California Dreaming

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California Poppies and Hills

Monterey Wharf

Beach Umbrellas

Old Union - This building, across from the bookstore and the claw fountain in White Plaza, has housed administrative offices for many years. I clearly remember students staging numerous sit-ins on this lawn in the '70's. It is a lovely old building with architectural details I appreciated more after studying it to draw. My fun challenge here was figuring out how to paint the cascading water in the fountain.

Old Union

Wine on the Vine

Valley View from El Toro

Beach Picnic - Just a fun way to showcase one of my favorite places - the beach.

Beach Picnic

Garlic Bouquet

Two Figs

Pt. Reyes

Red Kite Beach Day

Sweet Summertime

Cannery Row Workers' Shacks

Renie's Grapes

Stanford Arches - There are passages framed by these beautiful arches all around and through the main quadrangle at Stanford. Seeing the different scenes framed by the arches appeals to me as an artist. In this case, we see oak trees and Cubberley, the School of Education. My challenge in this painting was bringing the brown stone to life with a variety of paint mixes of oranges, yellows and browns. In the end, the bicycle really makes this painting, aesthetically and realistically.

Stanford Arches

Grape Harvest - I spent a day in the fall, taking pictures of the grape harvest at a winery in Gilroy, California. Here I show a bucket of grapes, with the leaves from the vines in front of it. The beauty of painting on silk is being able to softly merge colors, imitating nature. This was my goal for the leaves.

Grape Harvest

Pierce Ranch, Pt. Reyes

Bolinas Ridge - I enjoyed painting my other California landscapes , and had such a positive responses to them, I thought I'd try another. I love looking at the layers of hills receding into the distance and tried to highlight that using the blues and purples in the background. 15 of 29

Bolinas Ridge

Sierra Sunset - I had admired this photograph for years that my husband took in the Sierras while hiking the John Muir trail with our son. I finally tackled it, knowing that the sky would be my big challenge, merging the colors into each other while keeping each color fresh and not muddy. Keep in mind that once a dye color is applied to the silk, it can't be removed. Another color painted over it can result in a muddy mess. So I was pleased with the results of this spectacular sunset.

Sierra Sunset

West Side Morgan Hill

Blue Door at Filoli

Hoover Tower - Hoover Tower is a very tall building on campus, visible from miles around. Although I was certainly aware of it all these years, it wasn't until I started sketching it that I noticed its marvelous art deco features. By showing it from this perspective, I was able to soften it with multicolored foliage. Notice that I kept the leaves soft and out of focus by not outlining them with gutta. I just painted layers of overlapping dye.

Hoover Tower

Yellow Mustard on Watsonville Road

Wine Country II - I live in a vineyard-covered, wine-producing area of California in south Santa Clara County. I enjoy visiting the Napa Valley as well as wine regions in France and Germany. Vineyards growing on hillsides inspired this painting.

Wine Country 

Soaring Egret at Sunset

Morning Glories and Nest

Apricot Branch

Pacheco Peak

Splendor of California Hills - I have been wanting to capture the beauty of the hills on the east side of the valley in Morgan Hill. This moment in Henry Coe park, with the sunlight hitting the sides and tops of the oak trees was perfect.

Splendor of California Hills

The Stanford Scene - Hoover Tower can be seen from anywhere on campus. I liked the juxtaposition of the traditional arches with the tower in the background. The palm trees and flowers in bloom add to the seemingly careless landscaped beauty of the campus. (This painting was chosen by the Stanford Alumni Assoc. to grace the cover of the memorial booklet during the 2005 reunion.)

The Stanford Scene

California Collage - I do love my home state, California. I wanted to give tribute to some of our lovely areas and commodities: poppies, the state flower, the Carmel mission, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cypress tree in Monterey, and grapes and wine. This took a while to finish since each of the five sections is a complete painting in itself.

California Collage