North Coast

Phillip Herschel Paradise

Phil Paradise captures the unique atmosphere of Northern California’s agricultural coast, the bulk of which runs from Marin County to Humboldt County and features the windswept cypress seen surrounding the rural farmhouse in his early lithograph, “North Coast.”

Paradise was born in Oregon but his family moved to California when he was a child. He grew up in the Central Valley and attended art classes and workshops in Los Angeles, but his wanderlust took him on lengthy excursions where he would study local life, sketched in books using India ink, to refer to later. This allowed him to find the mood of a scene, as seen here, in the damp cold of the mackerel sky, the bending branches of the trees, and the long stretch of fence running the length of the rolling hills.