Frozen Moments: My Journey Along California’s Coast

“While traveling from Southern California to Northern California, with camera in hand, I captured people interacting along the coastal beaches as well as stunning seascapes in the Gualala and Sea Ranch area and converted these images to oil paintings.  My goal is to capture ordinary people, in ordinary moments in majestic settings that stand in stark contrast to human interaction.  The paintings include special moments between a mother and her daughters, between a group of people out for a day at the beach and the power and might of sunsets after turbulent storms in Gualala and Sea Ranch. In addition, I propose to include abstract interpretations of our local landscape, contrasting the interaction between nature and the built environment.

For me personally, having spent many summers along the beach as a child, being one with the beach is more a rite of passage for me; it’s the location of first kisses and first crushes, of discovery and surprise and of adolescence making way for adulthood.  My paintings do not seek to glamorize any one in particular; they try to capture “frozen moments” in time that the viewer can easily relate to personally.  What my paintings mean to me is certainly different than what they mean to others: my hope is that they elicit feelings of childhood and youth in the viewer and bring a viewer back in time to their personal story about the beach, their youth and rites of passage.”  -Steven Steinberg