Tag: artwork

Two eras: Contrasted paintings at Timken Museum.

The Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park has opened a fascinating exhibition titled Reconsidering Bierstadt: Kent Monkman. Visitors to the fine art museum are encouraged to compare two similar but very different works: Albert Bierstadt‘s 1864 painting Cho-looke, The Yosemite Fall, and First Nation Cree artist Kent Monkman‘s 2012 work The Fourth World.

The photograph above shows Kent Monkman’s painting (on loan from the Denver Art Museum) which reimagines the Bierstadt piece in the light of a different perspective.

Bierstadt’s oil painting conveys a sense of rustic tranquility and natural beauty; the somewhat shocking bottom portion of Monkman’s bolder, brighter acrylic piece shows bison being frightened and funneled in Yosemite through sheer steel walls by white men with guns.

Monkman’s contemporary painting clearly expresses that an environment can be forcibly altered by the actions of humans. Like any good art, the image ignites complex thought.

I’m no expert when it comes to the history of Yosemite. Doing some online research, I was surprised to learn that, according to a National Park Service Facebook post: Here in Yosemite, though, bison have never roamed.

Here’s the bottom portion of The Fourth World:

The next photograph is of Cho-looke, The Yosemite Fall. It’s darker, vaguer, somehow more sublime. (The docent thought perhaps the painting needs to be cleaned.)

This Smithsonian website has a better photograph and explains: Bierstadt was inspired to paint Yosemite after seeing Carleton Watkins’s photographs in a New York gallery in 1862…In 1864, the year Bierstadt painted this view, President Abraham Lincoln set aside Yosemite as a protected reserve…

Head down to the Timken Museum of Art when they’re open and observe both canvases up close. When I visited, a friendly docent was standing by to answer questions and provide more insight.

The Timken, which contains many painted masterpieces, is always free! The exhibition will continue through June 8th, 2025.

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Beautiful San Diego Landscapes in Balboa Park!

San Diego and its surrounding region is so beautiful. There’s the coast and the hills and canyons and mountains, all fantastic subjects for painters of landscapes. A group of artists from North County has captured some of this beauty.

The Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild is now presenting their exhibition Beautiful San Diego Landscapes in Balboa Park. The exhibit can be freely experienced by anyone who ventures into Gallery 21 of Spanish Village Art Center. The gallery hours are 11 am to 4 pm. The exhibition continues through April 7, 2025.

Most of the pieces I saw depict picturesque spots in San Diego, including beaches, Point Loma, La Jolla, San Diego Bay and the rugged landscapes of East County. I noticed flowers fill quite a few canvases, too.

I enjoyed a short talk with smiling artist Linda and learned all of the pieces in the exhibit are for sale. She confided that buyers can negotiate the price. If you’re searching for some very fine artwork you should come on by!

A few examples…

Flower Fields in Carlsbad, by Linda Bourne-Marcos.
Torrey Pines at La Jolla Shores, by Laura Wheeler.
San Diego Spring, by Anne Benkendorf.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Stories that connect us in Oceanside.

Currently running at the Oceanside Museum of Art is an exhibition titled The Stories that Connect Us: Selections from the OMA Collection.

Each work by 35 Southern California artists is like a unique story that invites you to think, interpret, dream–and thereby become part of the same story. Your inclusion in each artwork’s story might be untold, but it is real.

The museum’s collection contains diverse pieces in different styles, some by highly renowned artists such as John Baldessari and James Hubbell.

I was surprised to learn the Baldessari piece in the exhibit was painted circa 1959, before the artist burned “all” of his work. His Wikipedia page explains: In 1970, Baldessari and five friends[8] burnt all of the paintings he had created between 1953 and 1966 as part of a new piece, titled The Cremation Project. The ashes from these paintings were baked into cookies… This painting survived.

Here are a few photos. If you’d like to become an integral part of these stories, visit the Oceanside Museum of Art by August 31, 2025.

(Forest), John Baldessari, circa 1959. Oil and mixed media on canvas.
Star Stalker, Walter Wojtyla, 1996. Acrylic on canvas.
Influx, Toni Williams, 2023. Oil on canvas.
Untitled (Two Figures with Purple/Pink/Orange Skies), Janet Cooling, 1980s. Oil on canvas.

The following James Hubbell watercolor includes a poem that he wrote in 2004. To read it, visit the museum!

The exhibition also includes two small, typically beautiful Hubbell sculptures.

In the Beginning, James Hubbell, circa 2007. Watercolor.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Written in the Stars at the Chula Vista library!

Now on display in Chula Vista’s Civic Center Branch Library are six paintings created last summer during the Chula Vista ArtFest. The theme for the artists was “Written in the Stars.”

I stopped by the library today during a long walk in South Bay.

Readers of Cool San Diego Sights might recognize two of the artist names: Signe Ditona (of Ground Floor Murals) and Shirish Villaseñor. Many of their colorful murals have appeared on my blog in the past!

Artist Shirish Villaseñor
Artist Kyle Garrity
Artist Leslye Villaseñor
Artist Signe Ditona
Artist Iris Wise
Artist Iz Inocencio

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Mural in San Diego Waterfront Park stairwell.

On the south side of San Diego’s popular Waterfront Park, a stairwell descends to an underground parking lot. This colorful mural greets people as they begin to descend the stairs.

The public art, dated 2014, is a photo reproduction on aluminum of San Diego-based contemporary artist Allison Renshaw‘s original painting Last Call, which is on display inside the nearby County Administration Building.

As the artist’s website explains: Allison’s work offers multiple perspectives, discordant vocabularies, and malleable boundaries. Her art is informed by particles of our urban and natural landscape along with culture found in the everyday…

I can’t believe it took me 11 years to finally share a good photograph of this eye-catching art. Back in 2014, I posted a blog documenting opening day at Waterfront Park, and you can get a glimpse of the mural in one of those photographs!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Award-winning artist Clay Harris exhibits in Balboa Park!

The work of award-winning digital artist Clay Harris will be on exhibit for the next two weeks in San Diego.

Clay’s stunning artwork can be viewed beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) in Gallery 21, at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park. The exhibition is titled Images from the mind of a Mind Voyager! It will run through March 10.

I stumbled upon Clay today as he was setting up the exhibition. He’s the coolest guy you could ever hope to meet.

After checking out his fantastic images of birds, turtles and other marine life, I paused to learn about his art. The high quality digital art is printed on aluminum, and the process creates an uncanny sense of depth. The pieces I observed shine as if light is being reflected from water.

Clay Harris over the years has had his art displayed at many festivals and in many galleries. So many people have asked that he create large pieces for their homes.

I encourage everyone to head down to Balboa Park and check out this special exhibition. And meet an award-winning artist who will make you smile!

Some examples:

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Organization helps comic book artists in San Diego!

Do you live in San Diego? Are you a comic book artist who’d like to collaborate and grow with others who share your interests? There’s a cool organization you should check out!

The CASD Collective (Comicbook Artists of San Diego) is a group of people who’ve come together to build a local community of comic book artists to foster artistic growth and to showcase their artwork.

I met one of their smiling members at this weekend’s Black Comix Day event in Balboa Park, inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center.

That’s cartoonist and writer Lyssette Williams smiling in the above photo, and some of her artwork below!

Members of CASD Collective attend cons, pop culture festivals and San Diego events promoting each others’ work. I remember seeing them at the North Park Book Fair, Fangaea Con, and at a Free Comic Book Day event in Kearny Mesa a couple years ago!

Here’s a photo of one member at Free Comic Book Day!

Members also come together to produce zines and anthologies. Perhaps you’ve seen their work at San Diego Zine Fest.

Do you want to be a successful comic book artist but don’t know how to proceed? Join others on the fun journey!

Are you an experienced artist looking for more friends and collaborators? This might be the place for you!

If CASD Collective sounds interesting, take a look at their website by clicking here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share this!

A refreshing sip of fine art at UC San Diego!

Very unusual public art stands near the center of the UC San Diego’s large La Jolla campus. While this surprising work of art might splash your nose, it’s not in your face. What I mean by that is: while you’re bent over enjoying a cool drink, you might not know that the fountain is a work of fine art by an important artist. There’s no sign or plaque indicating such.

This untitled work of public art—an exact replica in granite of commercial metal fountains typically found in schools, business offices and government buildings–is part of UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection of art. It was created in 1991 by internationally recognized conceptual artist Michael Asher.

Michael Asher believed that an artwork’s encompassing environment determines how we perceive it. As his Wikipedia biography explains: Asher’s work takes the form of “subtle yet deliberate interventions – additions, subtractions or alterations – in particular environments.” His pieces were always site-specific; they were always temporary, and whatever was made or moved for them was destroyed or put back after the exhibitions. This untitled work at UC San Diego is his first permanent public outdoor work in the United States.

I took a refreshing sip from the fountain during my last visit to UCSD. To my right stood a flagpole, and beyond that a historical marker indicating the campus is located on the old site of Camp Calvin B. Matthews, a rifle and artillery training base of the United States Marine Corps. (See my blog post concerning the historical marker by clicking here.) Asher placed the drinking fountain at this precise spot, directly opposite the historical monument, after a lot of deliberation.

There’s more to this “mysterious” work of art than you might suppose. Please read all about it by visiting the Stuart Collection website here.

This very special drinking fountain can be found south of the Price Center, in grassy, park-like UCSD Town Square.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

New year brings fresh art to Oceanside’s Artist Alley!

The many small murals painted on a low wall in Oceanside’s Artist Alley change from time to time. The alley is like a living thing!

I was told by a shopkeeper that some of the murals you see in today’s photos were painted during the recent holidays. Other artwork was created early this year.

Oceanside’s unique Artist Alley is located directly south of the city library and civic center, on the other side of Pier View Way. It’s the home of many cool, artsy specialty shops.

If you’d like to learn more about Artist Alley, and see how this wall of murals appeared four years ago, click here.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

Sea life mosaics installed at Chula Vista trolley station!

Gorgeous glass mosaics depicting sea life were recently installed at the E Street trolley station in Chula Vista. The artwork was created by Rainforest Art Project (@rainforestartproject). The mosaics are meant to inspire people traveling through San Diego’s South Bay. Eyes are encouraged to look out at the world with a sense of wonder.

The mosaics are part of the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Color the Corridor project. You might recall that a long mural has been painted on a wall just north of the same trolley station. See my blog post concerning that by clicking here.

A short video concerning these new sea life mosaics can be viewed here.

Many of the glass mosaics aren’t readily visible to passengers waiting for a trolley on the E Street station platform. As you can see from my next photograph, most of the fish, whales, birds and turtles overlook Interstate 5 below.

Hopefully drivers whizzing down the busy freeway or heading up the nearby off-ramp observe this incredible public art!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!