california coast oil painting

Strasburg Studio Archives: Multiplicity

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Strasburg Studio Archives: Rediscovery in the Stacks

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M U L T I P L I C I T Y

DECEMBER SPOTLIGHT : A grid for every occasion.
Sea & Sky images 14 x14" (x4) completed 2023
Forest & Meadow images 12 x 12" (x4) completed 2018
oil on cradled birch panels.

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Thank you for joining me on this monthly trip through the archives of my studio. 

From top right to left: Thin Blue Line, Uprush, A Bit of Perspective, Aloha Skies, 14x14” oil on cradled birch panel.

During the holidays, a time of celebration and joy, we are often surrounded by family. "Family" is such a rich and meaningful word, encompassing countless forms and connections. Artists often group their work in families to explore and express a single idea or experience, coming together to tell a story of both nature and time.

For December’s spotlight, I’m sharing two families of images: one collection capturing the vastness of sky and sea, another reflecting time spent in the national forest.

Each painting in a family is a fragment—a single piece of a larger, ever-evolving whole. On their own, each offers a glimpse, a moment frozen in time. But when viewed together, they form a bigger picture—one that is richer and more complex. Just as individual experiences, moments, and memories come together to shape our understanding of a place, these smaller works work in tandem to create a deeper, more layered narrative.

In the same way a single brushstroke may seem simple but contributes to the full composition, each fragment of the landscape—the shifting light, the changing colors, the patterns of the land—adds its voice to the larger story. It’s in the relationships between these pieces, the way they echo and contrast with one another, that the true feeling of a place emerges.

The fragments, when brought together, reveal something more than any one piece could alone, reminding us that the whole can often be greater than the sum of its parts. Through this process, I’m able to explore the depth and complexity of nature, offering a fuller, richer experience for both myself as the creator and for you, the viewer.

With this ninth installment of the archives newsletter, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read and respond. I wish you great joy and laughter this holiday season and a very happy start to the new year. xo

los padres national forest oil paintings

From top left to right: Cold Snap, Spring Thaw, Fall Hike, Sunlit Meadow - 12x12”, oil on birch panel.

The selection of ocean/sky images (14x14" each) were completed for my most recent solo show "Surfacing" at Sullivan Goss in Santa Barbara 2023. I love the new larger size for the grid and continue to add to this collection of sea worthy images.

The selection of mountain images (12x12" each) were completed in late 2018. I was in the process of building a new exhibit for Sullivan Goss at that time but life got in the way and when I returned to my easel my heart had turned back to the sea. This good size collection from the Los Padres Forest still resides in my studio growing in size. One day there will be a spectacular display of this congregation of trees amassing in my studio.

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 Strasburg Studio Archives: Rediscovery in the Stacks

 One treasure. One story. Once a month.


I look forward to sharing the hidden gems in my studio in this monthly series.
Feel free to forward to other treasure seekers and art lovers.

Strasburg Studio Archives: JUNE GLOOM

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Strasburg Studio Archives:Rediscovery in the Stacks
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J U N E  G L O O M  

Thank you for joining me on this monthly trip through the archives of my studio. 

June SPOTLIGHT: "Campus Tide 04", 40x40" oil on birch panel, 2005.

Campus Point, Santa Barbara California, original oil painting by Nicole Strasburg

Campus Tide 04, 40x40” ©N Strasburg

Oh May, you have been so drizzlingly damp and grey!

This month’s spotlight, Campus Tide 04, aims to inject a bit of summer sunshine into the dense marine layer that has enveloped the south coast for a month.

Traditionally, June rolls into Santa Barbara, fog shrouded, mist covered and dull, only surrendering to the sun late in the day.

 “June Gloom”, as the local forecasters love to pronounce, is a predictable summer staple on the south coast. Students excited about the end of school term have historically been met with cold weather and long stretches of wet soggy mornings, dampening the enthusiasm of summer break.

This year, May rushed in dragging the marine layer with it, leaving us enduring long days without a ray of sunshine capable of cutting through the wall of clouds. Winter seems to have stretched its long fingers into spring, holding on tight.

Campus Tide 04 is not representative of the dull colorless mornings experienced recently on the coast, but is a scene infused with the colors I experienced on my first visit to the Big Island of Hawaii. Everything is full volume in the tropical climate, the smells, the warmth of the air and the vibrancy of the hues that knock you down when stepping off the plane into the glow of island life.

I brought that heat and warmth home with me one winter and painted our local coastline with hints of the island still beaming through my memory. Sunshine radiates off the sand and cool blues remind us of the salty respite from sun drenched days spent at the shore.
 
Let’s hope the sun can soon shake off its heavy cloak of misty marine layer bringing with it warmth on the breeze of the approaching Summer Solstice. 

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Campus Tide 04, along with several of its siblings, were never formally exhibited. They were produced in my former studio/gallery, 30 Arlington, following my first exhibit, PACIFIC, at Sullivan Goss in Santa Barbara in June of 2004.

 October of the same year was my first visit to the Big Island of Hawaii and I arrived home brimming with ideas and salt from the islands still fading on my skin. Many of the paintings from this grouping were sold from the gallery as they were finished. Campus Tide 04 has travelled to outdoor shows with me and spent time on the wall at Susan Street Fine Art in Solana Beach before returning home to the studio.

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Locals Know:  Campus Point, home to UC Santa Barbara students, locals and traveling surfers, sits on the point of the UC Campus. The winter swell draws in hundreds over the surfing season. No matter your skill level or riding style, Campus Point and its surrounding breaks offer some of the best surfing. @ gogoleta.com

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 Strasburg Studio Archives: Rediscovery in the Stacks

 One treasure. One story. Once a month.


I look forward to sharing the hidden gems in my studio in this monthly series.
Feel free to forward to other treasure seekers and art lovers.

Summer heat has arrived. The sizzle of August meets us before sliding into fall.

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It has been such a mild summer here on our piece of coastline. I’ve been wondering when the hot days would arrive. So often we get a good blast of heat in October and as the summer ticked away, with cooler than usual temperatures, I kept wondering if September and October were going to be blazing. The heat always shows up, it’s just a matter of when.

Evening Sizzle by Nicole Strasburg. Oil on birch panel. The summer heat has arrived. Evening color over the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, California. Available at Sullivan Goss Gallery.

Evening Sizzle, 14x14”, oil on birch panel

Summer and the longest day of the year

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Summer is closing in and the longest day of the year is on the horizon. Sullivan Goss is launching new shows at the gallery with an opening reception happening this week for First Thursday events. I have a brand new painting fresh off the easel being shown in the Summer Salon in their back gallery. I’m so honored to be hanging with artists John Nava, Hank Pitcher, Nathan Huff and Susan McDonnell, to name just a few. AND I get to be on the wall next two lovely Lockwood DeForest paintings.

Patricia Chidlaw is in the front gallery with a beautiful show celebrating the swimming pool and the in main gallery FORMALIZE: Strategies for Abstraction, an exhibition that emphasizes the formalist view of abstract art.

So much to see and enjoy as we slide into the new season.

Western Shore

Western Shore 48x24” Oil on Birch Panel

Summer Salon at Sullivan Goss

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I love to be hanging with friends and beloved colleagues.

Coastal Fog can be viewed now at Sullivan Goss through July 26, 2021 beside the works of John Nava, Nathan Huff, Patricia Chidlaw, Phoebe Brunner, Angela Perko, Colin Campbell Cooper, Lockwood DeForest and many more.

Left to right, Nathan Huff “A Sudden Lurch to Help”, Angela Perko “Refugio Beach, West End #2”, Nicole Strasburg “Coastal Fog” and John Nava “Summerland 4-2”.

Left to right, Nathan Huff “A Sudden Lurch to Help”, Angela Perko “Refugio Beach, West End #2”, Nicole Strasburg “Coastal Fog” and John Nava “Summerland 4-2”.