Partington Cove

16×12-inch print reproduction of acrylic on corrugated cardboard, reprinted on matte archival paper, 2019.

When I lived in Big Sur, California, I used to hike to this remote spot, accessible from Highway One by walking down a dirt road and through an old tunnel that was cut through the rock generations ago. One of these mornings, I took a photo, which I attempted to paint in oils after I moved to the desert. I abandoned the painting because I didn't like how it was coming along, but my parents hung the unfinished canvas in their living room anyway after I was arrested. (Heart emoji for mom and dad!)

Years later at Perryville, someone gave me a pristine piece of corrugated cardboard to paint. I had been craving to work on a larger surface area, and I had a copy of my old photo from my hiking spot. So I began again, working on it while listening to A Game of Thrones series on audio while my roommate was at work.

This is the Partington Cove I remember in the early morning, while the mountains still shade the shore because the sun hasn't yet risen above them. This was my first—and so far only—painting of a landscape with acrylics, and I'm very pleased with it.