There must be something in the water out in West Marin, because artists of every kind seem to be irresistibly drawn to make their home along its coastal shores.
Michael Knowlton, an accomplished professional plein air painter and longtime resident of Stinson Beach, is no exception.
Knowlton is a lifelong Bay Area local who was born in the East Bay. His love for the arts began early in life through watching his sister, who was 10 years older than him, as she studied her way through Stanford and Berkeley.
“I saw my sister painting and had a sort of romantic fantasy about art,” explained Knowlton. “By the time I was 12 or 13, I had a little business painting shirts. I made some money, and I enjoyed that aspect of art.”
He added, “Even as a kid, there was some thought put into my process. Something about the arts is that you become a sort of sponge for your time and your place, and then whatever’s in your heart at that moment, you follow that—that’s what I was doing as a kid.”
After finishing up his high school education, Knowlton left the Bay Area to study social sciences at San Diego State University. Following that sojourn to Southern California, as well as some time spent traveling afterward, he returned to the Bay Area to surf and then finish up his schooling at San Francisco State University. Armed with a master’s degree in painting, he knew what to do upon leaving school—what else?—paint.
“I was wondering what can I really do with art at that critical stage in college, and I kind of caved into a more responsible lifestyle,” he said. “Then I kind of circled back around and realized how important [art] was to me, and I realized I needed to study it more and take it more seriously, so I went back to school.”
It was during Knowlton’s studies at SFSU that he discovered his love for plein air painting, a.k.a. the style of painting done outdoors in the open air, where one can get an immediate and accurate sense of the landscape exactly as it is in a moment in time.
“I discovered somewhere along the line that I really liked painting plein air paintings,” Knowlton recalled. “I found that I really loved to go out on location and that I enjoyed the improvisational nature and the urgency of finishing quickly, blocking everything in in the next two hours because the sun and all the elements are changing. It became part of the challenge.” He added, “I learned I could really come to love a certain place if I painted it; I could discern the seasons changing and some of the subtleties.”
Alongside plein air painting his way across California’s Central Coast, from Marin to Santa Cruz and many spots in between and adjacent to them, he has also expanded his plein air painting profession into more faraway destinations such as Costa Rica, Hawaii and, this year, Thailand for a whole two months. His home and heart, however, are steadfastly located in West Marin’s Stinson Beach.
“Marin has always pulled me back home,” explained Knowlton. “I lived in San Francisco and would always visit Stinson Beach, and eventually I realized I wanted to do it the other way around. I moved out to Marin in 1978 and was so happy that I made that decision. And I still am—I’m so lucky to be here.”
“After being away, to get back home and get to re-experience the smells and everything—I’m still in love with this place all over again…I just have to leave to remember sometimes,” he said.
Alongside painting, Knowlton also performs on his guitar in a jazz combo band that plays all across West Marin. He believes his musical performances and his paintings share the same harmony, intervals and cords in an “improvisational nexus” of art that he adores. Whatever medium of art inspires the artist, he believes the principles to success are similar if not entirely shared across the board.
“Find out what that passion is, that dance, that music, that picture…and then figure out what you need to do in order to make your skills make that particular thing that’s already in your mind, and hopefully in your heart, work for you,” Knowlton observed, sagely. “What’s important in your art is your voice and improving it, not making something that you can sell. It’s so much fun to find your voice; it is so much fun to make that path. All you have to do is keep listening to that inner voice and not doubt it. Going step by step, a lot of these questions answer themselves.”
One place locals can go to experience Knowlton’s paintings and sometimes musical performances is Stinson Beach’s Parkside Cafe. Not only do his paintings hang on display at the cafe, but he also performs there with his musical group on occasion. And he painted the ice cream cone signs on top of Parkside Cafe’s hamburger stand as well.
“Even though I haven’t put up any artwork [at the cafe] for 10 or 12 years or so, this year I put some up in June, and it felt a lot like coming back full circle since I had a painting hang there in the late ’70s and really started exhibiting there,” he explained.
For over 50 years, Knowlton and this local cafe have been able to come together and support the arts and each other in true West Marin style. And it is in this symbiotic relationship of more than half a century that we can see the true magic of Marin County’s unincorporated coast and the artists who call it home—the magic of community.
“I’ve always loved it here in Marin, and I always will—I’ll be here until the end, I think,” Knowlton concluded. “I feel so lucky to be able to play my music at the Parkside Cafe and to have the friends I’ve made along the way.”
To learn more about Knowlton and his art, visit his website at michael-knowlton.pixels.com. For those who want to interact with his most recent artwork on a more local and in-person scale, visit the Parkside Cafe at 43 Arenal Ave., Stinson Beach.
