It's amazing that one can be so close to Los Angeles and yet be surround by nature. This is Pirates Cove, near Palos Verdes. While I was painting this some dolphins were swimming here. The dark part in front was some dark seaweed. Though you can't see it, the sand of the beach to the right is black. Painting from nature gives me an odd feeling: it is as if I am alone, way back in time, in some archaic or prehistoric period--just me and the force of nature. In a similar way there is something very primitive and glorious about the act of painting; it is not much different, in essence, from what the cave painters did 30,000 years ago.