Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley

ThirtyTwo: Field with a View

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Continuing the “Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” year long quest.

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Field with a View, 8x10, oil on board
Field with a View, 8×10, oil on board

It’s springtime in Silicon Valley! The wildflowers are out! Due to the drought, this year might be a little short on flowers, but we had enough rains for the flowers to bloom.

As the official California state flower, the California Poppy ranges in most of the far western states plus Mexico, and has been transplanted to South Africa, Argentina, and especially flourishes well in Chile.

I had been searching for a location by a creek in Santa Clara Valley which had some California Poppies growing. Since the California Poppy grows mainly in well drained, sandy, poor soil, you won’t find many by a stream bank, so, I decided to paint in Rancho San Antonio County Park, where a field of poppies is close to Permanente Creek.

Permanente Creek starts in the east flank of Black Mountain, courses though the cities of Los Altos, Mountain View, and into San Francisco Bay.

Most of you have probably heard of Kaiser Permanente, the huge health care conglomerate mainly in the western United States. The name Permanente came from Permanente Creek, which flowed past Henry Kaiser’s first cement plant on Black Mountain near Cupertino. Kaiser’s first wife, Bess Fosburgh, liked the name.

This is the first (and probably last) painting in this quest where you can’t actually see the water in the creek. Although Permanente Creek was running, it is completely surrounded by impenetrable brush in this area, and you can only get a glimpse from the several pedestrian bridge crossings. The line of trees in the middle ground shelters the creek as it passes through the area. I did paint in a few more flowers than actually were there…something called ‘artistic license’.

Click on the below thumbnails for larger pictures***

Some locals out for breakfast.
The general view I was painting. Permanente Creek is hidden by the straight treeline in the distance.
My easel overlooking the Permanente Creek area.
Some poppies in the field I was painting from the distant hill.

Besides the deer, a coyote passed by just as I was arriving but couldn’t catch it on camera. The wild turkeys were out gobbling around the valley…heard, but not seen, at least by me.

If you watched my time-lapse video The Painting of TwentyFive: Where Redwoods Thrive this painting just kinda fell into place and was also done in about 90 minutes. When I got home, though I didn’t like the foreground, so changed it some, and still not sure if I like it. Might be a little too ‘busy’. Anybody have an opinion?

Click this link for a map of all painting locations along with each painting.

***Email subscribers may not see all pictures. Just click on the title for a link to the online version.

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ThirtyOne: A Setting Sun

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long quest.

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A Setting Sun, 8x10, oil on board
A Setting Sun, 8×10, oil on board

Another Pacific storm blew in for several days last week. Although the forecast was for light rain, we ended up with some pretty good downpours, but not nearly enough to put a dent in the California drought. As the storm was clearing late in the day, we had a spectacular sunset, which doesn’t happen often in Silicon Valley!

This blog entry is more about painting, the painting process, and tonalism. I have mentioned before, sunsets are difficult to paint plein air as by the time the best part comes, it is quickly over, and you are in the dark. You must quickly make color notes, and maybe finish it later from memory. I previously used this technique for painting Thirteen.

I didn’t have time to get out to a creek to paint the sunset, but made some color notes and painted much of the sky portion from my home. I then went out today by Calabazas Creek as it nears San Francisco Bay, and painted the foreground part combining different elements of the landscape on location. While not an alla prima work (done in one sitting, or all at once), which I have been doing for all the other works in this quest, it was done en plein air.

A few photos along Calabazas Creek– Click on the below thumbnails for larger pictures***

I was painting right by Hwy 237 and Carribean Drive in north San Jose.
Calabazas Creek as it flows under the Hwy 237 bridge.
A wetland pond by Calabazas Creek which I used as part of the composition. Hwy 237 is in the background.
My easel right by the Hwy 237 freeway wall. It was a hot day (90 plus degrees) so stayed in the shade!

A note about the photos– I would have included a picture of the sunset, but the feeble attempt from my iPhone was not representative at all of what it really looked like.

About the painting–Tonal paintings or Tonalism is an art term usually referring to moody paintings with a limited palette and design. I kept the general colors of the sky and sunset throughout the painting, ignoring the colors, but keeping the values I saw before me. I don’t do tonal paintings often, but for a little variety in this quest decided this would make a good one. As mentioned, it is somewhat of a composite of sky, sunset, and Calabazas Creek.

Oh, almost forgot, about the creek, Calabazas Creek originates on Table Mountain in Saratoga, California, and courses through the cities of Saratoga, San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale prior to emptying in San Francisco Bay. A company called Yahoo (along with a number of Internet companies you never heard of) is about a mile down the road on Caribbean Drive, from where I painted.

Coming next, and painted the same day…California Poppies.

Click this link for a map of all painting locations along with each painting.

***Email subscribers may not see all pictures. Just click on the title for a link to the online version.

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Thirty: Chavez Legacy

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long quest.

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Controversy followed Cesar Chavez much of his life. Born in Arizona and growing up as a migrant farm worker, he became a civil activist, union leader, and labor organizer for farm workers rights, founding the National Farm Workers Association, later called the United Farm Workers union.

Whether you agreed with him or not, he had a huge impact on farm worker rights and is considered, arguably, the second most influential civil rights activist after Martin Luther King. Maybe surprising to some today, he was against illegal immigration, and actively protested the US lax immigration enforcement. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Clinton. More info can be found here.

Chavez spent much of his life in San Jose, in the barrio Sal Si Puedes, or “Escape if you can”, in what is now known as East San Jose, Mayfair neighborhood. In this dangerous, rough and tumble area of the city, he raised a family of eight children. He had spent younger years picking fruit in the San Jose area when it was called the “Valley of Hearts Delight’ and full of fruit orchards prior to becoming a nationally known activist. Being poor his entire life, he never made more than $5000 a year. He certainly “walked the talk”. A movie was just released about his life which is showing in theaters as this is being written.

I did painting Thirty just around the corner from where Chavez lived in San Jose. Although 44 Scharff Ave is marked as the ‘home’ of Chavez, in reality, the family later tore his house down and built a larger one on the same lot.

I painted right on the San Antonio Street bridge as it passes over Lower Silver Creek, once again behind a chain link fence. Upper Silver Creek, a few miles away, was the first painting of this quest “One Down, Fifty One to Go”. Here the creek meanders slightly in a man made channel. Click on the below thumbnails for larger pictures***

Site of Chavez’ home. Notice the plaque on the left.
Painting behind the fence on the San Antonio Street Bridge
The view I was painting.
Painting behind the fence on the San Antonio Street Bridge

Here is a panorama shot I did of the location–

A 180 degree panorama of my painting spot along San Antonio Street
A 180 degree panorama of my painting spot along San Antonio Street

And the final painting–

Chavez Legacy, 8x10, oil on board
Chavez Legacy, 8×10, oil on board

The bridge on the upper right is a pedestrian bridge, a number of which can be found crossing the creeks in the neighborhood.

Coming up…spring flowers!

Click this link for a map of all painting locations along with each painting.

***Email subscribers may not see all pictures. Just click on the title for a link to the online version.

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TwentyNine: Stevens Auto Line

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long quest.

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Stevens Auto Line, 8x10, oil on board
Stevens Auto Line, 8×10, oil on board

If you google Stevens Creek, you will probably first come up with BMW, Toyota, Audi, Nissan, Lexus, Ford, Acura, Honda, Subaru, and other auto makers. That’s because Stevens Creek Blvd is auto row for Silicon Valley, at least one of several auto rows. All who live in the South Bay know Stevens Creek Blvd. It starts near the western foothills, runs due east, and near it’s eastern end are the shopping mecca’s of upscale Valley Fair Mall, and trendy Santana Row, where the Silicon Valley workers come for happy hour, dining, smoozing, people watching, and whatever else young people do after work nowadays.

Yes, there is an actual creek, and I have never quite figured out how the boulevard got its name, as it does not follow the creek, but only crosses it at it’s far western stretch. Originally named Arroyo San José de Cupertino, it is now named after Capt. Elisha Stephens, an early settler of the valley. I am not sure why the two names are spelled differently. Beginning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Stevens Creek flows through Stevens Canyon, then through the cities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View, on its way to join the San Francisco Bay. Stevens Canyon is one of the little jewels of the south bay. Click on the below thumbnails for larger pictures–

Stevens Creek
My easel set up on the trail above Stevens Creek

I previously painted the creek where it empties into San Francisco Bay in TwentySix: Home of the Airships. This piece was done where Stevens Creek starts to emerge from Stevens Canyon, and into the suburban sprawl of Silicon Valley proper. A huge Fremont Cottonwood stood sentinel over the creek with it’s large branches stretching far and wide.

Click this link for a map of all painting locations along with each painting.

We have been having beautiful weather here, and probably seen the last of any major storms. Many of the smaller creeks did not flow, except maybe right during what little rain we had.

I have added a section to my webpage listing all the identified creeks. I have now at least painted one in all the watersheds according to the Santa Clara Valley Water District maps.

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TwentyEight: The Tollgate

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long quest.

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The Pacific Congress Springs Resort Hotel around 1900
The Pacific Congress Springs Resort Hotel around 1900

Starting in 1847, the little pioneer town nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains of Santa Clara Valley had been called Arroyo Quito, Campbell Creek, Campbell’s Gap, Tollgate, McCartysville, and Bank Mills over the years. In the middle of the Civil War, the townspeople came together to decide a permanent name. Just upstream from their town was a spring which had almost the same chemical content as Congress Springs, of Saratoga Springs, New York, so they named their small town Saratoga, and it remains today.

Once an industrial town, producing lumber from the nearby hills, flour mills, paper, cardboard, furniture, tanneries, much of the power was derived from Saratoga Creek. A large resort was constructed at Pacific Congress Springs, , which burned down in 1903. More history can be found here.

Today, Saratoga is one of the upscale communities in Silicon Valley, with its small town feel of tony boutiques, little shops and high-end restaurants. In it’s short downtown of about 5 blocks it is, in my opinion, the highest concentration of the best rated restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area. The winding roads in the surrounding hills reveal estates with personal vineyards, horse stables, and other indications of affluence.

Riding through Saratoga on my Harley-Davidson Road King every few months into the Santa Cruz Mountains, I always love to see Saratoga Creek as it runs year round…even through all the recent droughts.

It would have been nice to paint the Congress Springs area, but it is now grown over, and access is limited. (Based on my observations from the road, with it’s chain link fence, it is probably used as a water source for Saratoga.) I painted Saratoga Creek downstream from there as it flows through Wildwood Park in the middle of town.

My easel under a foot bridge by downtown Saratoga.
Saratoga Creek

Below is the finished piece, an intimate scene of Saratoga Creek—

The Tollgate, 8x10, oil on board
The Tollgate, 8×10, oil on board

Click this link for a map of all painting locations.

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TwentySeven: Korakuen

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long quest.

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Korakuen, 8x10, oil on board
Korakuen, 8×10, oil on board

One of the Three Great Gardens of Japan is called Korakuen (Kōraku-en). Located in Okayama, Japan, it was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa. Korakuen means “garden of pleasure after”, which is a reference to a saying attributed to Confucius—explaining that a wise ruler must attend to his subjects’ needs first, and only then should he consider his own interests. Once a playground for the elite, in 1884 Okayama Prefecture took Korakuen over and opened it to the public.

In 1957 Okayama and San Jose became sister cities. San Jose built it’s own garden in 1965, called the Japanese Friendship Garden, patterned after Korakuen, and in 1966 it’s koi ponds were stocked with koi sent from Okayama. Although koi live over 50 years with some reports of over 200 years, unfortunately in 2009 a virus wiped out much of the koi in the gardens.

A video from 1958 of San Jose Mayor Doerr visiting Okayama gives you a little idea of the friendship and culture in years gone by….

Although I have only been to Okayama twice, just passing through on a Shinkansen (bullet train), the city has become a little more of personal interest to me. My son has been teaching English there in four different grade and junior high schools for much of the past year. He has had a wonderful time soaking in the Japanese culture, making new friends and loving his work, which he calls getting paid to play with school kids all day.

I decided an artificial stream is still a stream, and what better place to paint spring blossoms than a Japanese Garden, so painted the waterfall in the Japanese Friendship Garden. It was a beautiful spring day as the rains had just cleared and there was certainly a freshness in the air!

Click on any picture to view the full size–

A bridge over a koi pond.
View of a pond in the Japanese Friendship Garden.
The basic scene I painted.
My easel on one of the many paths winding through the garden.

I painted the scene basically as is, almost entirely in shadow, however added a little more blossoms which were all around me in the garden, except right by the falls.

I will be at the Plein Air Convention in Monterey next week, so there won’t be any new Creeks paintings for awhile. I am on the Faculty once again this year, and will be out demoing plein air painting for attendees around the beautiful Monterey Peninsula. I’ll try to do some weblog entries about the convention while there.

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TwentySix: Home of the Airships

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long project.

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USS Macon and Hanger 1
USS Macon and Hanger 1

Covering 8 acres, the size of 6 football fields, Hanger 1 at Moffett Field has always been a marvel to see driving by on busy Highway 101. Moffett Field was commissioned in 1933 as a Naval Air Station and over the years has been the base for airships, maritime patrol craft, NASA Ames Research Center, Satellite Control Network (AKA ‘Blue Cube’), and a host of other activities. An aerospace industry grew up around it in the towns of Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Moffett is now a joint civil-military airport.

A relic from the past, Hanger 1 was built in 1933 to house the airship USS Macon and is one of the worlds largest freestanding structures. Two other hangers nearby, appropriately called #2 and #3, are some of the world’s largest freestanding wood structures. currently, Hanger 1 is going through a restoration, removing asbestos and other dangerous materials.

Stevens Creek originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains, flows through the towns of Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View. It flows by and empties into the San Francisco Bay right next to Moffett Field. On the other side of the creek is the world headquarters of a company called Google and a smaller company called LinkedIn. The Shoreline Amphitheater is nearby, one of the main concert venues in the bay area..

Of course, if you use the internet, you know who Google is. Their buildings (called the Googleplex) occupy blocks and blocks of buildings adjacent to Moffett Field. Recently, they have leased much of Moffett, and taken over the restoration of Hanger 1.

Click on any picture to view the full size–

Stevens Creek
The basic scene I was painting
My easel set up on the pedestrian bridge over Stevens Creek
Behind me is the ‘Googleplex’

I did the painting on a pedestrian bridge over Stevens Creek. Another sky painting, in front is Moffett Field with Hanger 1 on the left. The large building on the right is the intake for the worlds largest wind tunnel. Hanger 1 is a little hard to see in the photos as it currently has it’s outer skin removed and looks like a silver skeleton. I wanted to paint it as it usually looks, so put the skin back on.

Home of the Airships, 8x10, oil on board
Home of the Airships, 8×10, oil on board

As painting number twenty-six, this marks the halfway point in this quest, at least as far as the number of paintings. I am about 6 paintings ahead of schedule and will probably do more than the original 52 painting goal.

Coming up:
We are getting a series of Pacific storms, so am going to scout around for some of the smaller, seasonal streams. Also on the agenda, Chavez and Korakuen.

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The Painting of TwentyFive: Where Redwoods Thrive

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Continuing the ˜Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” year long project.


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I recently bought a GoPro camera and used it to take some time lapse photography of painting number TwentyFive.

5627 individual photos were taken at one per second for a total duration of 94 minutes. The photos were then sped up to 10 per second to produce the video. The camera was never stopped the entire time, even when I was talking with passersby.

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TwentyFive: Where Redwoods Thrive

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Continuing the “Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” year long project. (Click here for complete info.)

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Where Redwoods Thrive, 8x10, oil on board
Where Redwoods Thrive, 8×10, oil on board

One of the most beautiful and unique trees in the world are the redwood trees of the west coast of North America. The native habitat of Sequoia Sempervirens is only in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion and several miles into Oregon. The redwood Hyperion Tree in Northern California is the tallest tree in the world. It’s close cousins, the Sequoia only grow on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the General Sherman Tree is (arguably) the largest in the world by volume. When I bought my house in 1984, six redwoods were planted, and due to various reasons only two remain.

Twentyfive was painted in the Redwood Grove Nature Preserve in Los Altos by Adobe Creek. Los Altos is one of the more affluent bedroom communities of Silicon Valley.
Click this link for a map of all painting locations.

Redwood Grove Preserve
Redwood Grove Preserve
Redwood Grove Preserve
My easel in the redwood grove.

14 mile long Adobe Creek originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains, flows through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. It is joined along the way by three seasonal creeks in Los Altos Hills, Moody Creek, Purissima Creek, and Robleda Creek.

153px-Adobe_Systems_logo_and_wordmark.svg

The two founders of Adobe Systems lived along the creek and named their company after the waterway. In the 1980’s, Adobe revolutionized the printing business by teaming with Apple Computer and producing the first desktop publishing system. The rest is history, so they say. Adobe’s fingerprints are all over technology today… the PDF (Portable Document Format), Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, to name a few. Virtually every image and every web page you see is touched by an Adobe product.

About the painting, although it is supposed to run year round, and we have had recent rains, Adobe Creek was virtually dry, so I used a little artistic license and added some water, although I am debating about taking it out. BTW, This is the third redwood depicted in this quest, the other two are Seven and TwentyOne.

Coming up:
A new twist for this quest…hint, think GoPro. Also, the afternoon’s painting where no art has gone before…think blimps and Google. On the upcoming painting schedule: Chavez and Korakuen.

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A Brief Hiatus

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Continuing the ‘Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley’ year long project. (Click here for complete info.)

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The Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley
The Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley

I am currently out of town attending to my late father’s estate, so there won’t be any new works for several weeks. In the meantime, I prepared this post ahead of time just to keep things going.

When I first started this project, it was just a simple idea to paint the creeks and rivers of Santa Clara Valley, AKA Silicon Valley, and was debating whether to even tell anyone about it, at least publicly, until the year was over. After all, I might end up with a lot of terrible paintings! I never realized it would develop like it has. Along the way, I started researching and writing about a lot of the interesting history and other little known facts of the locations I was painting. The cutesy rhyming titles just sort of happened.

I thought I would answer some questions posed to me over the course of the project so far.

How long does it take you to do each painting?
Most artists loath this question, and many artists retort with what Picasso reportedly once said “It took me forty years to do this painting”. The idea is that the painting is the expression of forty years of experience (or however long you have been painting).

I don’t mind answering as it relates to this project. Virtually all paintings are done in under two hours. Most are done entirely on location with little or no touchup afterwards in the studio. In a few cases, I have worked on a painting later in the studio, and each time indicate it on my blog along with the reason why.

The two hours of actual painting, is only the tip of the iceberg. I spend many more hours, probably 6-8 in researching, exploring, writing, photographing, traveling, etc. for each actual painting finished.

How do you find your locations to paint?
After living in the San Francisco Bay area for 35 years, I am fairly familiar with all the waterways, especially in the Santa Clara Valley. However, I usually spend quite a bit of time with Google Earth and other resources to find access points, etc. A lot of the creeks are fenced off with limited access points. You might notice I have painted behind chain link fences in many instances. Driving around exploring also helps a lot!

I also keep finding new resources on the internet. For example, I just now found the Santa Clara Water District has a set of Google Earth ‘layers’ which maps and names every waterway in the valley, from rivers all the way down to underground drainage culverts. They also have a historical overlay where you can see how a stream ran before mankind diverted and reworked the landscape.

What materials are you using?
I generally have a fairly traditional palette of colors, mostly using Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Red Medium, Sap Green, Transparent Iron Oxide, Cadmium Orange, Yellow Ochre, and Cadmium Yellow Medium. I occasionally use other colors, but this is my primary palette. I generally stick with Gamblin oils, but have other manufacturers in my paint box occasionally.

For brushes, I generally use Silver Ruby Satin brights and filbert sizes 6-12. In fact am still using the exact same two brushes I started with, a bright and a filbert size 8.

I am using exclusively Raymar Oil panels, all 8×10.

My easel is a Soltek. I have other outdoor equipment, pochade boxes, etc but this is my primary easel.

Finally, why are you doing this?
As stated in my weblog introducing this project and on my website, there is so much natural beauty we miss, even in the urban life. Silicon Valley is thought of as being some big industrial complex grinding out computer chips and software, but it’s not. It used to be called the “Valley of Hearts Delight” for it’s lush agrarian landscape, which for the most part has been paved over. I have been painting the area for years, and thought by formalizing it into a project, more attention could be brought.

Although I have not yet pursued anything, I hope to show the entire collection at some local venue when the year is up. The above montage of 14 of the 24 works so far gives you an idea of what the exhibition might look like. If current progress holds true, I will have many more than 52 paintings by the end of the year. There are just too many good places to paint!

That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with more paintings.

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