Coastal Light and Inland Wild: The Plein Air Vision of Rosalie Heacock Thompson
- Rosalie HT
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
A Life in the Open Air
Rosalie Heacock Thompson (1926–2022) painted from life across eight decades. Her artistic journey began in the American Southwest and matured in the canyons and coastlines of Southern California. A founding member of the Plein Air Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains and Seashore (est. 1988), Rosalie was rarely without her watercolor kit, sketchbook, and folding stool.
She believed deeply in painting what she saw — not from photographs, but from presence. The light, the sound of wind in grass, the curve of a cloud’s shadow — all were part of her process. This immersive approach grounded her work in the living world.
Southern California in Watercolor
Two paintings exemplify Rosalie’s approach to plein air painting.
Carrillo Beach (1997)
Watercolor on Arches paper, 20 x 36½ inches
Painted en plein air at Leo Carrillo State Beach along the Malibu coastline, this panoramic watercolor by Rosalie Heacock (Thompson) captures a sweeping view of Point Dume from the vantage of Carrillo Beach. Composed as a diptych, the final work reflects two separate studies, as documented in Rosalie’s sketchbook entry dated February 8, 1997. The original sketchbook includes quick drawings of both scenes — later unified into a single, large-format watercolor that merges coastal observation with artistic intention.
The left panel anchors the viewer with a lifeguard or coastal watchtower set against native scrub, while the right opens toward a breezy marine vista dotted with seabirds and sea-worn rock formations. Rosalie painted the piece on Arches watercolor paper, using natural light and atmospheric cues to bring depth and clarity to the composition. The tower, likely lost to one of the Malibu wildfires of recent decades, now stands as a marker of memory—an emblem of impermanence along California’s changing coast.
Charmlee Vista (1998)
Watercolor on Arches paper, 18 x 30 inches
Painted on-site near Malibu at Charmlee Wilderness Park, this atmospheric diptych captures the luminous drama of the California coast and reveals Rosalie’s attention to native California ecology. This watercolor renders an expansive terrain of coastal flora—rocks, grasses, and chaparral—rolling out toward a glowing Pacific horizon. The largest portion of the composition is on the right, where sunlight breaks dramatically through coastal clouds, shimmering on the ocean below. Birds wheel in the distance, and soft fog curls around the silhouettes of offshore islands.
On the far left, a sheltered cove hints at a beach curve, barely visible through the layered vegetation. As with much of her plein air practice, Charmlee Vista reflects Rosalie’s precise sensitivity to the changing moods of sky and sea, as well as her deep respect for fragile, threatened landscapes. The entire piece feels alive, breathing with the memory of a real place.
Beyond the Frame
Rosalie often framed works as diptychs — two panels showing adjacent views — but this was just one of many ways she explored composition. Her full portfolio includes traditional single-panel landscapes, small study sketches, portraiture, and multi-season series of the same view painted in different light.
She painted not only what was beautiful, but what was vanishing. Coastal access trails, oak groves, and wetlands — these were the landscapes she recorded with quiet urgency.
A Lasting Legacy
Rosalie’s work continues to resonate with viewers who know these places and with those discovering them for the first time. Her paintings are invitations to pause, look closely, and listen.
She once said that the goal of painting en plein air was not to reproduce, but to respond. Her watercolors, whether painted along the shoreline or deep in canyon hills, are love letters to the land.
See More of Rosalie’s Work
Explore her full collection of plein air landscapes — including both Southern California scenes and early New Mexico studies — in her online portfolio.
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