagna I’d never had anything like it. Thin delicate layers of pasta like I’ve never seen. And I love lasagna anyway, but this… I didn’t know this could be done. Thank you, Italy. Thank you. Grazie, prego, and all that.
- [THE CROSS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-cross/)
- [THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-feeling-of-being-watched/)
- [THE FIRST ITALIAN SURFER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-first-italian-surfer/) - His name is Allesandro Forte, and he began surfing in Italy around 1970 after seeing a US military serviceman with a surfboard at his local beach. He came to this party at the Nimbus Surf Club (Italy’s oldest surf club) as an elder statesman in order to meet a former US military serviceman (Dwight Harrington, the first* surfer in Italy) who was stationed in Italy in 1969 and surfed alone during his tour of duty there during the Vietnam war. Somehow I was along for the ride and witnessed this historic meeting firsthand. Wild. Who’d a Thunk?
- [THE FIRST* SURFER IN ITALY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-first-surfer-in-italy/) - I know that’s a pretty big claim, that’s what the asterisk is for. But really though, find me another human being who claims to have surfed in Italy, standing, riding waves, on a board, trimming down the line and all before Dwight Harrington was stationed here in 1969? At the time most surfers wouldn’t even think to look for surf in Italy. Watch Endless Summer, they were still surprised to find waves in Tahiti. We know there were other military servicemen who were surfers that were stationed in Italy throughout the Vietnam war, and possibly even earlier. But Dwight hasn’t managed to connect with any of them and none of them ever bothered to go back to Italy and introduce themselves to Alessandro Forte, widely regarded as the first Italian surfer. So with that, I’m claiming it for Dwight, just with an asterisk.
- [THE FOOD CHAIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-food-chain/) - Food is fundamental. So is wine.And coffee.And donuts.
- [THE GOLDEN MEAN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-golden-mean/) - I never understood the golden mean and how in the world it was connected to this Fibonacci spiral that we always hear about. Then one night in bed it dawned on me. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13, 21… and so on…make a 1×1 square, add a another beside it, then add another to the long side of the resulting rectangle, and on, and on, you come up with squares whose dimensions form the Fibonacci sequence. All well and good. But what’s it got to do with this “golden mean” thing? And so I did some math in my head with those Fibonacci numbers. I’ve heard it also called the Golden ratio, and a ratio is just a fraction, which is just division, so it went…1/1= 1, 1/2=0.5, 2/3+0.667, 3/5=0.6, 5/8=0.625And the pattern emerges, dividing each number in the sequence by the next seems to approach a number… maybe 0.61 something or other. I’m not trying to teach a lesson here, just explaining the thought process that went through my head that night in bed. I woke up the next morning and looked up the golden mean- it’s 0.61803398875…HA! That felt pretty good. I get it now. So these paintings were all sorta made with the Golden Mean used in determining compositional placements. In fact I loosely use this all the time. It’s unreal. Math is amazing.
- [THE IDES OF MARCH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-ides-of-march/) - Beware, the Ides of March. The day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated, the day on which my father-in-law was born, and the day on which these paintings were painted.
- [THE MAINLAND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-mainland/) - That’s no island in the distance, that’s the land we call California.
- [THE MOON](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-moon/)
- [THE OTHER PAINTER BOUGHT ME LUNCH OR AT LEAST A BEER THOUGH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-other-painter-bought-me-lunch-or-at-least-a-beer-though/) - I love hanging with other artists, occasionally even just shooting the breeze throughout an entire painting. Sometimes it’s my turn to buy, but the best days are when it isn’t. Thanks everyone!
- [THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SAME MOUNTAIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-other-side-of-the-same-mountain/) - Two views of the same mountain. Hard to believe all that drama on the one hides behind such a serene hillside on the other.
- [THE QUEEN MARY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-queen-mary/)
- [THE SPRUCE GOOSE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-spruce-goose/) - Beneath that white dome in the distance used to lie the largest wooden airplane ever built with the coolest name ever given. But it wasn’t made of spruce, it was mostly birch. The Birch Lurch. Not quite as catchy…
- [THE SUN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/the-sun/)
- [THEORETICAL PHYSICS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/theoretical-physics/) - Pluck a string. We’re all just vibrations.
- [THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A MOON OVER MARIN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/there-will-always-be-a-moon-over-marin/) - Whenever I encounter a moon over Marin, I can’t help but recall Jello Biafra’s song with the Dead Kennedys, Moon Over Marin. It has nothing to do with these paintings, except for the moon… over Marin.
- [THROUGH THE TREES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/through-the-trees/)
- [TIDEPOOLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/tidepools/)
- [TILE ROOFS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/tile-roofs/)
- [TORREY PINES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/torrey-pines/) - These rare pine trees only grow in a few places. Pretty much the ones I’ve painted here. And that’s it.
- [TRAILS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trails/) - The greatest paths, are paths that take you on foot to the greatest places, and are called trails.
- [TRAINS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trains/)
- [TRASH CANS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trash-cans/) - Use them. Or if you don’t see one, then take your trash with you.Please.
- [TREES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trees/)
- [TRIGONOMETRY](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trigonometry/) - Sine waves, and circles. Mathematically connected and derived from triangles. Math must be the skeleton of the universe.
- [TRIP TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trip-to-the-emergency-room/) - Well that was fun. 2 in the morning, emergency room. Overdoses to my left, injuries to my right. CT scans, x-rays, pokes, prods, and all manner of inquisitions. Everything but an explanation, but the nicest folks you could ask for if you had to put in a request for who to not get any answers from when you’re wondering why in the course of painting this little painting you ended up hunched over in searing pain, thinking an organ might be exploding.
- [TROPICAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/tropical/) - Not really my program. I like the cooler airs myself, but an occasional visit (or commission) never hurts.
- [TRUCKS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/trucks/)
- [UKULELE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ukulele/) - This painting looked kinda nice for a minute, and I was actually quite proud of the figurative work I did on my pals from the Sand Fleas, then the guys picked up the music another notch and I had to go nuts right along with it and next thing you know, well, reality kinda melted and the painting ended up like this. Music does that.
- [UM...](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/um/) - A handful of paintings that kinda trip me out for one reason or another. Nothing profound. Just sorta… huh.
- [UMBELLIFERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/umbellifers/) - Licorice/queen anne’s lace/hemlock looking flowers. There’s a fancy name for them all: umbellifers. Now you know.
- [UMBRELLAS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/umbrellas/) - Also known as cordless kites on the right day.
- [UNDERGROUND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/underground/) - There’s a lot going on down there.
- [UNDERWATER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/underwater/) - Hold your breath…
- [UNSAFE SUNBATHING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/unsafe-sunbathing/) - Seriously. These cliffs are dangerous. They collapse all the time.
- [USED BY PATAGONIA FOR A T-SHIRT ONCE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/used-by-patagonia-for-a-t-shirt-once/) - These images have been featured on Patagonia t-shirts.
- [VANS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/vans/) - Either you’re a van person… or you haven’t thought things through all the way yet.
- [VERBAL ALTERATIONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/verbal-alterations/) - When asked to show my work at a gallery in town, all I had were old paintings, nothing new to show at the moment, so I thought I’d breath a different sort of life into them by posting poetry beside each painting and through the course of the show, I’d drop in the gallery and “alter” the paintings with stenciling the poetry right onto the canvases. A few paintings sold to collectors who said they couldn’t bear to see me do this to the paintings. Not one verbally altered painting sold at the show. Not that it matters. I still think it was a fine idea and it’s one of the first times I presented my writing to a public audience, marking a significant moment in the trajectory of my life and work.
- [VERTICAL COLOR SHIFTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/vertical-color-shifts/) - A fun visual tool I use occasionally, particularly in an abstract way, to break up a canvas without introducing any new subject matter.
- [VIEWS FROM COLLECTORS HOUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/views-from-collectors-houses/) - It happens. Some folks just have views you can’t get any other way. Others just have nice views they’d like to remember after they move on. All good. I just like nice views.
- [VIEWS FROM HIGHER GROUND](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/views-from-higher-ground/) - One of the first things I do when looking to paint a new place, is to look around and UP. I love the higher perspective that elevation brings and will go out of my way to attain those views where possible.
- [VIEWS FROM INSIDE LIGHTHOUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/views-from-inside-lighthouses/) - Sometimes you just need a good windblock when painting out in the field, and sometimes there just happens to be an out-of-use lighthouse right beside you with an open doorway facing this view. Not often, but it does happen. Sometimes. Okay once.
- [VIEWS FROM PIERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/views-from-piers/)
- [VIEWS FROM THE WATER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/views-from-the-water/)
- [VINEYARDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/vineyards/)
- [VINYL RECORDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/vinyl-records/) - My sister was gnarly. She moved out at 16 when I was only 9 or so. All grown up, they said. I thought she was the coolest. And she was. She would pick me up and take me out for pizza in her boyfriend’s car and smoke cigarettes and play punk rock. When things took a sour turn, she came back home to my parent’s welcoming arms. She brought the gnarliest old record collection with her. I still remember her ex-boyfriend coming over and arguing about whose record was whose as they divied up the stack. He was trying to cherry-pick his favorites. She wasn’t having it. “No. I stole that one myself.” My ten year old innocent jaw dropped. After they got that sorted out, my brother and I began to explore these plastic discs. He found heavy metal. I found punk rock. All of it from before our time. And all of it sounded best loud. She really was the coolest. I love you Heather.
- [VOLLEYBALL NETS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/volleyball-nets/)
- [VW'S](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/vws/)
- [WALLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/walls/)
- [WARPS AND WARBLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/warps-and-warbles/) - Not every wave is perfect, some are served up with all sorts of warp and warble. And sometimes that’s what makes them perfect after all.
- [WATCH YOUR STEP](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/watch-your-step/) - Paintings with, shall we say… higher consequences? The best views are usually out on the edge. Tread lightly.
- [WATER TOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/water-towers/) - One is a house now. And I’d be surprised if the other holds water. But they both had their days in another time.
- [WATERFALLS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/waterfalls/)
- [WAVES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/waves/) - Really? Seems like nearly every painting I do has a wave or two in it. Not quite, but lots of them do. These aren’t all of those, these are just paintings where I thought the waves played a larger role than usual.
- [WEATHER PATTERNS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/weather-patterns/) - Put this one squarely in the list of good ideas that I never really followed up on. At all. But the idea was that before doing a live painting, I should look up the current wind patterns off the coast of wherever I was, and use that windmap as the only reference for the painting. Just follow those contours and flow with the music. In this case it was the local winds directly west of San Francisco, where I was painting on stage with Tom Curren, on top of a rug that used to belong to Jerry Garcia. This is the only time I’ve used this concept. Not sure why. Maybe I’ll pick it up again one day…
- [WEATHERED ROCK/SANDSTONE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/weathered-rock-sandstone/)
- [WETSUITS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wetsuits/) - While in Hawaii one time, I guy was looking at a piece of art that I’d done, and I still remember clearly his response, “Ah, yeah, I’m familiar wit da wet soot concept, brah”. I love the fact that there are places in the world where for a lifelong surfer, a thing called a wetsuit is only a concept. Not where I live, it’s a way of life.
- [WETSUITS DRYING OUT IN THE SUN](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wetsuits-drying-out-in-the-sun/)
- [WHALE WATCHING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/whale-watching/) - Whales were watched during the painting of these paintings. I don’t know what the whales were watching… maybe the fish, who might have been watching the seals, who might have been watching the birds, who might have been watching the painter on the shore, who was definitely watching the whales.
- [WHALES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/whales/) - In my mind whales are the keepers of knowledge, the previous generation whose knowledge wasn’t passed on to (or recieved by) the next generation. Their knowledge will remain with them forever, just beyond our reach, in the darkest depths.
- [WHERE I GREW UP SURFING](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/where-i-grew-up-surfing/) - This was ground zero for my surfing life. Where it really all started. I still have dreams about days out here. One day I’ll get back down on the beach and paint it closer. But for now, here’s the view from the highway…
- [WHITE CLIFFS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/white-cliffs/) - Whatever the geology is that makes these white cliffs happen, they sure are fun to paint. When Francis Drake (who was a pirate) sailed up the California coast, he encountered some white cliffs and named the area Nova Albion, which means New England in Latin because the white cliffs reminded him of the white cliffs of Dover. So there you go.
- [WHITECAPS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/whitecaps/)
- [WILDFIRES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wildfires/) - Real and imagined…
- [WILDFLOWERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wildflowers/)
- [WINE!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wine/) - Don’t judge my inability to render these fine folks faces, I blame it on the wine. Although whether it was too much, or not enough, I cannot say for sure.
- [WINGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/wings/) - Tools for taking flight and laying hold of the heavens, for the heavens cannot be grasped with hands, but rather it is the heavens that lift us higher when we dare to spread our wings.
- [WON A FREE WETSUIT WITH THIS ONE](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/won-a-free-wetsuit-with-this-one/) - I did. I came across a “reader contest” in Surfing Magazine some years ago with a challenge to illustrate the worst wipeout we could imagine. At first I dismissed it, thinking surely some kid would create some bloody dry reef impaling, like a heavy metal album cover with severed goat’s heads all over the beach. How would I compete with that? Then a few days later this idea came to me, to use a long canvas to accentuate a deep hold down. Simple concept, kinda classy. It won, and they hooked me up. (I’m guessing nobody sent in the illustration I described above, or I still think it would have won.)
- [WORDS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/words/)
- [WORKING CATTLE RANCHES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/working-cattle-ranches/)
- [YEP-THIS WAS A HUGE MURAL](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/yep-this-was-a-huge-mural/) - This original mural was ten feet tall and 36 feet wide, painted on 13 sheets of plywood, in my basement. I only had room to put two pieces side-by-side at a time so I never saw the whole painting all at once until the day we installed it. That was pretty cool. Then the surf shop went out of business and sold it off the wall for more than double what they paid me for it in the first place.
- [YIKES! NUDE BEACH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/yikes-nude-beach/)
- [YOWZA!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/yowza/) - Paintings that contain a hint, or just a bit of my own personal homage to the late, and great, Rick Griffin.
- [YUCCA](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/yucca/)
- [stairs](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/stairs/)
- [SWINGS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/swings/)
- [FOOTPRINTS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/footprints/)
- [PIERS (WHAT'S LEFT OF THEM ANYWAY)](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/piers-whats-left-of-them-anyway/)
- [PLACES PEOPLE GET MARRIED](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/places-people-get-married/)
- [EXCAVATORS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/excavators/)
- [AIRPLANES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/airplanes/)
- [STARFISH](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/starfish/)
- [CLEAR WATER](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/clear-water/)
- [SEALS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/seals/)
- [IGUANAS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/iguanas/)
- [TURTLES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/turtles/)
- [LIGHT BEAMS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/light-beams/)
- [FEATHERS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/feathers/)
- [PENGUINS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/penguins/)
- [GALAPAGOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/galapagos/)
- [BAMBOO](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/bamboo/)
- [HAIR!](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/hair/)
- [GREENHOUSES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/greenhouses/)
- [CRAYONS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/crayons/)
- [ANEMONES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/anemones/)
- [NCOD](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ncod/)
- [NCODs](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/ncods/)
- [COSMIC EARTH-CHILD EMBRYOS](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/cosmic-earth-child-embryos/)
- [BUTTERFLIES](https://mattbeardart.com/tag/butterflies/)

## Artworks

- [All](https://mattbeardart.com/artworks/all/)

## Portfolios

- [Artist's Favorites](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/artists-favorites/)
- [Studio Landscapes](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-1-studio-landscapes/)
- [California Coast Plein Air](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-3-california-coast-plein-air/)
- [Waves & Clear Waters](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-2-waves-clear-waters/)
- [Live Art](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-4-live-art/)
- [Visual Music](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-1-visual-music/)
- [Birds & Bones & Other Oddities](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-3-birds-bones-other-oddities/)
- [Water | Abstractions](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-5-water-abstractions/)
- [Portfolios: Elsewheres (Not California's Coast)](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/3-portfolios-elsewheres-not-californias-coast/)
- [Imaginations & Made Up Places](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/3-1-imaginations-made-up-places/)
- [Pacific Northwest](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/3-2-pacific-northwest/)
- [Southwest Desert](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/3-3-southwest-desert/)
- [Italy](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/3-4-italy/)
- [California Coast from the Air](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-2-california-coast-from-the-air/)
- [California Poppies](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-4-california-poppies/)
- [The Art of Surfing Itself](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-6-the-art-of-surfing-itself/)
- [VW Vans](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-5-vw-vans/)
- [Graffiti](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-7-graffiti/)
- [Del Norte](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-1-1-del-norte/)
- [Humboldt](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-1-2-humboldt/)
- [Mendocino](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-1-3-mendocino/)
- [Marin | Sonoma](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-1-4-marin-sonoma/)
- [San Francisco | San Mateo](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-2-1-san-francisco-san-mateo/)
- [Santa Cruz](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-2-2-santa-cruz/)
- [Monterey](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-2-3-monterey/)
- [Big Sur](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-2-4-big-sur/)
- [San Luis Obispo](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-2-5-san-luis-obispo/)
- [Santa Barbara](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-1-santa-barbara/)
- [Ventura](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-2-ventura/)
- [The Channel Islands](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-3-the-channel-islands/)
- [Los Angeles](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-4-los-angeles/)
- [Orange County](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-5-orange-county/)
- [Trestles | San Onofre](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-6-trestles-san-onofre/)
- [San Diego](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-3-7-san-diego/)
- [California's East Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/1-4-1-californias-east-coast/)
- [Portfolios: More California Themes](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/2-portfolios-more-california-themes/)
- [Portfolios: Additional Themes](https://mattbeardart.com/portfolio/4-portfolios-additional-themes/)

## Regions

- [Most Likely Mexico](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-4-most-likely-mexico/)
- [Looks like New York](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-5-looks-like-new-york/)
- [Maybe Oregon](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-6-maybe-oregon/)
- [Or it Could Be Washington](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-7-or-it-could-be-washington/)
- [Proabably Canada](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-8-proabably-canada/)
- [Wait This Has to be Alaska](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-9-wait-this-has-to-be-alaska/)
- [Italy](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-91-italy/)
- [I Made This One Up](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nr-i-made-this-one-up/) - Some of these may look like places that could or should exist, but to my knowledge they don’t. I made them all up, figments of pure imagination.
- [The California Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-the-california-coast/) - This archive may represent the broadest collection of California coastal artwork ever completed by a single artist. We know that’s a bold claim. Take a look at this California Coastal Art Map for more evidence.
- [Northern California](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-northern-california/) - From the northern side of the Golden Gate bridge to the Oregon Border. There’s more coast north of San Francisco than most folks south of Point Conception realize. It just takes a bit more effort to explore, but that’s all part of the fun.
- [Del Norte](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-1-del-norte/)
- [Humboldt](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-2-humboldt/) - I’ve called Humboldt my home since moving here in 1993. Forests, rivers, beaches, and all that. We dig it here. We’ve got a few towns just big enough to have their own blend of urban problems and a bit of opportunity for art shows, live music, etc, but when it all gets a little too weird there’s miles of empty wilderness just a short drive in nearly any direction. Welcome to Humboldt County…
- [Mendocino](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-3-mendocino/)
- [Sonoma](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-4-sonoma/)
- [Marin](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-1-5-marin/)
- [Central California](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-central-california/)
- [San Francisco](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-1-san-francisco/)
- [San Mateo](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-2-san-mateo/)
- [Santa Cruz](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-3-santa-cruz/)
- [Monterey](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-4-monterey/)
- [San Luis Obispo](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-2-5-san-luis-obispo/)
- [Southern California](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-southern-california/) - From the California/Mexico border to Point Conception.The Southern California Coast with it’s abundant sunshine and miles of beaches sheltered from the raw fury of the North Pacific by the bend in the coast at Point Conception and the offshore Channel Islands has birthed a beach lifestyle all its own. The crowds and carnival atmosphere can make it a crazy place… but I like it. And that said, even in this densely populated region there are places to be sought that will take you back to an older California-where you can spend an entire day and not see a single soul.
- [The Channel Islands](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-1-the-channel-islands/) - Although technically speaking, California’s Channel Islands fall within their nearest coastal county’s borders, they truly are islands unto their own. Each one tells its own story written in long miles, the best parts read and understood through the feet and the lungs and the heart.
- [Santa Barbara](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-2-santa-barbara/)
- [Ventura](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-3-ventura/)
- [Los Angeles](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-4-los-angeles/)
- [Orange County](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-5-orange-county/)
- [San Diego](https://mattbeardart.com/region/cc-3-6-san-diego/)
- [California's East Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/region/ec-californias-east-coast/) - There is a lake in California in the Sierra Nevada mountains located at over 6000 feet above sea level. The native Washoe people simply called it “the lake”, or “dá’aw” which evolved to the word we know today for Lake “Tahoe”. All well and good, but why is this high mountain lake included in the California Coast? Because Tahoe is bigger than the Sea of Galilee and given the right winds, it even produces rideable waves on occasion. Across the lake lies a whole other country called “Nevada”, so yes, by my calculations it is indeed a part of the coast… Welcome to the East Coast of California.
- [Not the California Coast](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-not-the-california-coast/) - Maybe California, maybe not, and maybe just figments of imagination… no matter how you look at these, they are definitely NOT the California Coast.
- [Shoot. Arizona?](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-11-shoot-arizona/)
- [Somewhere in California (Just not the Coast)](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-1-somewhere-in-california-just-not-the-coast/) - I don’t often paint away from the coast, but on occasion it has happened. These are those…
- [Hawaii!](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-2-hawaii/)
- [Central America?](https://mattbeardart.com/region/nc-3-central-america/)
- [Galapagos](https://mattbeardart.com/region/galapagos/)

## Methods

- [Live Art](https://mattbeardart.com/method/live-art/) - Painting live is a bit of an outlet for me to blow off some creative steam that builds up while painting the coast. These paintings are made to be enjoyed in their moment of creation, often painted in time with live music, dancing crowds, flowing beers, and don’t always go according to any sort of plan.
- [Other Studio Work](https://mattbeardart.com/method/other-studio-work/) - It’s not all landscapes and visions of the California Coast, in the studio I can paint whatever I want… and sometimes that is just what I do. Visions of the imagination, quick sketches from a client’s photograph, scribbled poetry on top of old paintings- anything goes…
- [Plein Air](https://mattbeardart.com/method/landscapes-en-plein-air/) - Painted on location, these are more than just paintings, they are physical artifacts forged on the edge of the earth. Analog long-exposure images made with a camera built out of human flesh and spirit. A reaction to the surroundings in their moment of creation.
- [Studio Landscapes](https://mattbeardart.com/method/landscapes-studio/) - Painted in the studio, where there is time to think about a painting and get lost in the layers watching it emerge from the canvas. There’s no chasing daylight in the studio so a painting can develop on its own pace. It’s a nice place to work, but I do find myself missing the chirping birds and the sunshine… but not the howling winds. Or the ticks.

## Subjects

- [Music](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/music/) - Paintings created about music, often created with live music.
- [Birds and Bones](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/birds-and-bones/) - Birds. Or bones. Or birds and bones.
- [Imaginations](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/imaginations/) - Paintings done more or less with no reference, just pulled out of the ‘ol head. Sometimes places I felt like making up, other times just paintings that took hard turns toward abstraction, or composites of imagery that felt right at the time. Not much rhyme or reason to these, just a glimpse into the dustier corners of my mind.
- [Surfing](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/surfing/) - Call it what you will, these are paintings of people caught in the act of surfing.
- [Abstractions](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/abstractions/) - Not always pure abstraction, but these paintings definitely veered in that direction…
- [Landscapes](https://mattbeardart.com/subject/landscapes/)

## Shapes

- [Horizontal](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/horizontal/)
- [Square](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/square/)
- [Vertical](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/vertical/)
- [Horizontal ✛](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/very-horizontal/)
- [Vertical ✛](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/very-vertical/)
- [Horizontal ✛ ✛](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/very-very-horizontal/)
- [Vertical ✛ ✛](https://mattbeardart.com/shape/very-very-vertical/)

## Available Purchase Options

- [Signature Limited Edition Canvas](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/2-signature-limited-edition-canvas/)
- [Open Edition Prints: Paper | Wood | Metal | Canvas](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/1-fine-art-prints-wood-paper-unstretched-canvas/)
- [Original Artwork](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/3-original-artwork/)
- [Large Sizes Available](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/large-sizes-available/)
- [X-Large Sizes Available](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/x-large-sizes-available/)
- [Greeting Cards](https://mattbeardart.com/available-purchase-options/4-greeting-cards/)

## Current Purchase Options

- [Large Prints Available](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/7-large-sizes-available/)
- [Medium Prints Available](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/6-medium-sizes-available/)
- [Prints Available](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/5-prints-available/)
- [X-Large Prints Available](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/8-x-large-sizes-available/)
- [Original Artwork](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/original-artwork/)
- [Other Stuff](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/9-other-stuff/)
- [Books](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/books/)
- [Trucker Hats](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/trucker-hats/)
- [Sneaky Deals!](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/sneaky-deals/)
- [Greeting Cards](https://mattbeardart.com/purchase-options/greeting-cards/)

## Road Trips

- [A Bit Farther Out (Mostly) 2018](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/a-bit-farther-out-mostly-2018/) - 11 days. 21 paintings. 8 of them on an island. 5 paintings completed in one day. 27 miles hiked. 2 nights in the van in awkward locations. 1 bird landed on my palette in the middle of the last painting. 1 cooler full of beers found right beside the to the door of my van in an otherwise empty carpark. 1 time I felt like telling a park ranger what-for, but refrained.
- [Heat Wave Tour - July 2018](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/heat-wave-tour-july-2018/) - 25 days. 25 paintings. 4 paintings completed on one day. 3 paintings completed in over 100 degree heat. 1 painting completed in temperatures below 75 degrees. 1 boat ride. 1 painting done after dark under a full moon. 1 call made by a stranger to 911 because “Janet Jackson was being held hostage in a house on PCH in Malibu.” For real. Well not that she was really held hostage, but for real that a stranger needed to borrow my phone to make that call without telling me first. Malibu is full of nuts.
- [Southern California- May 2018](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/southern-california-may-2018/) - 12 days. 13 paintings. 4 times broke state park rules. 1 time got caught. 1 time circled by military helicopter but didn’t have to hide, just smiled and waved. 1 painting cut short by rain. 1 morning with unlimited donuts on the beach. 3 days in paradise on my way home.
- [SF/San Mateo 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/sf-san-mateo-2017/) - 8 days. 1 bad head cold. 2 rainy summer days. 2 busted easels. 1 busted wetsuit zipper. 1 painting that blew off the easel and hit me in the face before nearly flying away. 1 odd conversation with the police. 1 gnarly lightning storm. 11 paintings.
- [Southern Central California 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/southern-central-california-2017/) - 8 days. 16 miles hiked. 16 paintings. 2 times police pulled up behind me and just sat and watched. 1 shipwreck. 1 barbed wire fence crawled under. 1 tiptoe around a barrier to a closed trail. 1 tick found crawling up my neck while sleeping in my van in a shopping center parking lot. 1 more tick found burrowing into my arm the next night while sleeping in a friends RV.
- [Mendocino/Sonoma 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/mendocino-sonoma-2017/) - 8 days. 8 dodgy parking situations. 4 tresspassings. 2 lengthy discussions with the authorities. 1 “VEHICLE IMMOBILIZATION AND NOTICE OF ARREST NOTICE”. Zero tick bites! 23 paintings.
- [East Coast Tour 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/east-coast-tour-2017/) - 6 days. 2 laps around the lake. 1 trip up a mountain in a gondola. At least one van wheel witnessed completely off the ground after an unexpected “bump” in the road. Zero injuries. 10 paintings. 1 sold out show.
- [Southern California 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/southern-california-2017/) - 22 days. 23 paintings. 2 paintings from a pier closed to the public. 1 painting of Skip Frye painted while he was in the room. 1 painting cut short by the police.
- [Orange County Winter 2017](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/orange-county-winter-2017/) - 7 days. 2.5 days of rain. $26.75 paid to parking meters. 10 Paintings created on one road trip.
- [Santa Cruz 2016](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/santa-cruz-2016/) - 12 days. 3 paintings involving access assistance from a State Parks employee friend. 1 painting completed on a tiny little boat. 1 Parking Ticket. 1 painting location “purchased” for two beers. 1 cold beer given to me by a friendly rasta man while painting. 1 painting from a rooftop. 18 Paintings created on one road trip.
- [Santa Barbara/Ventura 2016](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/santa-barbara-ventura-2016/) - 13 days. 3 separate wildfires. 20 paintings. 5 paintings from private ranch lands (3 with permission). 2 barbed wire fences/gates hopped.
- [Big Sur 2020](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/big-sur-2020/)
- [Mendemic 2020](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/mendemic-2020/) - 3 days. 2 cars. Family of 5. One campsite. 2 children lost (only temporarily). 7 miles hiked. 3 paintings thwarted by private property. 1 global pandemic.
- [Southern California Catalina Ventura San Diego Orange County Van Smashed Could Have Died With My Wife in Gnarly Car Wreck at Rincon Point 2020](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/southern-california-catalina-ventura-san-diego-orange-county-van-smashed-could-have-died-with-my-wife-in-gnarly-car-wreck-at-rincon-point-2020/)
- [Italy 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/italy-2019/) - 1081 miles traveled on the ground. 4 train rides. 2 missed trains. 6 waves ridden on an airmat. 12 days. 15 paintings. 1 live art collaboration with Viccenzo Ganadu (one of Italy’s most prominent “surf” artists) , 1 encounter witnessed between Dwight Harrington (the first* surfer in Italy) and Allessandro Forte (the first Italian surfer), 1 meal eaten in a buddhist monestary, 3 servings of the best lasagna I’ve ever had. Hard to say how many bottles of wine (produced by 6th generation Italian winemaker Piergiorggio Castellani) to wash it all down.
- [SLO 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/slo-2019/) - 5 days. 13 Paintings. 16 miles hiked. 2 miles paddled with art supplies and a wet painting on my back. 1 barbed wire fence crawled under. 1 mountain, painted twice… by accident
- [California 2015](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/california-2015/) - 23 days. 1499.6 miles. 33 paintings. 15 coastal counties (all of them) represented. 18 nights in the van. 1 trip to the hospital at the end of it all.
- [The Jewell 2014](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/the-jewell-2014/) - 5 days. 9 paintings. 1 from a pier that’s closed to the public. 1 sold out show in a parking lot on a Friday night at the beach with good friends.
- [San Diego 2016](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/san-diego-2016/) - 12 days. 14 paintings. 1 conversation with a man who I still think might have been the ghost of Dr. Seuss. 1 painting from a roof top. 1 german shephard off his leash that wanted to chew on my paint rag but knowing it was full of wet paint I wasn’t going to let him which made him think I was just playing and next thing I knew he was jumping up to my chest with his tongue flapping in the breeze and that smile that only a happy dog can give but I was getting pushed around by his weight on the edge of a steep cliff while the owner just stood there doing nothing. Sheesh. 1 Sold out show.
- [Marin 2016](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/marin-2016/) - 5 days. 8 paintings. 3 fairly long hikes. 4 awkward nights in the van. 1 terrible game of pool in a small bar while just trying to enjoy a beer while my phone charged up but wasn’t able to on account of the local fellow challenging me to the pool game while open mic night dragged along until a couple of migrant farm workers took to the stage and showed the gringos how its done belting out tunes in spanish that we all understood with our hearts and not our minds that told us that this time right here and right now was our time.
- [The Island of Bearded People - 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/the-island-of-bearded-people-2019/) - 2 days on an island. 10.2 miles on foot. 33 miles in the back of a truck. 59 miles by boat. 5 paintings completed. 1 painting that I kinda wasn’t allowed to paint but did anyway. 1 awesome team of 18 folks from the California Coastal Commission that graciously allowed me to tag along on their weekend trip. 1 of the best guides anyone could ever ask for who’s lived on the island for over 50 years to show us around. 1 old map made in the 1600’s called this the Island of Bearded People. 1 artist with a beard just smiled.
- [Maycember 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/maycember-2019/) - 30 days away from home. Stayed at 11 different homes. Slept in the van 4 times. Painted 32 paintings (3 of them got away). 3,277.7 miles by car. 4.7 miles on a bike. 27.2 miles on foot. 5 slow mornings drinking extra cups of coffee waiting for the rain to stop. 11 paintings completed under the threat of rain. 4 times I held my ground painting about 5 feet from a passing Amtrak train. 1 time I got a good talking-to for standing so close to the tracks. 6 views painted from private property (all with permission). 7 paintings completed from the roof of my van. 1 late night collaborative painting of a friend’s cat (not shown).
- [March 2019](https://mattbeardart.com/road-trips/march-2019/) - 12 days. 17 paintings. 49 miles hiked. 110 miles in a boat. 5 nights on an island. 2 creek crossings that required carrying borrowed waders for 2 miles on one hike. 3 passing showers I narrowly managed to dodge. 1 long downpour that soaked me to the bone all 3 miles back to the cabin. 1 tick seen. 29 miles hiked on an island without seeing a single human. 5 miles hiked among the poppies on the mainland with every other human on earth.

## Series

- [Chromatic Water Theories](https://mattbeardart.com/series/chromatic-water-theories/) - Inspired by the idea of water as the foundation of music, through the exploration of water wave phenomon as an anolog to sound waves and rhythm, visually expressed with a language limited to water, visual geometric abstraction and aesthetic elements borrowed from musical instruments. But let’s not overthink it. Music+water=good vibes all the way around.
- [From Scratch](https://mattbeardart.com/series/from-scratch/) - This series emerged from the marks left behind on a Friday night by friends and strangers alike at the Misfit Gallery in La Jolla, CA where each visitor was handed a paint brush and encouraged to flow around the room on foot, skateboard, etc and leave their marks on these blank canvases hung around the gallery. During one frantic week those rough starts transformed into these finished paintings on site in the gallery, while the public was welcome to walk in and watch, heckle, buy burritos, or drink our beer in whichever order they chose.
- [Insinuation](https://mattbeardart.com/series/insinuation/) - This series was inspired by writing, particularly the principle that it can be more powerful to convey an idea without saying it directly. I’ve painted lots of waves. They never get old for me, but I wanted to explore the idea of suggesting the presence of waves by the subtle contour shifts and cast-shadows in the water that precedes the wave itself. In other words, to convey the idea of a wave, or just INSINUATE it, without saying it directly.
- [Passing Through](https://mattbeardart.com/series/passing-through/) - These series of abstractions was born while painting live unplanned paintings during music shows. In these high-energy environments I often just like to move and flow with the music and these paintings lend themselves to movement. The connection to music is strengthened further when one associates the vertical color shifts with a human’s upright stance. The music is like water that flows through our beings from one to another unhindered in real time. It’s a beautiful thing. I miss live music. Can’t wait to get back to these if and when we’re all allowed to live again.
- [Surface Tension](https://mattbeardart.com/series/surface-tension/) - Inspired by the movement of energy in a wave as seen above the water, and as it’s felt below the water. We all live in the tension between the seen and the unseen.
- [Time Zones](https://mattbeardart.com/series/time-zones/) - These pieces were born from an idea to spend an entire day in the field on one painting, dividing up the canvas and working on each section for a period of time and then moving to another with each shift of the light and weather. I still like the idea and hope to explore this further one day…
- [Trial by Fire](https://mattbeardart.com/series/trial-by-fire/) - When the pandemic hit and the world shut down, and lives were being lost, and livelihoods destroyed, it was like watching the world burn. (And it still is.) These paintings are an effort to see something good in the flames, some hope of life- just like the forest that needs fire to thrive, these paintings are a prayer that we might each find some measure of beauty in the hardships we’re all facing.
- [Sine](https://mattbeardart.com/series/sine/) - The concept behind this series was to reduce wave phenomena to their simplest form, the mathematical sine wave, and then extrapolate back up to various explorations of wave manifestations in nature, thereby to paint waves, just not necessarily waves in water. I had ideas to go much further with the series until I realized that waves in water were the only expression of wave phenomena in nature that scaled perfectly to the human body allowing us to play with one single wavelength at a time, to ride it, to be tumbled along by it, to drown beneath it. Just one is all it takes. All other waves are experienced collectively or lack the intense localized power to move us the way waves in water do. And with that realization I just went back to painting waves in water because they are the best. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.
- [Shoebox Series](https://mattbeardart.com/series/shoebox-series/) - The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend’s shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike, asking for a few of their snapshots that capture what surfing here in Humboldt means to them. These became the inspirations for the series, which went on to be published in the Surfer’s Journal in 2008 (Volume 17, #3).
- [Depth Perception](https://mattbeardart.com/series/depth-perception/)
- [Below the Surface](https://mattbeardart.com/series/below-the-surface/)

## Artwork Timeline

- [1996](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/1996/)
- [1998](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/1998/)
- [1999](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/1999/)
- [2000](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2000/)
- [2001](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2001/)
- [2002](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2002/)
- [2003](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2003/)
- [2004](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2004/)
- [2005](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2005/)
- [2006](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2006/)
- [2007](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2007/)
- [2008](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2008/)
- [2009](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2009/)
- [2010](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2010/)
- [2011](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2011/)
- [2012](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2012/)
- [2013](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2013/)
- [2014](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2014/)
- [2015](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2015/)
- [2016](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2016/)
- [2017](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2017/)
- [2018](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2018/)
- [2019](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2019/)
- [2020](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2020/)
- [2021](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2021/)
- [Annual Archives](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/annual-archives/)
- [2022](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2022/)
- [2023](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2023/)
- [2024](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2024/)
- [2025](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2025/)
- [2026](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-timeline/2026/)

## Plein Air Art Logistics

- [Downright Frigid](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/downright-frigid/)
- [Geological Hazards](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/geological-hazards/)
- [Steep or Unstable Cliffs](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/steep-or-unstable-cliffs/)
- [Awkward Footing on Uneven Terrain](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/awkward-footing-on-uneven-terrain/)
- [Surging Waves/ Wet Boots](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/surging-waves-wet-boots/)
- [Mud and Sludge](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/mud-and-sludge/)
- [Painted in the Dark](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-in-the-dark/)
- [Stinking Tar Balls](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/stinking-tar-balls/)
- [Parking](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/parking/)
- [Paid Park Entrance Required](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/paid-park-entrance-required/)
- [Questionable or Illegal Parking Required](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/questionable-or-illegal-parking-required/) - Sometimes it’s parking awkwardly on the side of the road for a view, sometimes it’s exceeding the time limits, some times it gets so complicated with rules and regulations I just throw up my hands and roll of the dice…
- [Hungry Parking Meters](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/hungry-parking-meters/)
- [Parking Ticket!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/parking-ticket/) - Santa Cruz, I am still upset about this. I parked carefully and respectfully between your white lines, my rear bumper hanging maybe a foot over on the side toward the driveway behind me so as to not encroach on the parking spot in front of me. Whoever needed that driveway had all the room in the world, not blocked one bit. But sure, give me a ticket anyway. Sheesh.But then again, I’m shocked I haven’t gotten more tickets along the way so I guess it all balances out. I had it coming sooner or later. I reckon I’ve still come out ahead even after this ridiculous ticket. You should have seen that spot I poached in San Francisco. I’m surprised my van didn’t get towed…
- [Travel](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/travel/)
- [Had to Sleep in My Van](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/had-to-sleep-in-my-van/)
- [International Travel Hauling Art Gear Through TSA Checkpoints](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/international-travel-hauling-art-gear-through-tsa-checkpoints/)
- [Backpacking with Too Much Gear](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/backpacking-with-too-much-gear/) - It’s rewarding, but it really is a pain. I’m not a fan of small watercolor sketches so my art gear weighs at least 20lbs alone, then add camp gear, bulky bear-proof cans full of food, water filters, wetsuits, surfboards… good grief. It helps to have generous friends willing to help shoulder the load. You guys are the best.
- [Hiking](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/hiking/)
- [Hiking Terrain](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/hiking-terrain/)
- [Pounding Pavement](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/pounding-pavement/)
- [Trudging Through Soft Sand](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/trudging-through-soft-sand/)
- [Deep Creek or River Crossing](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/deep-creek-or-river-crossing/)
- [Climbing or Vertical Scrambling Using Hands](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/climbing-or-vertical-scrambling-using-hands/)
- [Off Trail Wilderness Tromping](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/off-trail-wilderness-tromping/) - But very carefully- the goal is still to leave no trace whenever possible…
- [Full-On Bushwhacking](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/full-on-bushwhacking/)
- [Miles Hiked](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/miles-hiked/)
- [Less than 1 Mile](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/less-than-1-mile/)
- [1-2 Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/1-2-miles/)
- [2-4 Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/2-4-miles/)
- [4-6 Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/4-6-miles/)
- [6-10 Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/6-10-miles/)
- [Over 10 Miles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/over-10-miles/)
- [Vehicular Logistics](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/vehicular-logistics/)
- [Painted from Inside the Van](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-from-inside-the-van/) - Whether due to the winds, or the threat of rain, or even just the few feet of elevation gained, many of these paintings wouldn’t have been possible without a strategically parked van to paint from. It always feels a bit like cheating out there. All the comforts of the indoor studio, but with a variety of views no amount of money could buy.
- [Painted from Roof Platform on Van](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-from-roof-platform-on-van/) - I didn’t find this out until after I had my painting platform installed, but Ansel Adams also had a platform mounted on top of his truck, just for the same purpose. When you’re hunting views even a few extra feet of elevation can make a huge difference. Sometimes even great minds and just mediocre minds can think alike…
- [Painted From a Boat](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-from-a-boat/)
- [Extra Vehicular Assistance Needed](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/extra-vehicular-assistance-needed/)
- [Accessed by Small Airplane](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/accessed-by-small-airplane/)
- [Boat Required for Access](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/boat-required-for-access/)
- [Ride on Truck/Quad/Off-Road Vehicle Required for Access](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/ride-on-truck-quad-off-road-vehicle-required-for-access/)
- [Drop Off Required](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/drop-off-required/) - Sometimes there’s just no good way park near a spot I’m looking to paint so a drop-off/pick-up must be arranged.
- [Accessed by Train](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/accessed-by-train/)
- [Ski Lift!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/ski-lift/)
- [Kayak/Paddleboard Required for Access](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/kayak-paddleboard-required-for-access/)
- [Access Logistics](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/access-logistics/)
- [Private Property](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/private-property/) - Some of the best views are on private land, whether it’s an 11th generation land grant ranch dating back the Spanish colonial era, or a house rooftop on a choice hill, I’m always stoked to gain a little access to a vista not generally open to the public. If you’ve own a spot with a good view, commissions are always welcome. Just putting that out there…
- [Painted With Permission](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-with-permission/)
- [Painted Without Permission](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-without-permission/)
- [Posted: No Trespassing](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/posted-no-trespassing/)
- [Sneaky Public Access Easement](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/sneaky-public-access-easement/) - Ok maybe not all that sneaky, but still some of these would be pretty easy to miss if you didn’t know about them.
- [Prohibited Area (on Public Land)](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/prohibited-area-on-public-land/)
- [Fence or Gate Hopping Required](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/fence-or-gate-hopping-required/)
- [Barbed Wire](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/barbed-wire/) - It’s always awkward and sometimes I won’t even bother, but occasionally it’s just possible to edge over it or under it or around it somehow with care.
- [Awkwardly Close to Cars or Trains](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/awkwardly-close-to-cars-or-trains/)
- [The Shoulder of a Busy Road/Highway](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/the-shoulder-of-a-busy-road-highway/)
- [Construction Zones](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/construction-zones/) - Whether it’s the road closed off, or a section of park trail, or on top of a house being built- if you can find a perch in a construction zone on a weekend or when work isn’t happening it can be a great way to access a view that otherwise might be a bit tricky or busy with traffic. Come to think of it, I might just pick up a few cones to keep in the van for future high-crowd locations…
- [Painted from a Rooftop](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-from-a-rooftop/)
- [Run ins with the Authorities](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/run-ins-with-the-authorities/)
- [Harassed by Authorities or Told to Leave](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/harassed-by-authorities-or-told-to-leave/)
- [Citation Issued for Trespassing](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/citation-issued-for-trespassing/)
- [Botanical Hazards](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/botanical-hazards/)
- [Some Poison Oak Observed](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/some-poison-oak-observed/)
- [Lots of Poison Oak!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/lots-of-poison-oak/)
- [Thorns and Brambles](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/thorns-and-brambles/)
- [Biological Hazards](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/biological-hazards/)
- [Trash and Debris](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/trash-and-debris/) - Humans leave the worst messes behind- everywhere, whether an urban street or beautiful coastal vista. Pack it out! Also, bury those turds. Seriously, it gets gross out there. Just because you’ve walked 6 feet from the road and went behind a bush doesn’t cut it, or excuse the t.p. strewn everywhere! Go deeper and bury it deeper people. Please!
- [Bears on the Beach!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/bears-on-the-beach/)
- [Frequent Mountain Lion Sightings](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/frequent-mountain-lion-sightings/)
- [Painted in Public During a Global Pandemic](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-in-public-during-a-global-pandemic/)
- [High Grass- Tick Country!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/high-grass-tick-country/)
- [Ticks Observed on Skin or Clothing](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/ticks-observed-on-skin-or-clothing/)
- [Tick Bites!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/tick-bites/)
- [Mosquitoes](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/mosquitoes/)
- [Aggressive Seagulls/Birds](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/aggressive-seagulls-birds/)
- [Unruly Dogs](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/unruly-dogs/) - But in the best possible way. Your little furbaskets are truly wonderful, and its not that they are even all that unruly (except that one, you know who you are), but still they need to be watched carefully. They get a bit curious sometimes about what’s in my paint bag (probably all the scooby snacks) and their sandy paws know no bounds when it comes to wet paint.
- [Big Fat Snake!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/big-fat-snake/)
- [Baby Rattlesnake in the Fire Pit!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/baby-rattlesnake-in-the-fire-pit/)
- [Close Encounters with Cows](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/close-encounters-with-running-cows/) - Well, it happens.
- [Food/Drink Delivered and Consumed While Painting](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/food-drink-delivered-and-consumed-while-painting/) - Ok, so it’s not a “biological hazard” in any way, but it is certainly a biological event worth noting!
- [Donuts!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/donuts/) - Undoubtedly one of the most dangerous biological hazards I have encountered while painting- the donut delivered by friends. It’s a dangerous life- these paintings were produced under the influence.
- [Dramamine and Alcohol](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/dramamine-and-alcohol/)
- [Mysterious Insect Bites/Stings](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/mysterious-insect-bites-stings/)
- [Anthropological Hazards](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/anthropological-hazards/)
- [People Drinking](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/people-drinking/) - In groups, carrying on, occasionally heckling, all in good fun for the most part. Think college kids, or occasionally groups of underage kids hiding in a ravine you’d never stumble across unless you were hunting vistas on the edge of a cliff. Or my friends and family. Sometimes it’s us. That has happened too.
- [Language Barrier](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/language-barrier/) - No parlo Italiano… No hablo Espanol…
- [Other Painters](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/other-painters/) - Watch your back, they’ll loosen your easel bolts and drink all your beer when you’re not looking.
- [Roaming Scientists](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/roaming-scientists/) - Creeping through bushes counting frogs, or just stepping outside the marine lab’s backdoor to sneak a quick cigarette, you never know when the most curious of the human species might show up and distract you with knowledge. Beware, the scientists in their natural domain.
- [Sketchy Human Interactions](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/sketchy-human-interactions/) - Nothing too sketchy, plein air painting is a generally docile sport. But some folks just come at you from crazy angles: upset you’re blocking the view, breathing their air, having a rad van that they are eyeing up a little too closely… stuff like that. Usually no big deal, but still these interactions don’t happen at all in the studio at home. At least not as often anyway.
- [Surfers Are The Worst](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/surfers-are-the-worst/) - If you know any surfers well, you know this is true. Gotta keep an eye out for them. If you engage too much, next thing you know you’ll be cracking beers in the parking lot and the terrible surf out front will start looking pretty good, and your smelly wet wetsuit will crawl out of it’s bucket with a life of its own and drag you out surfing and you’ll be hungry afterwards and need a burrito and then half the day or more has blown by and you haven’t painted one bit. The worst. I treat them all with suspicion.
- [Crowds with Lots of Questions](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/crowds-with-lots-of-questions/) - It’s not the crowds that get to me, it’s the questions. And truthfully even most of those are fine. My particular annoyance is when the focus of these conversations shifts straight to money. Not wanting to buy a painting either, but just wanting to know if I make a living from painting, and how much money do I make, and generally more interested in discussing money than the art being made right before their eyes. I get it, it’s what they relate with, but it gets old. If I get too many of these questions I usually put headphones and start singing loud and badly as a defense mechanism. Even that doesn’t always work, but it can help.
- [Gnarly Mountain Bikers](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/gnarly-mountain-bikers/) - I don’t see them too often, but occasionally find myself sharing a trail* on short notice with flying mountain bikers. It can be dicey. *And I’m talking about regular multi-use hiking trails, not those specific mountain-bike-only trails. I know well enough to stay off those.
- [Weather](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/weather/)
- [Painted in Heavy Winds](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-in-heavy-winds/) - Not the most fun, but when you’re there to paint, you’re there to paint. Waiting around for those calm days would mean not getting anything done. And on the coast it’s a particular problem. Even a light breeze off the ocean can be magnified as it rushes up a steep coastal bluff. Sometimes I’ll be painting out in the wind struggling along and then just 20 feet back from the edge it’s as calm as can be. Nature. Pfft.
- [Painted in Stupid Strong Wind that I had No Business Trying to Paint In](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-in-stupid-strong-wind-that-i-had-no-business-trying-to-paint-in/) - When painting becomes a physical battle against nature herself. One hand on the easel to keep it from blowing away even thought it’s weighted with all the gear in my pack. Leaning over the palette so it doesn’t flip up and take sail. Paint flying off the brush as it’s being mixed. The canvas bouncing like a kick drum at a punk rock show. And that’s just the act of painting, the strategic chess match of setup and breakdown must be thought through very carefully and done in the right order to prevent unweighted items from taking flight and did you know wet paintings nearly always land face down? A fact of physics. Weird but true.
- [Painted in Full Sun with no Shade](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/painted-in-full-sun-with-no-shade/) - I know this sounds pretty whiney, I mean how rough can it be painting the afternoon away on a sunny day on California’s coast? And I admit, it’s not that rough. But still, when there’s no shade and it’s bright out, the glare can be horrendous, and painting in sunglasses is just awkward, and it can be cooking hot, and there’s just a lot of reasons why it’s nicer to find a bit of shade. But I’m not complaining. Ok I am a little bit, but I know I have no right to do so in the big picture. Thanks for humoring me on this.
- [Threatening to Rain](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/threatening-to-rain/) - The vast majority of my paintings are done with acrylic. I enjoy the simplicity of water for thinning and cleaning, no fumes, no fuss. But when it threatens to rain that can be a real mess with a water-based medium. I have to keep an eye on things. And also walking 3 miles back to the car in a soaking rain isn’t all that fun either. Just another minor occupational hazard that doesn’t exist in the studio but keeps things interesting out in the field…
- [Rain!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/rain/) - It’s unavoidable at times. To one degree or another I was caught in the rain on these particular days.
- [Fog Battle](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/fog-battle/) - Maybe battle is the wrong word, it’s more of a chess match against a smart opponent. There is no way to ever truly know what move she’ll make next. Sometimes she let’s you finish the painting you started. Other times you have to change your strategy altogether just to capture the few pawns she lets you take. (These are the paintings you see here.) But some other times it’s check mate. Go back to the van and cook up some coffee. When you can’t see anything, you cant see anything. You’re done for the day.
- [Uncomfortably Warm](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/uncomfortably-warm/)
- [Cooking Hot](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/cooking-hot/)
- [Uncomfortably Cool](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/uncomfortably-cool/)
- [Temperature](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/temperature/)
- [Road Trip with 6 Artists in 1 Van](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/road-trip-with-6-artists-in-1-van/)
- [Tarantulas!](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/tarantulas/)
- [Borrowed E-Bike to Blend in with Locals](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/borrowed-e-bike-to-blend-in-with-locals/)
- [Standing in Knee-Deep Water](https://mattbeardart.com/plein-air-art-logistics/standing-in-knee-deep-water/)

## Mediums

- [Acrylic on Canvas](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-canvas/)
- [Acrylic on Birch Panel](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-birch-panel/)
- [Acrylic on Masonite Panel](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-masonite-panel/)
- [Oil on Canvas](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/oil-on-canvas/)
- [Acrylic on Hemp Burlap](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-hemp-burlap/)
- [Acrylic on 7' 2" Single-Fin](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-7-2-single-fin/)
- [Exterior Enamel on Marine Grade Plywood](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/exterior-enamel-on-marine-grade-plywood/)
- [Acrylic on Wine Barrel Top](https://mattbeardart.com/mediums/acrylic-on-wine-barrel-top/)

## Product categories

- [Uncategorized](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/uncategorized/)
- [SNEAKY DEALS!](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/all-the-sneaky-deals/)
- [Sneaky Deals by Title](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/)
- [Natural Defenses](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/natural-defenses/)
- [Mine... Or Maybe Yours](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/mine-or-maybe-yours/)
- [California Spring](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/california-spring/)
- [The Entry Way](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/the-entry-way/)
- [Blurreds of the Field](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-category/sneaky-deals-by-title/blurreds-of-the-field/)

## Product tags

- [Framed Prints](https://mattbeardart.com/artwork-tag/framed-prints/)