Fifteen: The Hard Drive Machine
Continuing the year long “Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” project.
The hard disk drive, found in virtually every computer in the world and many other devices, was invented at the IBM San Jose Research Center in the mid 1950’s. The center is one of IBM’s nine worldwide research labs, and now located in Almaden Valley. This tranquil little valley, bordered by smaller ridges, is in the southern part of San Jose and also a bedroom community of Silicon Valley.
The Los Gatos Plein Air group was out painting a stream in Almaden Valley, so once again I joined them. This time we painted Alamitos Creek which flows through Almaden Valley and eventually joins the Guadalupe River which then flows to San Francisco Bay.
We painted in Pfeiffer Park which runs along the creek. The IBM center was in the hills behind us about a mile away. Below are a few pictures from the morning. Click on any photo to see a larger version.
And finally, I had someone take a picture of me painting! When I do small works, I usually sit in a camping chair and hold the painting in my hand much of the time. This is to save my back from too many visits to the doctor–
Around noon, the group adjourned to a local pizza place for lunch and fellowship. It was a great time talking painting, places to paint, and enjoying good food.
Since I was in the area, I stayed the afternoon and painted Randol Creek, a tributary of Alamitos Creek. I wanted to paint the sunset again, but only got about halfway through. There is a lot of history in the area, so I plan on going back to finish Randol Creek and do other paintings. Stay tuned!