OAKS, FIRES AND PLANS FOR 2019

It has been several months since my last post.  My focus has been elsewhere during that time, preparing work for my Sacramento gallery, fires in the oak regions, holidays, and a bad cold.  I'm back now, painting, planning trips to oak territory, and educating myself about these iconic trees.

 This is a recent painting from a scene on the Hopland Research and Extension Center (U.C.Davis) property, that was untouched by the devastating River Fire, last July.  Two thirds of the oak woodlands and chaparral were burned.   On my last visit to the property in September, I photographed much of the fire ravaged area but also looked for places that were untouched for subject matter to paint.  I will be visiting there in the Spring, hoping to see new growth and wildflowers on and around the fire affected oaks.

During the Winter I paint mostly from photographs, and plan my travels to California's oak regions.  This year my plans include Marine County, the Sierra Foothills east of Sacramento, and ranch lands in the central part of the state (between Gilroy and the Central Valley).

I also spent several days last October, painting and photographing beautiful Bidwell park, just east of Chico. In the Autumn, the park's Blue Oaks turn wonderful shades of rust, and grey green.   It's soft rolling grassy hills and oak woodlands  narrowly escaped the devastating Paradise fire.  I hope to return again this coming year to capture more of it on canvas before more fires threaten.

For the first time since I have lived on the North Coast (40+ yrs), and passed the turn off to Covelo (north of Ukiah) from Hwy 101 hundreds of times,  I finally took the turnoff.  The road (almost 30 miles) leads to a beautiful valley and the Round Valley Indian Reservation.  Someone who follows my work recommended that area for wonderful oak scenery. They were right.  I took lots photos, and am in the process of narrowing down some of the images I want to paint from that trip.  This is one small painting (11 x 14) from that trip.

Anyone with recommendations for beautiful oak scenery, I would love to hear from you.  Please contact me through my web site: kathyoleary.com

RIVER FIRE AT HOPLAND RESEARCH & EXTENSION CENTER

Plein air painting, "Live Oak" Hopland

Painting site after the fire.

  Last September, (2017) I spent a full day visiting with staff and the  property of the Hopland Research and Extension Center, a division of the Agriculture and Natural Resources of University of California. The staff graciously gave me a tour through the property, and then allowed me to travel through much of it to photograph and paint.  On the 5000+ acres I found most of it covered with oak woodlands, and scrub oak and chaparral on the highest peaks of the surrounding hills.  The property contains 11 species of California oaks, so of course, I was in Oak heaven.

Tragically the Hopland Center was a part of the River Fire which burned through the area this Summer and became a part of the larger Mendocino Complex fire .  I was again granted a visit, just last week, to see what had happened to the beautiful property I had toured the year before.   The fire, while it didn't burn any of the ranch buildings, nor injure any of the domestic animals, (mainly sheep and guard dogs) it did burn 2/3rds of their property overall, mostly the oak woodlands and the higher chaparral.  It was quite shocking to see the results of the fire on the beautiful oak landscape. Shocking and fascinating at the same time.  I took lots of photographs. I'm now contemplating how to portray, the results of our ubiquitous summer fires which has the potential to destroy so much of this iconic species of tree in our state. 

As the result of the fire, the Hopland Research and Extension Center is becoming an important study area for many groups/organizations to study what happens after a fire, recovery processes over time, and how to prevent such devastation in the first place.  For example, staff pointed out that areas where they had done controlled burns in the past couple of years, showed much less damage to the trees themselves as there was far less fuel load for fire.  And we know that the Native People who populated early California's oak woodlands, used land use stewardship practices, such as controlled burns to ensure the health of the oaks and related native grasses, and animals.  I will be visiting again the middle of October, and will post any updates of interest.  You can also see what is happening by going to their Facebook page: hopland research and extension center.

"AVENUE OF THE SUN" (OAK HINGE)

Painting:  Across The Valley, 11 x 14, oil

Joseph P Grant park, (owned and run by Santa Clara County) in the foothills below Mt. Hamilton's Lick Observatory (World's first mountain top observatory, 1888), was a wonderful place to view this year's Summer Solstice.  Camping for the week of the Solstice, I went specifically to experience the phenomena and meet with the man who discovered the Avenue of the Sun, or Oak Hinge, as some have called it.  Ron Bricmont, who has been coming to the park since it opened in 1978, discovered the Avenue in 1998, and has continued to expand his knowledge and writing about it ever since.

While there are at least 6 oak species in the park, (Coast, Interior, and Canyon Live Oaks, and Blue, Black and Valley Oaks) it is the Valley Oaks (mostly on the valley floor and lower hills) which he discovered had been laid out as an avenue aligned with the Summer Solstice.  Through his explorations and research, he learned that the earlier people, the Northern Valley Yokuts, (for at least 5000 years) and for 100 years before white settlement, the Ohlone people, created and maintained the alignment of Valley Oaks with the rising sun of the Summer Solstice.  These ancient trees are from 400-500 years old.  When a tree died, the Indians burned it out then replanted a new tree to maintain the alignment.  While he doesn't know how old the alignment is, he knows the grove is older than the oldest tree.

Tempera Sketch:  Solstice Oak

Ron pointed out that the alignment is actually the heart of a larger grove which includes a Winter Solstice alignment.  (The oldest Valley Oak in the larger grove is 750 years old)  Originally there was a ritual path tying the arrangement of the trees together, which then became a ranch road, (Grant Ranch), and finally a paved park road.  I met Ron on the road 2 days before the actual Solstice where he discussed his discovery and what he has learned subsequently about the Avenue.  There are 6 trees in the alignment. One tree on top of a hill on the Eastern side of the valley floor, which he called the 6th tree, is where the Solstice sun rises.  The other 5 are on the valley floor.  On the Solstice, this is the tree I focused my camera on for the first glimpse of the rising sun.

Bricmont is working on plans for creating interpretive panels about the Avenue of the Sun for the park and a scholarly paper on the subject for future publication.  I want to express my appreciation to Ron for passing on his knowledge of this amazing place.  Living for a week at Grant Park, painting oaks on location, meeting Ron, and experiencing the summer Solstice on the "Avenue" of ancient Valley Oaks has been the highlight of my California Oak Trail so far.

SACRAMENTO TREES FOUNDATION

In May I had to drop off paintings for Sacramento's Crocker Art museum's annual fundraiser auction.  I decided while I was there I would use the time to explore the oaks of that region.  Known as the "City of Trees", I contacted the Sacramento Trees Foundations prior to arriving to get some recommendations.  I visited several parks and found some great examples of healthy, old valley oak trees.  My favorite sites included Consumness River Preserve (South of Sacramento), and several neighborhood city parks.

Large Valley oak

I have forgotten the name of this park, but it sat in the middle of a neighborhood of apartments and single family dwellings on 3 sides and commercial buildings on the 4th side.  Supposedly one of Sacramento's largest valley oaks lived in this park, but among the 8 + huge valley oaks I couldn't tell which one was the largest.  All healthy specimens, however.

NATOMAS PARK

My favorite place however, (visited twice) was the Natomas "Heritage Oak Grove".  Also situated in a neighborhood, off of the Garden Highway, next to the American River.  The park contains remnants of an historic oak forest that once filled the entire Sacramento River Valley.  The total acreage of valley oak woodlands is less than 10% of what it was 150 years ago.  These trees are aged between 200 to 350 years old. 

Natomas Heritage Oak Grove

Valley oaks are the tallest of the oaks.  To get a feel of their height, my husband took this photo of me in the middle of the grove.  It's hard to describe the feeling of being among these magnificent trees, but I know the land use stewardship practices of the Maidu people who inhabited this land for hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years is the reason for the health and longevity of these trees.  Thanks to them, we can continue to enjoy their beauty today.  Also thanks to the Sacramento Trees Foundation for educating the public and protecting these trees for future generations. Finally, appreciation must go to Austin B. Carroll (1917-2002), who is credited with preserving Sacramento's oaks and helping to start the Sacramento Trees Foundation.

NEXT POST:  Avenue of the Sun, (Oak Hinge), 2018 Summer Solstice, Joseph Grant Santa Clara County Park.

CONTINUING MY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TRAIL

Coastal Live Oak, Santa Rosa Plateau

There are basically two broad categories of oak species, deciduous and live. These include the large trees as well as the 'scrub oak' varieties.  I must admit I started out being biased somewhat against live oaks as they seemed to all look the same to me.  Their branch formations aren't as sculptural as the deciduous oaks (Black Oaks, Valley oaks, Blue Oaks, Engleman Oaks - see photo in the last post), and they don't have the beautiful Fall and Spring colors.  But as I traveled I saw as many live oaks as deciduous oaks on this trip and often only live oaks (Coast Live Oak, canyon Live Oak, and Interior Live Oak), and decided they too have their own beauty, very sculptural under the dense canopy, and a special feel of their own.

In early Spring, many of the deciduous oaks are at various stages of 'leaf out'.  At Yosemite, no leaf out yet, and many of the Southern climes are in the flowering (pink & orange) stage with the first bright leaves beginning to pop out.  the live oaks are blooming now too, but it's more subtle, they are basically green.  Many of the Coast Live Oaks are very large.  Their branches grow out and can support a huge canopy.  Some of the most interesting things about the live oaks was being underneath and experiencing the light and shadow as it filters through the canopy.  It will be interesting to try to translate that view of live oaks in a painting.  Lastly, finding the Elfin Forest near Moro Bay, was a real teat.  The Coast Live Oaks there are dwarfed due to weather conditions, creating trees with tops 12 feet in height, instead of the normal 40 - 50 feet high, but with a similar umbrella like canopy, with twisting  wide spreading branches close to the ground to support their tops.

Elfin Live Oak, Moro Bay

I'm still digesting my recent trip as I review over 700 photos.  As a painter it was a different experience.  I normally pick a scene I want to paint,  set up, and start putting paint on canvas. It's a physical forward movement toward a goal while I remain in one spot.  Photographing, walking, looking and touching, digesting the whole environment of the oaks requires a slightly different mindset.  At first I felt like I should be "doing something".  But since I really knew very little about oaks except that I thought they were beautiful, I came to accept the fact that because I wanted to focus on them in my art over the next several years, I realized that my knowledge and experince of them is an important part of my process.  My educational phase as it were.

Southern California Oak Trail

Painting: "Valley Oaks, Hwy 152", oil,  12 x 16

My first trip to see the Southern California oaks was an exploration of  oak environments from the north end of the San Juaquin Vally (Yosemite & foothills east of Fresno), then to Palmdale, and the southern mountain ranges, including Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest  and the Cleveland National Forest between Anza-Borrego, and San Diego.  Then returning home I followed a more coastal route  through San Luis obispo, Morro Bay, Los Padres National Forest, and the ranch lands along Hwy 152 between Gilroy and Los Banos.

A wonderful book "Oaks Of California" (by co-authors, Bruce Pavlik, Pamela Muick, Sharon Johnson and Marjorie Popper, published by California Oak Foundation, offered me a useful guide as to where I would find oaks, and used that to set much of my trip planning.  I was also going to paint along the way, and packed everything I would need. However, for me to paint on location I would need to land somewhere for at least 2 nights.  But, it didn't turn out that way.

In order to cover so many miles, on  rural and mountainous roads, my trip ended up being mostly single night stays, and  about just getting to know the various oaks and their environs.  Not painting, but just exploring and taking photos, gave me a chance to walk among the trees in the places they grew, see the various acorns they produced, see the birds, wildflowers & grasses, other animals surrounding the trees.  I ended up studying them, with my senses and my camera rather than with my paint brush.

So this journey begins with a process of learning about the oaks of California.  Traveling to experience their visual beauty, learn their history, their value, their gifts to the life around them. It’s a process of finding different oak species and seeing them in their home place.  Then developing approaches/ideas  about how I want to portray them on canvas (and occasionally on paper).

Beginning the Oak Trail

Painting:  "Summer In The Hills" 24x36, oil

As a native Californian  I’m focused on the oaks of my home state. I learned through my first trip of discovery (April1 - April 19) however, that this is rather a more complex project than I initially envisioned.  I titled this blog "California Oak Trails, a Painter’s Journey". However, this first trip was more "…Oak Trails", rather  than a painting experience.    

China Creek Valley Oaks  (Centerville)

Over the years, oak trees have often appeared in my paintings.  They present a beautiful natural structure in the landscape - great reflectors of light and shadow, and wonderful compositional elements for designing a painting.

To begin this project I wanted  to learn the names of the trees I would be painting, and the number of species of oaks there were in California. Then the more I learned about oaks, it became clear that the native people of California, (for several hundreds even thousands of years) used land stewardship practices that nurtured and maintained healthy oaks,  as they provided so much life sustaining support for these original people.  And it's thanks to them that we have the long lived and rich variety of oaks we have here in California.  Thus, my journey will include making a point of learning what native people lived where - who took care of the oaks in the region I’m photographing and  painting. Another layer of complexity.

Photographing Engleman oaks in Spring, Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve