Laguna Beach, California is a unique destination in Orange County, California. In a county full of conservative Republicans, here is a city with a liberal presentation. Artists founded Laguna Beach, at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Orange County was largely farm country in those days and plein air painters, attracted by Laguna’s Pacific beauty flocked to the town for the lusciousness of the landscape.
My first impression of Laguna Beach from the ocean view of Las Brisas, a swank eatery, is that there is an uncontaminated beauty there. As, I look out over the blue of the Pacific, I see a woman, not old, not young, taking the morning air, sitting on a park bench musing over the sea. Behind her five senior women pass. They are all wearing red hats. Amusing to see 5 women all dressed similarly.
Then a man pushing a cart piled high with blue table cloths. The world is passing in review, colorful, varied. Everyone is going about their duty. Two more women pass, dipping their heads to avoid the brilliant, yellow sun. In the blue Pacific a boat lingers, waiting for nothing. No activity is taking stage on her decks. It is simply at anchor.
The woman on the park bench adjusts a blue visor, staring out at the blue water. She begins to notice the people around her, as she comes back from her reverie. It is as though she has been a long way away.
She rises and walks away, joining the crowd around her. Now she is gone and the bench where she sat is empty.
This is Heisler Park where a group of individuals are painting landscapes in the Plein-air. They look out over the water trying to capture something truthful about it.
Artists have done this forever. Looked out at the sea and tried to withdraw something from the surfaces and depths before them and give it back to those who look at the works they are making. A couple passes. Their heads tilt towards each other and away like dancers. They weave their way
A waiter brings some food to me. It is gorgeous. Spicy Ahi Tuna is a dish from Las Brisas. It’s a house specialty. Writing this I can taste the beauty of the food and I recall the gorgeous presentation. One of those dishes which one can’t decide whether to photograph or to eat. The food had lightness and offered a bow toward Japan. It was tostadas covered in tuna, king crab, avocado and spicy aioli sauce. Yum. Next came a dish of jalapeno relleno, which was more raw sushi tuna wrapped around a square of cream cheese. It was another delight to eat.
Las Brisas is an elegant, white restaurant. I’m sitting on a curved, covered porch with a view of the Pacific, overlooking a bay. Birds fly over the water. Waiters cruise the tables, overseeing the progress of the luncheon and dinner guests. In Heisler Park, which surrounds Las Brisas, there appear a convocation of plein-air painters.
I walk down a sidewalk and just yards from the restaurant there are 3 painters in an overlook, all painting the same scene, a curving shore of the bay. 2 young women, college students, and an older man, probably around 60. It goes on and on here in Laguna Beach, the process of soaking up the seascape.
“Where are you from?” The man asks one of the girls.
“About 45 miles from San Francisco.” says the girl. More painting.
There is an energy of creation, purposeful, being directed at the sea, and the shore and the paintings. Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, come the 5 ladies wearing red hats. “We’re from all over,” says one of them.
There are also lots of hotels in Laguna Beach. One of the most prominent is La Casa del Camino (Lacasadelcamino.com). It’s a famous hideaway from city life, which has been in the same location since 1929. It was a favorite inn of Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis back in the 30s and 40s. It is even rumored that there was a backgammon game played in the lobby between John Paul Getty and Howard Hughes in the 30s. Of course when Bogie and Bacall showed up they brought their animals, who were also guests at La Casa del Camino.
The rooftop lounge has amazing ocean views of the Pacific and Catalina Island. “There’s really nothing like it in Laguna Beach at this height with this ocean view.” Says Amy Amaradio, marketing and P.R. director of the La Casa del Camino. La Casa del Camino has 40 rooms and 2 vacations rentals, “La Casita” sleeps six and “The Loft” can sleep 4, both have kitchenettes.
The hotel is near the plein air painters and backs onto the Pacific. What an ancient experience this is. Artists in plein-air taking aim at the landscape. Passersby, walk behind the canvasses, stop, stare, move on. There is an assurance about the task at hand for all these painters. The girl in the middle, mixes paints on her brush, applies the result to her canvas. She cocks her head to the side as she works. A woman with two shorthaired dogs walks by.
The vegetation looks remarkably ripe, ferns grow in profusion. A small lizard crawls out of the plants and distracts everyone. Concentration is a fragile thing. The sun goes behind a cloud. The environment cools. It comes back and the shadows lengthen. A bird lands, swivels his head around as if to say, “Harrumph, no action here!” and flies off.
The lizard creeps into the sun, looks at my foot, runs into the grass, and is gone. A woman stops behind Ray, shades her eyes with her hand, looks, walks on. A couple sit and watch the Ray paint. The man pats the shoulder of his partner. She appears older than he, her hand tremulous.
Another couple walk by, “I really like your work” the man says to the older painter.
The lizard is back, taking the sun. A man approaches and the lizard flees. The lizard returns. It is almost as if the lizard had perceived this as a safe place and preens in the sun.
Plein air is a very social art form. People are forever stopping and staring and commenting on what they see. The artists seem to know, expect this. They stop and return to their canvasses. The old couple rise and move on.
This then is a snapshot of an afternoon in Laguna Beach, a lovely California town.
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