A steep street by the University Heights library. The Victorian building on the corner is a Yoga studio and next door to that… the laundromat. I’ve done several pieces here while waiting for my clothes.
Do you love the industrial quality of this circa 1911 building as much as I do?
It’s currently vacant. There are so many great potential uses- restaurants, art studios and galleries, wine bar, boutique hotel. It’s right by the trolley stop too. Pretty great location.
When I was researching this building, wondering what it was, I discovered an evil plot to tear it down and put in a parking lot! What a travesty.
We could easily build the parking structure over top of Star Builders Supply with gigantic stilts, or perhaps incorporate the historic structure into a new construction. I hope it will be saved.
Click here to learn more about Star Builders Supply and the effort to preserve this historic structure.
A great afternoon for a walk in Santa Barbara, California. The water was amazingly calm, with sailboats moored offshore.
So I’m a huge fan of Jeffersonian architecture.
This is Poplar Forest, our 3rd president’s retreat near Bedford, Virginia. The house is seen from the south lawn.
We went to Poplar Forest a few years ago, and we weren’t able to tour the inside, I think because of restoration work.
Jefferson was a complex individual, author of liberty, owner of slaves.
“In Bedford I have two plantations, adjoining, of 16 hands (slaves) each, uplands of the first quality, where I cultivate both tobacco and wheat.”
T. Jefferson, January 20, 1815
In June 1781 (during the Revolutionary War), Thomas Jefferson and his family arrived at Poplar Forest after retreating from Charlottesville during a British raid. Jefferson and his family stayed at Poplar Forest until late July.
You can read more about Poplar Forest here.
You can buy this painting here.
Happy Independence Day!
The hills step off into whiteness
-Sylvia Plath, Sheep in Fog
Sylvia Plath was a dreary lady, but her poems are full of stunning imagery, and this is the line that came to mind while heading up into the cloud bound mountains above Santa Barbara.
We spent a long weekend in Santa Barbara, CA, and drove up into the gorgeous Santa Ynez valley one day. This painting started as a sketch that day.
The Santa Ynez valley immediately made me think of Corot’s groundbreaking Italian plein air landscapes.
I was intrigued by the deep greens and bright blues of the water, and of course the crowd of sailboats around Dana Point. From the pier, I did a bunch of drawings of the water and the beautiful seaside town, and this studio painting from those plein air sketches.
This is the final painting in a series of 3 plein air pieces from Balboa Park. I love the Eucalyptus forest, with its medicinal scent and cool shade.
Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.
This cake is leaning. This is what happened.
I wanted to do cake paintings, specifically, triangular slices of cake. These are surprisingly hard to find, because a lot of the bakeries are degenerate and sell square slices of cake.
But I persevered. I went to all the supermarkets, all the bakeries. The urge was strong. Ralph’s, I discovered, sells the coveted triangular cake slices.
So I went to the store, I selected the prettiest slice of cake.
I came home, the cake kept wobbling and falling over. So I trimmed the bottom off the cake and ate it, and then it leaned like this.
Since this project started I have gained five pounds.
It’s your birthday, buy yourself some cake.
This is the second painting in a series of 3 plein air pieces I’ve been working on in Balboa Park in the shade of the eucalyptus trees. I’m hoping to finish the last one tomorrow.
I’ve been working on a series of three plein air paintings of this location in Balboa Park. I love the combination of colors and the hot sun contrasted with the cool, deep shade of the eucalyptus trees.
As a pale, freckly person, I like to paint in the shade. 😉
We recently took a road trip from San Diego, east around LA, and up the coast to Santa Barbara. This is one of the paintings from that trip, in San Diego’s East County.
A street corner in Little Italy, San Diego. I think this is Kettner, but I’m not sure. That’s the famous Wyland mural on the building to the left. I spent a couple of hours walking around this neighborhood while I was getting my car worked on, and started this painting and a couple of others.
I like Little Italy. It’s a mix of Victorian and ultramodern, which I find very appealing… with great pizza and terrible parking.
The Santa Ynez valley up above and inland from Santa Barbara, California is really too pretty to describe. I hope the painting says enough.
While there we also visited the Fess Parker winery- delicious!
