Hi dear readers. Here’s another “during the week” post to encourage my artist friends to “paint or draw what you see NOW”. For a long time I have done landscape paintings and endured the snobbery of “if you only paint landscapes you aren’t really a skilled artist”. Which is baloney.

At this stage of my life and the earth’s timespan, I am repeatedly glad I painted what I saw. So many of these places are changing rapidly from environmental impacts that I feel like I’m literally capturing history. Here’s an article from the New York Times that explains the decline of the amazing Pacific Coast Highway, lovingly called “PCH” in our region. Another area I painted, Solstice Canyon, has changed dramatically. With the recent fires in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena (further inland), so many of these places will no longer be accessible to humans and will often have scarred toxic buildings left behind. We were warned about coastal communities and the impacts the changing climate would have on them. However we are not good at listening to scientists who study these things. Altadena was an exception to the coast communities however it has still been altered dramatically this year.

The header image is a cropped section of a painting I did of the coast when we were driving PCH south, decades ago. I’m so grateful for the years we drove up and down PCH to visit family or just have an escape to a B&B for an anniversary. I spent a weekend of my 9th month at a hotel perched right on the edge of the cliff (Cliff House Inn) that looked out over the ocean. Thank you to my husband who planned that for his ever more cranky, very pregnant wife.

So, pick a time this summer my creatives and go paint on location. Or if you can’t – go take some really good reference photos and then sequester yourself in your art space and document our history. As time passes, you won’t regret having spent the time.