Sunrise and Sunset at Bitcoin Beach: My El Salvador Paintings

I woke before dawn at El Zonte, sat down to meditate, and watched the sun come up over surfers paddling out through the waves. The beach is made of big round stones, and every time a wave hit, they tumbled and rumbled. I took a lot of photos that morning. I've been painting from them ever since.

El Zonte at Dawn: watercolor pastel of the shoreline at sunrise, round stones in the foreground, pale surf, a dark headland on the left, and a pink and gold sky

Why this beach

I wanted to make something that represented Bitcoin culture and its symbols without being so on the nose as to make big orange B's and hooded Satoshis, though those things are great, and I appreciate them. El Zonte is Bitcoin Beach, the place where the phenomenon started. El Salvador was a pioneer in accepting Bitcoin, and it all began at a small surf town on the Pacific. I can't think of anything more fundamental to Bitcoin culture than that stretch of sand, so I painted the sky above it.

My first trip

El Salvador was my first trip for a Bitcoin conference, and my first time in the country. That was 2022. I stayed at a beach resort at Atami, north of El Zonte, with cabanas on the sand and cushioned daybeds in the shade. I took a surf lesson, ate at a restaurant up on a cliff, and photographed the sunsets.

I painted three of them later, from my photos. Sunset from Atami, El Salvador #1, #2 and #3 are very similar scenes, and I like seeing them side by side: the same horizon with the light changing each time.

The hostel at the river mouth

On a later stay I took a room at the Punta El Zonte hostel, on the corner where the river meets the beach. That is where I got the sunrises.

I painted Sunrise from Punta El Zonte Hostel, El Zonte at Dawn, El Zonte Before Dawn and a large Sunrise in El Zonte at 36 by 48 inches. I also painted Sunset in El Zonte, El Salvador and Sunset in El Tunco, El Salvador. The tropical air makes the light especially luminous, and I tried to keep that in the paper.

Made by hand

I flew there to take the reference photos myself. Every piece is watercolor pastel on Arches cold press paper, painted by hand in my Seattle studio from the photos I took there. Then I brought the paintings back to El Salvador and exhibited them at the Adopting Bitcoin conference, on two occasions.

What I hope you see

Money exists so people can prosper and enjoy the world. A warm beach at the edge of the day is a good picture of that. The sun coming up over Bitcoin Beach looks to me like the start of something hopeful, a new era where more people have the freedom to build a good life.

If you've stood on that beach, you probably already know.

See the paintings

The Adopting Bitcoin El Salvador exhibition page has more. Most of these are also in my book, Watercolor Landscapes, and the Atami three hang together in the gallery at tjm.art/play.