Evening Aroma

Oil on canvas, 12 × 16 in
2025

This painting was created during a paint-out as part of the Oceanside Plein Air Festival 2025, where some of the best plein air painters in California gathered.

That evening, I painted masterpieces — something that only happens when I feel happy, healthy, well-fed, and fully in my rhythm. My artist friend Kelly came to join me — she’s a very luminous person. Perhaps it was her warm, friendly presence that made it easy for me to enter a deep, calm flow, where gratitude to the universe intertwines on a bodily level with aesthetic joy from the beauty around.

This painting depicts the Oceanside pier.
The sun had almost gone beyond the horizon, and the water, wrapped in deep, cool shadows, was filled with the unmistakable aroma of a summer night – Oh, how beautiful that was!

I painted almost in darkness — only a soft glow from a nearby streetlight revealed a few details on the canvas. I love studies like this, when I can still feel my palette even after my eyes can no longer fully see.

That’s when I realized why twilight landscapes fascinate me so deeply. They help me relax. As the sun stops anxiously outlining every detail, forms begin to melt into larger, harmonious shapes. Painting shifts from narrative into abstract emotion — and that is exactly what helps me gather my thoughts and sense the gentle aroma of the evening.

Just as much as I love evening and night studies, I adore boats. I dissolve into them, playing with the rhythms of decks, where contrasts of verticals and horizontals turn into a kind of music, and color — like spices — adds emotion.
And yes, there’s also a little cat sitting in a boat in the foreground – Mi-mi-mi.

This painting carries the memory of an evening scent — something that gently returns us to warm, intimate moments.