Alamo Square Poppies

Even sheltering in place in San Francisco, we are allowed to go out, get some fresh air and exercise — as long as we practice social distancing.  Some days I just climb up to the top of Alamo Square.  I live close to the famous park.  In 2016 the park was closed for a year allowing for a much-needed overhaul.  Three years later, the replanted gardens have come into their own.  The flower beds have been explosions of color this Spring.   

The painting is the view looking west from Pierce and Hayes Street.  Not the popular postcard view, but one of my personal favorites.

The National Park in the Backyard

Even when I travel all over the Western United States it is easy to forget that I can find myself in a national park by taking a walk for all of 45 minutes.  Living closer to Golden Gate Park, I often “forget” about the Presidio — our national park right in San Francisco.

I have been meaning to check out Andy Goldworthy’s Spire for, I realized, nearly 10 years.  It is one of four installations he has created for the Presidio (details here). We started at Wood Line and then hiked up to Spire.  By the time we got down the hill, the building that house Tree Fall was closed, but we saw the latest installation Earth Wall in the courtyard of the Presidio Officers’ Club.   I had, mistakenly, assumed the Presidio Officers’ Club was essentially used as event space.  Yes, it is an event space, but it also home to a fantastic and free history museum.  What a discovery!  Before taking MUNI back home we had a peak at the brand new and fabulous Visitor Center.  I do love big government when we spend money on our national parks.

Meet the Sprites

Sprite Series, mixed media on board, 4”x5” each

Just in time a series of sprites (15 in all) made on little cards from scraps of pieces from the Collagescape series.  These little creatures will be sent out into the world via the US Postal Service later this week.

Desert Bloom Collagescape

Desert Bloom, mixed media on board, 12”x12”

I had visited Joshua Tree National Park a few times before I had my first spring experience.  It was after one of the very wet, El Niño winters in the 1990’s.  I already was in love with the place but spring — spring was something else.  The desert blooming is still hot and dry.  The background colors are the regular shades of brown.  But as you walk along and look down there are little specs of color everywhere.  Some flowers are like miniscule drops of color.  Yellows, reds, whites, blues, purples and oranges are all there.  In high tech terms, think of wildflower pixels.  The only really big flowers are the creamy whites of the Joshua Trees when they flower and the flourish of red atop the blooming ocotillos.  Tall and spindly, the ocotillo is like the drag queen of the desert that makes an appearance every spring.

With these bright little specs of color against the desert background I wanted to create a collagescape that attempts to capture the visual experience of the park on a spring day.  Desert Bloom will be shown in my Collagescape exhibit opening in August.

Spring

Half Moon Bay, 12”x9”, acrylic on paper, 2000

This week marked 24 years of living in San Francisco.  I love San Francisco, but one of my favorite things about the City is escaping.  Even a quick day trip and you can easily ground yourself in nature close by.  The ride down Route One to Santa Cruz and back has always been a favorite.  When I make the trip there are usually plenty of stops along the way.  Yesterday was no exception with a stop at Pescadero State Beach, lunch in Davenport, Swanton Berry Farm and a walk through the redwoods at Henry Cowell State Park.

It was a good way to start spring.  Big yellow fields of mustards are glowing all along the way.  As I drive I always remember many paintings inspired by previous trips.  Above is one of the fields outside of Half Moon Bay.  A quick, small painting that blurs like the view as I might have zoomed by on a day 15 years ago.  It’s time for those yellow fields to make a sequel.  Yesterday I was taking plenty of pictures as “color studies.  A very yellow Collagescape is coming soon.

Foxen Canyon Road

Now that we have had a blast of rain and April has arrived, I am itching for a little road trip.  I’ve been going up and down California for years.  I like to get out the map (yes I am old fashioned and prefer a map to GPS) and look for new roads to try.  I prefer using the detailed Delorme road atlases.  A few years ago my “discovery” was Foxen Canyon Road.  It parallels the 101 between Buellton and Santa Maria.  It’s a windy, car commercial road, through lush green hills covered with poppies.  The little trip inspired some small paintings, including the ones shown above.