This 7" x 10-1/8" image, "Steep Ravine, Cabin #4," is an archival digital reproduction from an original watercolor, done from an onsite sketch in December 2003.


Steep Ravine is one mile south of Stinson Beach; these cabins
were erected in the early 20th century and leased out to a number of Marin families.


The land on which they stand is the nucleus of Mount
Tamalpais State Park, deeded to the State by William Kent, who also donated the adjacent Muir Woods to the federal government.


Cabin Four looks out over the Gulf of the Farallones and the massif of Mount Tamalpais
climbing high above Stinson Beach and Bolinas Lagoon, where whales pass by on their winter migration and seabirds constantly wheel
about the rocks and the rich fishery. Asian fishermen walk the narrow
winding road down to the tidepools to gig for eels.

It is quiet and serene
in calm weather; cozy by the wood fire and lanternlight in a fierce
winter storm; and so close to the hustle and bustle of the metropolis...a few
miles and a century removed.


This image was printed at Lazo Images in Ojai, Calif., on Arches watercolor paper as part of an edition of 250.


Artist Patrick Gavin Duffy lives and works in Marin County. He says he paints not only by the appearance and the way the light is on a given day, but by the natural and human history of a place.


A Bay Area native, Duffy says, "My sensibilities have been shaped by the geography and culture of this unique place at the edge of the wide Pacific Ocean. We live on the Pacific Rim; the Ring of Fire, connected by water to Asia; Latin America; the immensity of Polynesia and the rest of the oceanic world; hundreds of cultures; and myriad life forms in the sea. An aquatic consciousness permeates the coastal community all across the ocean and I strive to keep this awareness in my work."