The Loft

By Barbara Thornburg

Oct. 14, 2007 12 AM PT

Come summer, artist Scott Kennedy, known for his depictions of sailing ships, always carries a stick--”for rattlers,” he explains. His home, a compound with a ‘70s construction trailer, a makeshift studio and a partially built outdoor room, sits atop a desert canyon overlooking La Bufadora, known as “buffalo snort,” the famous Mexican blowhole at the tip of the Punta Banda peninsula southwest of Ensenada.

Kennedy’s domicile, at the end of a bone-jarring dirt road above the sea, is isolated and breathtaking. His closest neighbors are the chaparral, sage and tall, stalk-like cactus that dot the rocky landscape. “When I paint . . . I have to have a controlled environment,” he explains. “I don’t like to be a hermit, but it takes that to do what I do.”

He found the perfect spot--a lone trailer perched above the sea--while on a painting commission at La Bufadora in 2000. “It had a big number 4 the height of the trailer painted on it, followed by a dollar sign.” He laughed at the idea of a $4 trailer, but found the beauty of the desert and sea irresistible.

He bought the trailer “for a tad more than $4,” he says, and is three years into a 10-year lease. If he packs up and sells his trailer, 10% of the sale price goes to the Mexican landowner. He pays monthly rent, like other neighbors in the trailer park, and says many who have lived there since the ‘60s have had their leases renewed. “They have the confidence of the landowners--that’s good enough for me. Everything in life is a gamble, right?”

The first thing he did to the construction trailer was to cover the 4$ sign and the bland gray exterior with adobe-colored paint that turned pink under the harsh sun. He painted the doors turquoise, then added faux shutters “to give a lousy old metal trailer some whimsy,” Kennedy says.

The trailer has a small kitchen, open living room, bathroom and bedroom barely big enough for a double bed and one chest of drawers. Walls and tabletops are covered with his art and that of his friends, plus objects from his travels: an African mask, an Indonesian parasol purportedly owned by Houdini and a resin Chinese dragon.

When the weather is fine, Kennedy sits out on his new deck. So far, only one framed wall is up, its pane-less windows draped with fabric that billows in the breeze. “It’s my outdoor room--with the emphasis on outdoors,” he says with a laugh. “I need to get on a roof before winter, that’s my goal.”

Kennedy says the site has been wonderful for his work: “I’ve been painting up a storm since I moved here.” He likes the quiet and his United Nations of like-minded neighbors who “don’t pester one another.” When he wants to work, he hoists a black flag. “Neighbors know not to come up when they see the skull and crossbones.” *

The Comps

Location: La Bufadora

Size: 360 square feet (12-by-30-foot construction trailer)

mexican Cost “More than $4, less than $400,000.”

newport beach trailer cost: $100,000 to $200,000

Buying Arrangement: “I have a 10-year lease, with seven years remaining, and pay a monthly rent on the land.”

Advice: “Learn Spanish. You can’t understand the culture unless you speak the language. It shows respect to the Mexican people--that’s important.”

--Scott Kennedy