Peony Garden Adventure

Well, this was supposed to be the year when I finally made it to the peony garden up in the hills above Silicon Valley. I've heard about it many times, I tried to get to it several times (all funny stories of when I followed the directions of "just up the same road" and went on foot (turned around in 30 min). Then another time I tried to go by car from the Iris garden side and almost ran out of gas... Then I was late and the garden was closed. But this year I got some bullet-proof directions, checked that that it was still open, packed a backpack with colors I wanted to use, and almost remembered to get some gas.... and... well, I got in but basically I was late. We had a few very hot days right before and I think the season was over even before that. There were many petals on the floor and many green bushes with very few flowers and all were way past their prime.

As a consolation, I used a shadow from my car to look from the top of the hill to the hills and the rest of the farm. It was a great little trip!

Sketching Neighboring City Landmarks: Campbell

A wonderful outing with friends (@suhitasketch @kavyasart and @umapaints) to catch up and try to make sense of a quite usual building: an Ainsley House in Campbell. I planned to paint with gouache but upon arrival, I realized that I had grabbed the wrong sketching kit with me and had all my printmaking stuff but no color :) 

Between this swift change of plans and a confusing architecture of the subject, I needed a palette cleanser of something easier to grasp and draw - so we moved to sketch Campbell Water Tower. 

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Baylands Park, Sunnyvale, California

I've finished my 100 views in June but with all the traveling stopped posting. Since then I found that many of the mini paintings I would like to re-paint or add/adjust - so this is a new stage of the project - and I will continue sharing it as it nears the conclusion of gathering all the images in one place.
This is a wonderfully spacious Baylands Park in Sunnyvale - place for runners, birdwatchers and people who enjoy looking at the hills at all seasons.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Cupertino, California

I like the top two way better than the bottom two paintings and might go there again to paint other views of Cupertino. After that painting session I started carrying earplugs - too many cars rushing by!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Downtown San Jose State - University Campus and Art Museum

San Jose is a lovely city - constantly changing and evolving - at least that's how I feel. Every time I visit it I am a little lost and frustrated about something not being "as it was last time" but by the end of the visit there is usually something new I love. This time I was painting with Suhita and we saw that city was flooded with scooters to ease traffic in the downtown and people were really having fun riding them :)

100 Views of Silicon Valley: San Jose / Mustard Fields

Mustard Fields in spring are all over the valley and San Jose has an amazing contrast of the urban and developing landscaped with these bright yellow flowers all over the place!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Altos and San Francisco

Top: Chamber os Commerce, Los Altos.
I've learned about this super cool corner of Los Altos through instagram's comments and went to paint it as soon as I could - it's a really neat park tucked between two roads and a standalone mostly-glass building looks very cozy between large trees.

Bottom: San Francisco.
I did not paint enough of San Francisco for this project - but I will! This is a very colorful part close to the Bernal Heights Library.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Redwood City

Redwood City has a sign at its entrance "climate best by government test" - and I just had to paint that as it was one of the first things I saw when I visited the city for the first time.
Downtown is filled with people at all times of the year and I loved painting it in early spring as I was able to see more of the buildings against the signature color of the sky in California. 
  

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Gatos

This is probably the South-most part of the Silicon Valley I painted. I love Los Gatos - with the mountains always in the picture and lovely streets lined with crooked trees and amazing colors of houses!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Apple Park Visitor Center

I wanted to paint Apple Park for quite some time, looked into different options of approaching the building and even tried to talk security into letting me in so that I can have a good view at the new Apple Inc. headquarters a famous spaceship building from up close. But it did not work :) They were very nice though and pointed that there is a great view from the top of the visitor center - which is where I ended up.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Mountain View Public Library and Little Free Library in Palo Alto.

I painted Mountain View Public Library and one of the "take a book - leave a book" - little free library houses that sprung in the valley during the last few years. It's a great system for book exchange - supported by neighborhoods and you can learn a lot about the people who live next to it if you look closely :)

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Altos

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Stanford University and Downtown Mountain View

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Baylands / Shoreline Park

The Baylands Nature Preserve and adjucent to it Shoreline Park are an amazing part of Silicon Valley and home to many birds, amphibians, mammals (some of those are running, biking, flying kites and kayaking on she lake).

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale

Sunnyvale is an amazing city filled with fruit trees and cozy houses. I love and use it's library (upper left) and always noticed a cell tower above police station from afar.
I watched the last cherry orchard in Sunnyvale become an apartments and shopping center (though there is still a little store with an old sign - all that is left of the old ways of he fruit valley - before the silicon days. Oh - and bottom left "El Paseo de los Suenos" - an abstract sculpture which brings in it's idea California settlers, geological structure and solstices.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Mountain View - Google

Google occupies a wide range of different buildings in Mountain View and around the area but they all have some things in common: colorful umbrellas, chairs, and google bikes. And googlers everywhere :) Soon there will be a whole set of specifically google buildings - I sketched the construction site at the beginning of this project. Based on what's in the proposal it will be a grand building - but I am sure my way of recognizing a place by a bright set of yellow, red, blue and green will work there too :)


Here is a couple of process shots: