BIG SUR artist Greg Hawthorne worked primarily in paint until a twist of fate and a business owner's faith in his eclectic artistic abilities led him to venture into sculpture, water features and even furniture.

It all began when the owners of the Post Ranch Inn came to him in 1991 with a request for a sign.
"I don’t do signs," Hawthorne told them. But when they insisted, he offered to make a sculpture with subtle lettering instead. They gave him a week to design it.

Hawthorne came up with 10 he liked and one he loved. He also used a little psychology to sell it during a presentation to the owners and architect of the Post Ranch project: He showed each in the order it was created.

The group urged him to hurry up; just show the one he preferred. But Hawthorne would not be rushed.
"They were liking each design, and finally I said, 'I think this is the one,'— the 10th one," he recalled. "They all came around to look, and they were all saying, 'That’s the one! That’s the one!' It was fun."
After creating the piece for the Post Ranch entrance, Hawthorne made several totems to decorate the grounds.

"The Post Ranch people really wanted some different types of things. They liked my paintings and knew I could draw anything — so they said, 'Why don’t you try doing this?'" He was quickly commissioned to do interior pieces for each room, including barstools and other furniture.

Soon, people enamored of the Post Ranch pieces were seeking the artist.
After he opened his Big Sur gallery across from Nepenthe in 1995, he took more time to tap into a childhood fascination for furniture.

"When I was a kid growing up, my father was an architect and also into furniture," he said. His family owned Herman Miller pieces and bookshelves full of Charles Eames and Frank Lloyd Wright references. Years later, he returned to the works of those masters to develop the ergonomics for his pieces.

From canvas to steel
Although he continued to paint, Hawthorne undertook more and more sculptures, working in various metals, woods and even granite. He built gates, more furniture, and finally forayed into water features. Sculptures now account for half his business.

"It's great to put them into people's houses and see their smiles," he said. "With sculptures outdoors, they get an effect they never even dreamed of."

The artist constructed his earliest sculptures from standard steel which is hot rolled, then sandblasted and acid etched for a fine finish. From that medium he moved to "corten" steel because it contains copper and will only oxidize to a certain point without completely rusting.

"Then we started getting calls for stainless steel, and started buying it in large lots," he said. "And also bronze, so now we’re doing the whole gamut. It just depends on what the client wants — we can work in any kind of material. We haven't done one in titanium yet, but if someone asked, we could handle it."

Hawthorne's work has taken him not only to the Post Ranch Inn and up the road to Carmel Highlands, but across continents and oceans to Taipei.

A developer undertaking 4 million square feet of construction on the island flew Hawthorne and another artist to his country so they could see the site.

"There were cement trucks going down the road as far as you could see," Hawthorne recalled.
The client sent the artists home with directions to design sculptures for the mammoth development, flew out later with interpreters to see the models and then ordered the work — all with minimal banter and quick deliberation.

"You're sitting there talking to them and the interpreters, and they pick out all the stuff they like and then say, 'How much?'," Hawthorne said. "After you give them the price, they're happy — they talk about five minutes and then say, 'It's done. When will it be delivered?' They don’t want to know what month or what week, but what day."

The Taipei project taught Hawthorne the importance of keeping deadlines.
"They treated us so well when we flew out there — the whole experience was unbelievable — but they live on intense timetables," he said. "We had to make sure the work was ready to deliver."
In just six months, Hawthorne completed 15 corten steel pieces for the Taipei job, each reaching 12 feet high, He flew back to the island once more to oversee the installation.

But he finds work in his home state just as enthralling. After a Palm Springs resident commissioned a water sculpture to bridge a swimming pool, Hawthorne went to work in bronze. The final design spanned 10 feet and circulated 7,500 gallons of water an hour. The sculpture was so heavy it had to be built and shipped in pieces and then bolted together at the Palm Springs pool.

Prices for a Hawthorne sculpture start at $10,000. Outdoor pieces need to stand at least 8 to 10 feet, Hawthorne said, "because when you get outdoors, everything shrinks. And since it’s going to be there forever, you want it to be a statement." His goal for each one? That the client will say, "Wow! That’s so much more exciting than I thought it would be!"

One project he's sure will spark that reaction is underway now. Dancing figures gathered at the center of a pool in the front yard of a client’s home will be brought to life by 12 timed jets shooting water at varying heights.

"We get to be in some incredible homes," he commented. "Some of the landscaping costs more than houses used to."

Hawthorne's indoor water features are more subdued and require practical considerations, such as the splash factor — the surface has to be relatively smooth and you can’t do anything too wild — and the stain factor.

"It's a romantic idea to have the water going over different types of metal," he said. "Stainless steel and bronze work quite nicely, but you really have to be sure they can be cleaned and maintained."

Many clients peruse his gallery and seize on an idea for a sculpture for their home.
"Whether they want it in granite, wood, steel — that’s where we start. Then, do you want big water? A cascade? A lot of water sound, or something very quiet for an inner courtyard?" He always encourages his clients to push the limit.

Despite creating 50 water installations in the last several years, Hawthorne believes he has just scratched the surface of the designs and material possibilities.

Although he is the creative force behind his works, Hawthorne utilizes the skills of many other people in the construction of each piece.

"I get to do the fun part: design. But I need a lot of people who help put things together for me, do the grinding and fabricating, sell the pieces in the gallery, and package and ship them all over the world." he said.

Hawthorne attributes his success — which he hopes will continue to snowball — to the Post Ranch Inn.

"I have to give credit to the owners for wanting to go the creative route, which I would really encourage for anyone building a new building or a new hotel. If you get an artist you like and let them be creative with your designers, it works," he said. "Copying and doing the same kind of look becomes dull and boring."

"Everybody loves new ideas — you never lose — because it's always much more exciting than staying with the trend. Artists and sculptors love to push the line a little bit."

The Hawthorne Gallery, which also features the works of other notable artists, is located at 48485 Highway 1 in Big Sur. Phone 667-3200 or visit www.hawthornegallery.com for more information.