She wanted to capture it. The light, the power—all of it.
It was December, and the waves at the dog beach between Morro Bay and Cayucos were wild. Atascadero artist Denise Schryver felt compelled to paint it.
“I’m inspired when I have an emotional reaction to something,” Schryver said. “The thing about the ocean is it’s always there, kind of the same, but always different. It’s challenging to try and capture that.”
Pastels in hand, Schryver did just that with her piece, Sundance Pastel, which seems to move rapidly with shades of green, blue, teal, and foamy white. Schryver, a member of the San Luis Outdoor Painters for the Environment, is currently showing her work in the Flowing Estuary to Living Sea: Paintings by SLOPE exhibit, which shows starting Feb. 1 at the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History. Artists in the show will donate a portion of art sales to two local nonprofit groups: Central Coast State Parks Association and the Morro Bay National Estuary Program.
“The estuary is so critical to a healthy ocean,” Schryver said. “I would like people to learn about that and help protect it.”
Dennis Curry, who’s a resident artist at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles, specializes in painting wildlife and landscapes in oil. His piece, Along The Coast, was inspired by a trip to Piedras Blancas and the lighting on that day and the form of the water.
“I became an artist to explore and share with people things that interest me, hoping they’ll treasure the same thing,” Curry said.
Templeton artist Tracy Paz started focusing on landscapes within the last five years. She prefers to paint plein air when she can, like when she painted the aptly named October Estuary oil painting in Morro Bay.
“I never really knew that area well, but I became fascinated by the estuary,” Paz said. “There aren’t really rules in landscape. There are conventions that make it look truthful in paint. I love the way the little rivers and rivulets come up as the tide comes in through the estuary and the patterns and light.”
Ultimately, Paz hopes that in addition to taking home a painting, viewers will also take away a new awareness of their local environment.
“We’re here to benefit this gorgeous area that we live in,” Paz said. “We’re recording something that 20 years from now may look very different.” Δ
Arts Writer Ryah Cooley is a firm believer in the curative powers of salt water. Contact her at rcooley@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 17-27, 2019.
Thank you, Ryah Cooley, for featuring San Luis Outdoor Painters for the Environment, S.L.O.P.E., in this article! New Times is so supportive of the arts in our County. We are a group of 11 painters focused on preserving the wild and rural areas of San Luis Obispo County, and invite everyone to our exhibit starting February 1st in Morro Bay. The other artists in this exhibit are: Jan French, Sandi Heller, Larry Kappen, Bernie Kurtz, Mark Mertens, Rosanne Seitz, Mimi Whitney-Hafft, and four Emeritus members, Elizabeth Tolley, Dotty Hawthorne, Bruce Everett and Karen Well. And myself – Laurel Sherrie.