Pacific Grove Getaway

Friends –

A couple of weeks ago I did something new to me. That is, I rented a place to stay for two nights on the coast and went off by myself. The purpose was to relax my mind in a meditative way and to paint. My place of choice was Pacific Grove on Monterey Bay. There was no event, no convention, no grand gathering of artists or any such thing. It was just me, my paints, fresh air and the waves….

I only had one day to paint and was unwilling to push myself to do a lot, but nonetheless, I finished three.

The first was in the morning at Lover's Point on the Monterey Bay side. The advantage was accessibility to a café and restrooms, but there were also many curious tourists kept wandering over to chat. I did not mind much – especially when to Chinese families with very curious young girls wanted to take their photo with me. I let one of them paint a bit on my canvas. Possibly partly because of that, I stayed a little more than two hours and even then only came away with a value sketch on the 8x10" canvas board. It was finished later in the studio where I added a bit of foggy color.

The next spot was at a monument of rocks just offshore at the edge of the Bay. Nearby was a small plaque that designated this area as the spot where John Denver had died. Some may recall that he was killed in a solo plane crash a couple of decades ago. Fitting enough, I painted there with only a few people stopping by to talk. I was there also for almost two hours and I have left the 9x12" painting as it was when I walked off that beach.

Finally, although the fog was getting thick, sun was headed down, and the air was brisk, I went to the ocean side on Asilomar State Beach and set up my easel at a lookout. I did my best to control the shivering and painted a rock outcropping as quickly as I could – about 1 hour. Included in this painting are three of the many, many pelicans that were swarming about in the sky and resting on those rocks. See if you can find them.

So, that was my sweet little meditative vacation and I do think that I will do it again someday.

All three of these paintings are available for your donation to a worthwhile non-profit.

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