The Dark Watchers

Plein air landscape painting of a dark day at Sand Dollar Beach near Plaskett Creek on Monterey's Big Sur coast of California

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 could do that sometimes too, just stand and watch and observe the landscape as I paint it, and as soon as someone sees me and wants to come chat and get-all-up-in-my-business-wanting-to-know-if-I-make-a-living-doing-this-stuff-as-if-that-somehow-has-any-bearing-on their-ability-to-appreciate-what-I-am-doing-right-there-before-their-eyes, then poof, I vanish back into the earth from whence I came. That would be beautiful. When I grow up I want to be a Dark Watcher. And just maybe I will.


Artwork Information:


Artwork Title: "The Dark Watchers"
Original Size: 20" x 16"
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Year Painted: 2020

Additional Artwork Information:


Method: Plein Air
Date Painted: 02/21/2020
Region: The California Coast > Central California > Monterey
Road Trip: Big Sur 2020

Artwork Logistics:


Travel Logistics: Had to Sleep in My Van
Miles Hiked: 1-2 Miles
Hiking Terrain: Off Trail Wilderness Tromping
Geological Hazards: Steep or Unstable Cliffs
Botanical Hazards: Lots of Poison Oak!
Biological Hazards: High Grass- Tick Country!, Ticks Observed on Skin or Clothing
Anthropological Hazards: Sketchy Human Interactions
Weather Logistics: Threatening to Rain, Painted in Stupid Strong Wind that I had No Business Trying to Paint In


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