The Art of the Sea

Monet

and the Seashore of Oceanside CA

Claude Monet 

A Love like no Other

The Sea. It is what holds our existence together in an embrace of life. We owe our being to this wondrous body of sustaining compound H20. It is timeless, in motion and emotion to us watching this miracle of movement. This, draws us to it over and over. We enter it, with childish pleasure becoming one with our origins of the dawn of life's existence.

Claude Monet 

Through out the history of man, we have created images of the Sea. For me, it has always been my muse, becoming an essential element of being. When teaching so long ago, the music of La Mer by ClaudeDebussy was a way to introduce my students to the origins of our planet's evolution and the emergence of life forms. With watercolor I started painting the white page with the pale gold/blue sunrise as the music went through the changes of the Sea, the colors became the storm, the sunset, and a final burst of brilliant color...

Claude Monet

                                                              

As I walk the Seashore of my Oceanside, I think of how someday I will once again be one with the dolphins dancing in the waves of forever, and so thankful for this coming existence. 

For now, the coming of Summer here on the North Coast is one of happiness and smiles. With the Children of tomorrow, I see and seek their company. Today is blue, and clear. The waves small and singing.

This love like no other is for the Sea, Life, and Tomorrow. My Oceanside is the embodiment of all of these.

The New Small Wave...

ART OF THE HORSE

LEONARDO

AND THE SAN LUIS REY VALLEY

OCEANSIDE CA

                                        Leonardo's Horse Milan Italy

In 1992, I was new to the San Luis Rey Valley in Oceanside. One misty morning as I was driving to the Library, I happened to look up the hill and there, was a beautiful white Horse at the top looking very much like a story out of Camelot. Stopping the car I walked up the road, and stopped at a very old ranch. This was the Davy Jones Ranch and later I was to meet Mr  Jones. He told the story of the White Horse of the Valley. “He keeps the Valley” Mr Jones told me, he was never ridden, but was allowed to run free and now, the Valley is his in our memories.

My fascination with Horses began reading the Black Stallion Horse books by Walter Farley when I was nine years old. These books were my doorway into the Horse World. Drawing horses behind my book in class was a way to keep the boredom afar, and did get me into trouble. When older, my passion took me to the classical arts and I found Leonardo.

Leonardo was a giant of invention, writings, painting, and sculpture. His most ambitious sculpture concept was to create a giant bronze Horse. For twenty years he toiled on the impossible dream, and it was not to be. For the technology of the day was not able to cast a solid form as gigantic as was the plan. His Horse* was cast in America and today stands in Milan Italy. Replicates are found in the United States. 

The passion for the White Horse was a driving force for me in the following years. I spent many days sitting next to the great White Horse, Kublai Khan. He was the last of a herd of white Arabians which ran across the Valley. I sketched many images of his beautiful head, the large soft eyes glowing with the intelligence and wisdom of his age. People all over the Valley knew the White Horse and loved him as did I. He died one day after the climb up the high hill of the valley, he was thirty six years old. They buried him there with the Century Plant that still stands there today. 

Farewell to Khan

I still see him, high on his hill, remembering him through the morning mists of that day so long ago. A painting of his spirit, Farewell to Khan is in the collection of a dear friend in Oceanside.The challenging spirit of the Khan is in my private collection until I find my friend on the High Hill and stand with him in the San Luis Rey Valley in Oceanside.

The White Horse of the San Luis Rey Valley

                                                  

The White Horse was honored to be in the Ocenanside Museum of Art's 25th Celebration of existence. Twenty Five years of Art,  Exhibition for the Arts in Oceanside CA.  OMA is located in the downtown Cultureal Arts District on Pier View Way.

* For more detailed history of da Vinci's Horse you will find that his model was based upon the life image of the Friesian Horse. He named his horse which was discribed as "jet black" Cicciolino.

 COASTAL EXPOSURES: 

10 years of Photography @ the Oceanside Museum of Art

March 9 - July 28 

Oceanside, the Beautiful

I have lived in many places. The Desert, The Sequoia Redwoods and my City by the Sea. In my late years, the misty mornings, the Champaign air, and the rhythm of the tides give me contentment for my days. When I was three years old my mother brought me to the Seaside in Oceanside while my father worked in Rainbow building homes. She told me stories of how I sat in my small rocking chair and gazed out to the Ocean. I don't remember this of course, but it explains why I have this affinity for the most beautiful city on the North Coast of San Diego County. 

This wondrous place is now on exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art in downtown Oceanside. The exhibition of photography created by many talented artists curated by Zach Cordner, the co-founder and creative director for The Osider. The exhibition has images of the past 10 years of the City by the Sea. The last 10 years is one of Renaissance of a City known for the close proximity to Camp Pendleton, becoming an international tourist destination for the arts, and sporting opportunities of surfing, Triathlons, and biking. 

Come, celebrate the Summer with us. Dance down the pier, partake of the many award winning restaurants, and wander the Sunset Market with wonders of our local Artists and Artisans. I can guarantee that you too will find our Oceanside a place of happy contentment and wonder by the Sea...