Free Range Road Trip: Mendemic 2020 + Two New Humboldt Paintings
3 days. One family of 5. One campsite. 2 children lost (only temporarily). 7 miles hiked. 6 paintings completed. 2 paintings still available. 3 paintings I wanted to paint but was thwarted by barbed wire. 1 global pandemic making things awkward.
Lately I've been trying to finish up and photograph stacks of paintings in the studio from previous road trips. This batch is from a trip to Mendocino back in July. My family and I needed to get out of the house for a bit and a quick campout was just the way to do it. I'd tell you about it plainly, but then we'd all get bored. So instead I wrote the trip into a long 7-part poem because nobody ever thinks poetry is boring.
That was a joke. Three of you will laugh. Two of you might even read it.
But even if you don't read the verses, I hope you at least enjoy the paintings, two of which are still available (one was a commissioned piece and a collector who spent a lot of time in Mendocino dropped by my studio claimed the other three before I could even get them photographed). All in all, only about ten people including my family of 5 have even seen these paintings, so don't go thinking I'm slacking on my commitment to unveil these to you first. And like I said, I've got stacks in the studio I'm working on lately. Expect more emails and more new work soon! But for now, there is this...
Another Barb on the Wire
Hours to days
To months and soon years
We sit between these walls
Going nowhere
Slowly
Trapped in the microscope
The giant eye upon us
They locked us down
We loaded the van
A quick escape
Our desire
Another barb on the wire
Fair Wages
20" x 16" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: $562 | EARLY BIRD DEAL: $500 | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
Stretching the legs
The will to live
Denied by the barrel
Of loaded guns
Pay to play
All the way
To the cemetery
A reminder that in this life
We all receive
The same fair wages
Both the great and the small
The honest and the liar
Each another barb on the wire
Spoke Too Soon
12" x 12" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: SOLD | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
Screeching tires
Come to a stop
It's called camping
When your tent is a Ford
Frisbees and beer
Appear
Just before we discovered
The bookstore is in the hospital
On life support
And our youngest would not
Read another word
Until the new day dawns
We stood in the belly of the whale
And circled it seven times
As the dusk bled into the dawn
Setting out at first light
To fulfill our obligations
To the stars who spoke to us
But in our reply
We spoke too soon
And now we patiently await
The lifting of the clouds
Ever higher
And it's another barb on the wire
Making Amends
20" x 16" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: SOLD | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
The veil is lifted
The light is a flood
And I'm drowning
In a world torn asunder
Erosion on the western edge
Will rip its way to New York
In time
This is the first anniversary
Of the beginning
Of the end
It's a teacher
Like sickness
Like death
Like marriage
The lesson to be learned
It's about making amends
It's about that which cannot be sold
Because there is no buyer
It's just another barb on the wire
Burn No Bridges
16" x 12" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: $510 | EARLY BIRD DEAL: $450 | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
We venture through the thicket
To where the logs once rolled
Into the ocean
Of Babylon's market
We stood against the wind
We lost a child
And found him again
Across the bridge
And angry
Burning footprints
Into the ice
We return by a different path
Stepping lightly
Into the dark
Past the hobo camps
Where a deer steps out of the shadows
And calls another child
To vanish in the trees
Search parties and satellites
We cannot force the time
She'll return when she pleases
Because she too was there
When we stood against the wind
Altogether now
We sing in a circle
We roast the mallows
And let them burn
More fuel for the flames
But not the chocolate
For it belongs to us
To fuel the fires within
Because after all
Calories are a measure of heat
And besides
It's better to burn no bridges
When it's only our hearts
That are on fire
Yet another barb on the wire
Bridging Continents
20" x 16" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: SOLD | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
Another gray morning
Greets the child
Asleep on top of the van
We'd be leaving today
Packing up camp
Sailing away
Like the Russians
When they gave up
California
In 1841
And after a headcount
Determined
There had been an extra
In their midst
Since 1812
He hid himself in this valley
Like a stowaway
As the mainland sailed
Away from the ship
With only his memories
Bridging continents
As he hacked out a new life
Through the brambles and the briar
He became another barb on the wire
Spring in July
20" x 16" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: SOLD | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
Unlike our lost children
The past is the past
It's not coming back
A ranch with no cattle
A park full of grass
With blood sucking armies
Hidden beside the path
A leisurely walk
No fences to hop
Just identical faces
Behind every mask
With identical fears
And identical tasks
Like Summer in Winter
And Spring in July
The feet they are blistered
And the situation dire
But all in all
And at the end of all ends
We're each just another barb on the wire
Poetry, shmoetry. What was that about...
New Humboldt Paintings?
And yes, I do have a few Humboldt paintings available as well. These are rare to offer, most of my local work is commissions these days, as I like to reserve much of my painting time to trips covering more of the coast. Each of these has it's own story, nothing much, no weird poems. Just a bit of explanation of how they came to be unspoken for...
Better Places
36" x 18" | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: $2200 | EARLY BIRD DEAL: $1600 | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
This was a piece I'd started maybe 3 or 4 years ago on location, just a quick sketch on this larger canvas. I had planned to go back and finish it over time, but then I was asked to do some live painting at the beach house down below here and I figured I'd bring this along and finish it on site. Which was a fine idea, but the event was a silent disco and it was so much fun I couldn't think straight about the painting so it sat in my studio awkwardly for years after that. I recently completed a commission from nearly this same vantage point for a client and it occurred to me that I should just finish this one up at the same time while I was at it. They go together nicely. You can check out the other one here.
The Blue Canoe
24" x 12" | OIL ON CANVAS | PRICE OF ORIGINAL: $412 | EARLY BIRD DEAL: $ 400 | PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE
Okay, this isn't really new at all. It was simply forgotten. I painted it at a plein air fundraiser event on the beach here on hot afternoon and it sold for $600. The buyer saw another painting I had just done right up the coast from here and asked if I would swap them. I was happy to do so but in the mix I had forgotten to make this available on my website since it had already technically sold. After a brief time on the wall at my gallery it just got set aside. When I was reworking my website a few months ago I came across the image and realized it was just sitting in the corner of my studio collecting dust. That is not where a painting should be, so here it is priced according to my current price structure.
And that is all for now. Hope you're all holding up these days. Times are wild out there. Love your neighbors. Even the crazy ones. We'll get through this.
As always, holler if you have any questions or comments. Always great to hear from you all.
Cheers,
Matt