One thing I dig about running a local open mic is that you never know who’ll walk in the door. A number of months ago, Russell Brutsche arrived, carrying a nylon-string guitar and a toting a collection of songs that seemed more like portaits than the usual verse, chorus, bridge, chorus-type tunes. That analogy made sense when I learned that Russell’s also a painter.

This Saturday, May 8th, Russell is showing both his painted and recorded work in “Westbound: Californiascapes in Painting and Song” at the Santa Cruz Art League at 526 Broadway in Santa Cruz. The show runs from 2:00 to 8:00 pm, with music performances at 4:00 and 6:00 pm. Admission is free. Plus, folks arriving by foot, bicycle, mass transit or other green transportation will receive 20% off any purchase.

His painted work looks at our state and coast with a very specific color scheme and perspective and with a “would-be promised land” vibe: Vines cover the once-legendary Giant Dipper at the Boardwalk. A Humvee-full of officers round up trespassing surfers at a now fenced-off Cowell’s Beach. It’s very cool stuff. And at the same time, there’s something hopeful in images such as a native American settlement using the golden arches of a boarded-up MacDonald’s to tie their horses up and dry their laundry. Or a treehouse overlooking a freeway.

Russell paints equally vivid portraits in his music. His latest, “The Westbound”, mixes originals with his own deliberate covers on tunes from the likes of Sam Cooke and Harry Chapin. The CD is also very much a California work. It was produced and recorded in Monterey, with the help of Dayan Kai producing and Steve Uccello engineering the project.