“Day at the Beach” is the first Impression painting of the iconic Manhattan Beach Pier. This painting and Impression series was inspired by many things: a love for creating, a love for being in Nature, a love for Manhattan Beach, a love for the Impressionistic movement of the late 19th century, and, most importantly, a love for a creative challenge.

I have never created a painting with such far reaching perspective and many planes of elements from the far distant and faint Catalina Islands in the background, to the highly impasto flowers of the bike path in the foreground, and all the fun detail in between.

While painting on a typical marine-layer day, people often ask questions such as, “why is the sky so blue”? or, “why are there flowers there”? and i would respond, “I do not paint what i see, i paint what i feel”… also, i plant my own flowers :) Painting what one feels rather than what one sees is at the core of the Impressionistic movement led by Monet, Renior, and many other greats… i would like to join them in their paths.

I created this painting on 19th and The Strand over the course of 4 days working from noon until sunset. I had the great pleasure of interacting and meeting all sorts of amazing people here in Manhattan Beach. There was a point during the creation process that i intuitively knew that i was coming to completion however, i did not want to stop, i wanted the experience of creating and and interacting with people on The Strand to continue indefinitely… this is a struggle of artists that is rarely talked about or mentioned… a good struggle :)

Day 1 of creating usually begins with a simple, but very important pencil sketch… i think the beautiful blue skies of this day inspired blue skies of the completed painting.

The final day of creating “Day at the Beach”.

There is something special i want to do with this painting. As an artist i am always curious about how other artists like Monet or Van Gogh worked, and i am most interested in their palettes. With that said, to whomever collects this painting, i will be gifting the palette i used to create “Day at the Beach” and i hope to hang the palette along with the painting to create a deeper connection to this piece.

If interested in collecting, please email inquire@brentestabrook.com