Lone Cypress

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.

Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.

The tree stands on a granite headland on the western edge of the Monterey Peninsula in central California, midway along 17-Mile Drive between Cypress Point and Pescadero Point. The viewpoint is roughly three miles north of Carmel-by-the-Sea and five miles south of the city of Monterey.

The tree is generally estimated at around 250 years old, which is old for a Monterey cypress but not unusual for the species. The native cypresses at nearby Point Lobos include trees of similar age. No formal core-dating has been published.

Steel cables have braced the trunk since the late 1940s, after Pacific winter storms damaged the canopy. The cables anchor into the granite headland and stabilise the tree against the constant onshore wind off the open ocean.

It is a Monterey cypress, Hesperocyparis macrocarpa, a species endemic to two small native groves on the central California coast: the Cypress Point grove on the Pebble Beach peninsula and Point Lobos, a few miles to the south.

Yes, through the gatehouses of 17-Mile Drive, a private scenic road operated by the Pebble Beach Company. The road is open daily from sunrise to sunset. A per-vehicle fee is collected at each gate, refundable against a meal at a Pebble Beach restaurant.

Yes. The Pebble Beach Company has used the silhouette of the tree as its mark since 1919 and asserts trademark rights against commercial reproduction. Personal photography is welcomed at the viewpoint.

Late afternoon, when the light comes off the Pacific from the west and the silhouette of the tree reads against the open sky. Mornings can also be soft and clear; midday tour traffic crowds the pull-out. The tree looks much the same in every season.

Many of our customers with ties to the central California coast have given the Lone Cypress tile as a welcome-home gift or a milestone gift. The silhouette is the visual shorthand for Pebble Beach and the western Monterey Peninsula. A Coaster or Small with a handwritten note from the studio carries especially well.

The piece reads naturally with Coastal-modern, California-craftsman, and Mountain-modern rooms. The deep green of the cypress against the cool grey of the granite and the muted blue of the Pacific gives the artwork a quiet, grounded palette that holds its own without dominating a wall.

Yes. Biophilic design favours real natural forms over abstracted ones, and a single ancient tree on a rocky coast is one of the strongest motifs in the category. A Medium or Large in a biophilic room reads as a window onto the place rather than a decorative print.

Above a standard three-seat sofa, a single Large reads as a balanced focal piece. For a longer console or a wider wall, a 4-tile Mural opens the scene up; a 9-tile Mural turns the wall into the view itself. The same composition is sized to each.

Yes. Order the same composition in our Dura Satin or Matte finish for damp or splash-prone rooms. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and proven against humidity and steam; the Glossy finish is reserved for dry-wall installations and framed display.

A soft microfibre cloth with a little plain water is all the surface needs. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic itself beneath a thin protective finish, so it does not lift or fade with regular cleaning. Avoid abrasive scrubbers or solvent-based cleaners.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in the studio's stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language, single-source and hand-finished. The Lone Cypress composition is the studio's own painting of the tree, not a licensed reproduction of any third party's image.