“Up North: A Very Short Travelogue”

“Up North: A Very Short Travelogue”

A recent adventure traveling from Southern to Northern California…SoCal to NoCal, and back again,  reveals gems of landscape, cuisine, and most compellingly, relationship.

On the road…Highway 5 offers up vistas. You know you are on a journey. Traveling. Journeying. Voyaging. In movement.

Our heaven away from home…in Larkspur, CA…in Marin County. Right on the (canal) water. The peacefulness of this water…and its feathered inhabitants.

Morning time with flying friends….a view from the end of the pier…enlarged.

Looks like a silvery moon, but this is the reflection of the bright morning sun, cloud and sky…in the water. The flow, shine and shimmer of water brings peace to the soul.  I won’t soon forget this.

Bustling Clement Street in San Francisco’s Richmond District yields up delightful and delicious Asian eateries…like Burma Superstar , which offers the exotic and stimulating tea leaf salad.

Dancing in with the Keith Haring sculpture,  in Golden Gate Park, on the grounds of the De Young Museum.

The decorative painter’s favorite, the “gilded” room in the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park.

The beautiful walk up the hill to the Legion, overlooking the Bay near Land’s End, is an old stomping ground, and doesn’t disappoint.

The walk holds floral pops of color amidst brush and bramble.

After a magnificent six days, including two of driving, we arrived back safe and sound to Santa Monica, in time for yet another magnificent sunset.

The sky changes colors moment by moment…

The fading panorama of sunset colors and dark clouds are set off dramatically bu street lights which set nearby palm trees aglow. This is Southern California, after all.

California, place of dreams, traffic, light, fire and stars. North or  South, you shower us with your magic. Best of all is the work we are privileged to do here, and the people and relationships that make it all worthwhile. Thank you!

Clouds: The Painted Sky

Clouds: The Painted Sky

Sky Paintings 11: Sky Hue

Sky Paintings 11: Sky Hue

A bit of color to usher in the New Year.  May the hues of 2015 be glorious, delicate, and everything in-between.

I have included some of my favorites.  I hope they are yours too!

Cheers.

Sky Paintings 6: Cloud Color

I am creating a series of “picture poem” posts…sections of my “Sky Paintings”, which I have been sharing on Facebook.

My Mom does not “do” Facebook…so I am putting this series together for her to be able to see the Sky Paintings.   Here’s to you, Mom…enjoy.

Sky Paintings 6: Cloud Color

These clouds look as if delicately painted in water color…and perhaps they are..

Sky Paintings 3: Sunset Color

I am creating a series of “picture poem” posts…sections of my “Sky Paintings”, which I have been sharing on Facebook.

My Mom does not “do” Facebook…so I am putting this series together for her to be able to see the Sky Paintings.   Here’s to you, Mom…enjoy.

Sky Paintings 3: Sunset Color

Picture Poem: Palm Balm When the Rainbow is Enough

Picture Poem: Palm Balm When the Rainbow is Enough

Hollywood magic after the rain…looks like a stage set…appropriate

Sunset over Wilshire, Santa Monica

From a greater distance…the clouds are lighting up, it’s showtime

At an earlier moment in time…under a cloud-swept sky

Long-flowing cloud stretches over palms standing out against the sky in stark relief, silhouetted by the brilliant sun

Palms frame the main attraction, a tree’s filigree network of leaves and branches set off by the backdrop of sunset-painted sky

Poised…so many Palms…so much dignity

Drifting off into the clouds..the other side of Wilshire! (Santa Monica, CA)

Heading East up Wilshire after a rainstorm…and seeing the magic of light impacting water

Double Vision

Double Vision…stretching all the way across…such a privilege to witness this splendor

Seeing Red…Santa Monica

Surreal, and quintessentially Los Angeles

 

Celebrating Sky…

Celebrating Sky…and that’s it

Cumulus Clouds…lots of them

Brilliant Silhouette

Flaming Sunset Moon

Cooler Sunset Moon

Punctuated by Palms

Clouds Moving over Wilshire

Heavenly Light

Clouds Laying Low

Our beloved Legion of Honor…part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Pictogram III: Sky High in Santa Monica

Pictogram III: Sky High in Santa Monica

Worth a thousand words?  It would take a poet’s skill to capture these painting of nature  in words. So much we could say..but the “pictogram”  says it all.

Happy Sky-Gazing!

Ceilings: No Limits for 2011!

Ceilings:  No Limits for 2011!

As we  enter the new year, let’s take a minute to consider not limitations, but possibilities!

The ceiling, or  “fifth wall”,  imposes limitations of height, size and shape upon the room it covers.  A defining factor of any interior space, the color and treatment of a room’s ceiling can profoundly affect its ambiance.

Whether you wish to warm up or cool down your interior spaces this year, create more spaciousness or intimacy, or add formality or whimsy, try taking a  fresh look at your ceilings, and pondering their creative  potential.   Consider the ceiling a blank canvass with unlimited possibilities.  After all, the ceiling is our interior sky…and you know the old adage…”the sky’s the limit!”

Here are a few ideas to get you going…

Some folks like it hot…hot color, that is.  Like washes of strong hues on all the walls , and gradated color glazed on the stairway ceiling to express the warmth of a luminous sunset!

The gradated sunset colors overhead flow from yellow to orange to red to violet, as we climb the stairs and turn left into the second floor hallway.  Adjacent is a yellow and black deco bathroom, with a  glazed ceiling that matches the walls.

The theme of sunset also inspired this ceiling treatment.  The young girl who lives here requested a purple sunset cloud and sky treatment.   Five glazes in hues of blue, purple, plum, pink and fuchsia are blended in several layers over a ceiling surface  that curves down to meet the wall’s crown molding.

This kitchen tray ceiling seems made for a multi-color glaze treatment that enhances and accentuates it, adds warmth, depth and interest, and reflects the copper accents throughout the room. The folks  who cook here also appreciate the appetite-stimulating effect of the treatment’s tones of coppery-orange.

Baths and powder rooms are ideal for imaginative, mood-setting ceiling treatments.  The only rules: prepare the surface to be treated properly, and protect it with the appropriate varnish upon completion.  On the recessed ceiling of this bath, blue and pearl glazes are blended together to create a dreamy evening sky punctuated by stenciled silver stars.

The light fixture was the inspiration for the ceiling design in this colorful entry.  The stencil  based on it is set off by sponged and stippled glazes which wrap the entire room.  Mysterious decorative shadows are cast by the light shining through the ornate fixture, adding to the effect!

How about a little gleam and glimmer?  Three successive applications of gold and silver glazes lend depth, shimmer and texture to the entry ceiling of this designer showcase home.  The treatment adds elegance and glamor, and doesn’t compete with the light fixture.

This octagonal domed breakfast room is treated to successive applications of custom metallic gold and silver glazes which  create an effect of both subtlety and richness. If metallic finishes are  applied with a light touch in the right room, they add a bit of magic, and don’t overwhelm the space.

In another domed breakfast room,  the ceiling’s architectural details  are brought out by the application of three soft-colored glazes, applied and blended with sea sponges.  The treatment also warms up this fanciful room, one of many jewels in a magnificent Spanish Revival home.

Two young brothers inhabit this room where rockets zoom, and stars and planets glow from the ceiling above.  Two glaze colors are color washed over the ceiling’s surface, and custom stencils based on the boy’s bedding design are used create a fantasy tableau of outer space.

Have you been moved to create a fun and fabulous ceiling treatment, color choice, texture or application? If you feel so inspired, share it with us here.  We love to hear from you.  Remember, we are all in this thing called Life, together.

All the best for 2011!

Our Color Daze: ColorPlay for EveryDay

Color Daze: ColorPlay for EveryDay

If you were trying to assign a color for each day…what would it be?

Cool Down with Seablue Pearl

In the heat of Summer, or in our case in the Bay Area, Fall…cooling down may take place in a seablue pearl guest room…and since you are the guest, you can relax, dreaming of sky and water.

Sunrise, Sunset...Shorter get the Daze...

Sunny days yield magnificent sunsets which burn into night. Tricky to create this purple sunset sky on the ceiling:  it has to be both soothing and stimulating for the little girl who inhabits this bedroom. Enjoy the days, and minimize the daze, please.

Color me Primary

We are blessed to experience beautiful, bright, crisp fall days here by the Bay…blue skies, liquid gold sunshine, sparkle, and the red edge of Autumn.  The primary triangle is everywhere we look,  filling us with restlessness and energy.  We know the earth is preparing for hibernation, but we feel crisp and alert.

Hallway Heat: Purple Can be Hot

We revel in the heat of Indian Summer, with its rich expression of color…golden sun, sinking into brilliant orange and then deeper purple, at the end of the day.  The air feels hot, and the colors seem to burn.  Our perception of color can actually cause us to feel a 5-7% degree of difference in our body temperature.  Color Power made manifest.

Hot Ceiling: Color Power

During conditions of  Rain, Fog,  Overcast… so common Ocean-side, we can use  some Hot Color to Warm us UP!

Compliments of Royalty

No accident that the complements of gold (yellow) and purple (violet) are the colors of royalty.  The juxtaposition of the complements does not lull us to sleep, it wakes us up, with a sharp edge of contrast: the zing of  citrus and the sweetness of plums.  Complementary couples, much like cymbals, clash together to “make a joyful noise”.  We are startled awake, and though the earth may be settling down  for a long snooze, we wake up,  we are enlivened,  we know we are alive.

Viva Les Colours!