The artist John Knuth surveys the desolate landscape around Mariposa Street, in Altadena, Calif., where he lived with his wife, the interior designer Taylor Jacobson, and their young son. Where once were pretty wood and stucco houses, you can now see clear across city blocks. The vista is interrupted only by singed, leafless trees and free-standing stone and brick chimneys which, Knuth says, “have become like gravestones.”

Knuth, 46, is one of scores of artists who, until early this January, had homes in Altadena. He knows of four other artists on his block alone. Most chose Altadena for its affordable, modest homes, its proximity to nature, and its charming, small-town feel. Others grew up there. Many had space on their properties for home studios.

More than two months after the Eaton fire destroyed Altadena, its artists are taking stock of what they have lost, and what their future could look like. Just as important as studio space and materials, they have found, are the reassuring foundations of home and community. Artworks, in many cases, can be remade. A street, or a whole neighborhood, is a different matter.

“I can make art anywhere,” Knuth says. “I’m not worried about that.” Jacobson, 49, worked primarily from home, and lost items from her library of material samples, as well as some vintage furnishings. Knuth considers himself lucky, comparatively. Last July, he signed the lease on a new studio, which was spared from the fire. He had moved nearly all his paintings, sculptures, books and tools out of his garage, where he’d previously worked. Also saved was his collection of natural media, such as dead horseshoe crabs and coyote penis bones, which he’s used to make abstract drawings and paintings.

But he had not yet gotten around to transferring his heavy flat-files, which contained 20 years of works on paper, including ombré paintings made by feeding colored sugar water to houseflies. They now sit, blackened by soot, in what little remains of his garage.