Shortly after Mr. Hutchings finished his summer workshops with John Pike in Woodstock, New York, he moved to Santa Monica, California where he bagan a six year love affair with the waterfront around Santa Monica. Having lived for so many years in the cold beauty of Idaho, he relished the long warm days where he could sketch outside year round. Of the many paintings he did during this period, one of his personal favorites was a painting of the Santa Monica Pier. This painting, "On the Pier", shows the original arcade and shooting gallery, and to the left of the painting is the merry-go-round house. On the wall to the left is the date l977. He loved this period of his life and kept this painting to remind himself of this golden period of his life.

He also fell in love with reflections and spent hundreds of hours perfecting his technique for painting them. The painting below, "At Rest" was made into a Hallmark card, his first of many. Those of his collectors who were lucky enough to buy these pieces in the mid seventies have real treasures. In this gallery, there are only a few examples of his best work from that period.

"At Rest" "Holiday in Carmel"	"On the Pier"   "The Dotty Lee"	"The Searchers" "Seaspray"