I enjoy visiting the beach at the mouth of the Santa Ana River in Southern California. During the dry season it is a flat, sandy tidal inlet thankfully left alone by the development all around it. In 2015 I stopped there, took a photo and later made the drawing below. The gulls and terns like to congregate there, and they help bring the place to life.

*Gulls and Terns, 22” by 30” graphite on rag paper, 2015*

This year I made two paintings of the same photo I took there in October, 2025. The clouds and their reflection on the wet sand fascinated me. And the the gulls and terns were there!

Warm Day, below, is also my first painting done in casein, an intense opaque milk-based paint. I like using it!

*A Warm Day at the Rivermouth, 15” by 20” casein on board 2026*

The sky in the painting below is from Lake Michigan, morphed with the same beach as above. The color of the sky dictated the color reflected on the beach, and I had to guess how it would work - a very different atmosphere.