Steinbeck Sky

Gregg Chadwick
Steinbeck Sky
18" x 24" oil on linen 2014

Writer John Steinbeck was born on this day in 1902 in Salinas, California. My parents moved to the Monterey Bay when I was a college student at UCLA and over the years I have made innumerable trips to the area from Southern California or San Francisco depending on where I was living at the time. When the sun sets on a road trip in California, the sky seems to erupt into a momentary monument to time itself. While driving through Steinbeck's hometown of Salinas, California; I am often struck by the immense color of the evening sky and know I have to get my impressions down on canvas. "Steinbeck Sky" is an homage to these moments.

In the summer after my first year at UCLA, I steeped myself in John Steinbeck novels and the paintings of Edward Hopper. My soundtrack was Bruce Springsteen's fourth album Darkness on the Edge of Town, which to me sounded like a distillation of Steinbeck, Hopper and Woody Guthrie.
The pace of life was so much slower than Los Angeles or Washington DC and I found time for study and reflection in the hours after my temp job finished. I would go for a run through Point Lobos after work to clear my head and then would sit with East of Eden or The Grapes of Wrath until the sun went down. I would paint late into the night trying to get these new inspirations onto canvas. I had a lot to learn but I was dogged and I let my failures lead me onto new paths.

#art #contemporaryart #Steinbeck #Salinas #Monterey