THE PACIFIC COAST
.........“With the exception of San Diego, Pacific Coast Seaports do not have a long history compared to those on the Atlantic Coast. Most were developed in the American Period, after 1850, some in the face of spectacular adversity. While the Atlantic Seaboard has many excellent natural harbors, lengthy protected river estuaries, and miles of flat beaches, the Pacific shore drops away steeply and offers few safe anchorages. From Puget Sound in the north to San Francisco Bay on the central coast to San Diego in the south, the coastline is predominantly rocky cliffs punctuated by formidable river bars, capes and headlands that jut dangerously into the coastwise sea lanes. Pacific Coast weather is cursed, from a mariner’s point of view, with unpredictable dense fogs and strong on-shore winds.”
–Wayne Bonnet
A Pacific Legacy
Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1991
In the past, activities available to ASMA members in Region 5 (fourteen western states plus Alaska and Hawaii) have consisted primarily of exhibitions and occasional Society meetings in southern California, Oregon and Washington. We are now working to change this situation and to make ASMA membership as rewarding as possible for all western US members. Two elected representatives plus a six-member Executive Committee constitute an ASMAWEST team with members located in southern California (San Diego and Los Angeles), northern California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado (for the Mountain States). In the near future a questionnaire will be sent to all Region 5 members, asking for their personal preferences and suggestions in regard to activities and events they would like to see initiated to make their participation in ASMA as rewarding as possible. Such activities could include additional marine art exhibits, plein air groups that would meet on perhaps a monthly basis to paint marine scenes, dinner cruises, lectures, painting trips, etc. In the meantime northern California may contact Alan Ryall at: alanryall@att.net who is the ASMAWEST representative for that sub-region, to request additional information or to make suggestions about this new program. |
