May 25, 2011 – Your Own Backyard

After 21 years of living in San Francisco, I finally climbed all the steps to the top of Telegraph Hill and visited Coit Tower this week. The view from the top is really cool, and I got to see the City from a perspective that I usually do not see. As small as San Francisco is, it’s the sort of place where we often do not venture out of our neighborhood and a few other places. North Beach always seems like an impossible distance. If I did have a car (which I don’t), I’d never find parking. As for MUNI, I think I might get to Berkeley quicker on BART than I ever would get to North Beach trying to use public transportation.

It is so typical that we never visit places in our own backyard, but I am glad I finally got to Coit Tower and need to go a little more often. The real reason is visit is the W.P.A. murals.

April 27, 2011 – Ocotillo

I can still remember the first time I saw an Ocotillo. I was visiting Joshua Tree National Park and making my first foray into the lower, southern section of the park. It is where the national park drops from the Mojave into the Sonoran Desert. That trip was during the first spring in the El Niño year after the drought broke back in the 1990’s. It was the sort of desert bloom that usually only happens every 10-15 years. Driving south I left the Joshua Trees behind and suddenly encountered these tall, spindly cacti.

I had never seen anything like this cactus. They are tall, 10-15 feet high with branches stretching out towards the sky. At the tips of the branches were these flaming red flowers. There is no mistaking it, this is the Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). The best word to describe Ocotillo is flamboyant. They are the drag queens of desert flora — tall, spiky, flashy and demanding attention.

Ocotillo grow in the desert from Southern California to Texas and south into Mexico. The best place I have found to see them is Anza Borrego State Park south of Palm Springs. In March and April they are in full bloom. Where they bloom the flowers are often the only vibrant color. The effect is that in a few places Ocotillo are so thick the desert appears to have a red haze hanging over it as you look in the distance.

This piece is also featured on a print/poster available from Society6.

April 4, 2011 – Old Road

I like painting roads. It’s not that surprising considering my passion for road trips. I have painted Route 1 many times. Today I visited Wilder Ranch State Park on the coast near Santa Cruz. It’s just off of Route 1. It was a picture perfect spring day. The historic ranch is located on the Coast Road. The Coast Road (painted here) is the old road that dips down and veers off of Route 1. This was the main road before the days of the state highway.

I have a fascination with this type of old road. They often are no more than bends and curves that parallel the main road. The old roads are vestiges of the original road left behind after the state came through and straightened the highway to accommodate faster traffic. I grew up on Cape Cod, where the oldest main road (now Route 6A) is mainly intact, as windy as it was about 380 years ago. But many of the newer state roads on Cape Cod also have these branches like the Coast Road near Santa Cruz. These side roads function as time capsules of main roads from another era. So slow down, and take that turn, see where it goes….

March 1, 2011 – Yellowstone

Happy Birthday Yellowstone! It’s the world’s first national park, established in 1872. Of course it was there long before then, but I am so happy that it has been preserved for us all. Having just been to a few of California’s national parks last week, I can once again say, the National Park Service is one of the things America has really gotten right.

Sure it’s beautiful, but what really makes the place so special is the abundance of wildlife. There are not many places where you can wake up in a freezing cabin to the sound of a bison chatting with a Toyota just outside the window. Step outside and find fresh wolf tracks right outside your door. Something about sleeping on top of that caldera fills your head with weird dreams. If you stop a moment, you can just feel it percolating. So many places in the park are steaming and stinking. My immediate reaction when I first visit was primeval.

I’ve been to Yellowstone twice. It’s not the easiest place to get to. Far from any major airport and flying near to the park is quit costly. I actually think the most practical way to get there from San Francisco is simply to drive. It does take three days with plenty of stops along the way. Yellowstone is the perfect main course for a road trip

February 21, 2011 -Joshua Tree in the cold

I have stopped counting the number of times I have visited Joshua Tree National Park. I often go back to the same places over in the park again and again. And as familiar as the park is to me, it can look different every time. All these factors play into the experience, including the time of year, weather and time of day. The light changes by the hour. The air was crisp, cold and very still today. Some higher peaks in the park even had snow. On one trail, in a sheltered spot we found a handful of snow hiding in the shadows. Only a few early flowers were peaking out. It was the quietest I had ever experienced the park. No flowers meant no insects, few birds and not the usual rustling sounds one hears at every turn. Very still air and no wind. Without the heat, the park didn't even have the usual warm smells. It was unlike other times I have visited the park but as beautiful as ever.

February 13, 2011 – Magnolias

Magnolias are one of the pleasures of San Francisco’s non-winter winter. It’s February and they are peaking in Golden Gate Park. The arboretum is full of them. This is the time of the year when the air is clear and we get that postcard blue sky that, when you paint it, well, looks fake. It’s a short month and brief season. The rain is on the way back and petals will really fall this week.

I am not one to usually paint flowers, as I did today’s painting I began to wonder if I was channeling some past-life energy as a china painter. It also might explain my aversion to that room full of Dresden porcelain at the Legion of Honor.

February 12, 2011 – Rhubarb

There is a pile of rhubarb sitting on the counter. Later today it will be chopped up for a pie. Rhubarb Sour Cream Pie to be exact. I really like rhubarb, but for some reason it has become “exotic” in San Francisco and expensive. $5 a pound! I think rhubarb is one of those old-fashioned vegetables that few people make use of in the Bay Area (hence the high price). I grew up with it on the East Coast and was always happy to discover new uses for it on trips to Europe. Few Americans know that rhubarb makes a great yogurt flavor.

Rhubarb is so easy to grow, and if I had a garden I’d grow plenty. It also is a fine looking plant. I suppose I could grow a big pot of it in my sunny bay window. But what would the other plants thing when it gets hacked up for a pie?

February 11, 2011 — Grand Palette

I have been to the Grand Canyon about 10 times. Nowadays, I manage to make a visit almost every year. Even if I am heading back from New Mexico, and short on time, I still make a side trip up to the South Rim. Spend a few hours and just look. In many ways, the only thing to do at the Grand Canyon is look. Yes you can hike, camp, even condor watch (I saw one once). The Grand Canyon is mostly just about looking. And true to most national parks. The majority of visitors never venture more than a few hundred feet from their car. It takes little effort to go a short way from one of the vista points and have a pretty quiet experience — even on the crowded South Rim. I have spent the night at the North Rim. The sole purpose was being there to look at the sunrise.

I fill up my digital camera every time I visit. The sky, the light, it literally changes by the minute. When I come home to paint, it’s another story. I have been painting the desert for years. But I find the Grand Canyon is a practically impossible. There are so many colors and so many plays of light and shadow that I never really satisfied with my results. The color palette is great to work with, but putting it all into a painting and making it work is no fun. And while I like a challenge, I should enjoy painting. Right?

You can get in a car and reach the Grand Canyon in two days. If you haven’t been, go. Go and just look.

February 8, 2011 – Purple

I have nearly 40 pieces completed for the 2011 Project. I realized something is missing. I generally do not make use of pinks and purples. I have nothing against these colors. They just don’t find their way into most of my work. My jar of purple paint tends to last years.

This is the time of the year when I should be inspired to make use of brighter colors. Spring is on the way and California is turning up the saturation. Last week on the way to Point Reyes we found ourselves on that high stretch of Route One between Muir Beach and Stinson Beach. The Farallons were in view to the west, no fog and a deep blue sea. Looking inland, down into the valley, there were bright sections of green and hills with broad patches of magenta wildflowers with Mt. Tam in the distance. I love the colors but that doesn’t mean I paint with them much. Then again, I am a painter who prefers the Monets where he was running out of paint.

January 30, 2011 – It’s all about the light

This morning is one of the reasons I live in San Francisco. It’s all about the light. The light in the Bay Area is unique. It’s easier to render in a painting that it is to describe in words. After a dry few weeks in a wet winter, the rain came down last night. A front is blasting through. My windows are open letting in cold, crisp and amazingly clean air. The clouds are still lifting letting in these intense bursts of bright white light. Light that has the houses climbing up to Buena Vista glowing while the park looms dark and wet waiting for the day to dry out.