Tag: painting

Murals on two Encinitas shipping containers.

These two shipping containers in Encinitas were painted years ago. For a long time, visitors to Charlie’s Electric Bikes could observe them in the parking lot, behind a bunch of bicycles. That eBike business no longer exists–the building is now home to Charlie’s Electric Studio. The two old containers remain.

The artwork was painted by Encinitas artist Kevin Anderson. Yes, you’ve possibly seen his work all around coastal San Diego North County. Find many of his very beautiful murals by clicking here.

During my recent walk in downtown Encinitas, I crossed the Charlie’s Electric Studio parking lot from South Coast Highway 101 to take these photographs.

You can see how the art has faded over the years, especially on the second shipping container I photographed, which was the first to be painted.

This next shipping container was the first to be painted. It’s the most faded:

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Painting murals on Imperial Avenue under Interstate 15.

Colorful new murals are now being painted on either side of Imperial Avenue beneath Interstate 15.

This public art beautifying the freeway underpass is the first part of a larger multi-location project, organized by Logan Heights CDC, Caltrans, SANDAG, Team Lewis, the Urban Collaborative Project, and local artists. This first group of murals is scheduled to be completed next month.

I swung by today to check out the progress!

One of the artists, Romeo, was up on the scaffolding spray painting his beautiful creation. His mural, like others being painted nearby, has a universally loved theme: music.

Some of the columns supporting Interstate 15 will have several sides painted. Those riding the Orange Line of the San Diego Trolley will be able to view a portion of the art.

You might enjoy seeing what I discovered.

Once the murals are completed and the scaffolding is removed, I hope to return for another batch of photographs…

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

Tattoos become a mural at Liberty Station!

When I visited Liberty Station about a week ago, I checked out this newly painted mural. It’s located in the arched breezeway that connects The Lot movie theater with the Dorothea Laub Dance Place.

The colorful mural is composed of bold designs that one might select at a tattoo parlor!

Estación Libertad is the mural’s title and Mexican American artist Enrique “Chikle” Lugo is the creator. The art was commissioned by Liberty Station. It’s the latest work of public art you can enjoy at the former home of Naval Training Center San Diego.

Dragon, butterflies, hummingbird, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, a Navy anchor, skull, cacti, eagle, dolphin, a zebra-like Tijuana zonkey, a baseball and soccer ball… Many of the images are associated with San Diego or the unique culture of our border region.

I see a flying saucer, too!

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Local artist Paul Strahm paints in Pacific Beach!

Paul Strahm, accomplished local plein air painter, was doing his thing in Pacific Beach today. I ran into him by the boardwalk south of Crystal Pier. He was smiling as usual.

I learned that one of his beach paintings is now on display at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park–part of their Changing Terrain exhibition. He has another piece, too, now on display at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

On my way home I swung by the San Diego History Center to check out his painting exhibited there. Here it is…

Mission Beach, 2024, Paul Strahm. Oil on canvas.

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

Inspired art exhibit at Liberty Station!

Artist: Weston Riffle.

You might enjoy the artwork now on display in the Dick Laub Command Center Gallery at Liberty Station. The current exhibition is titled Inspired.

Works by seven Liberty Station based artists hang in the lobby of the NTC Dick Laub Command Center. If you are interested in a particular piece, all are for sale. Swing by the studios of more than 40 artists in the nearby barracks buildings, and you can find even more!

It seems every time I walk in Point Loma through Liberty Station, I discover new art! More blog posts from my most recent visit are upcoming!

The Inspired exhibition is open Monday through Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm, through October 3, 2026.

Some of what you’ll see:

Artist: Chakib Bouhdary.
Artist: Katerina Husar-Lazarova.
Artist: Colleen Veltz.
Artist: Lauren LeVieux.

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Art benches inside Liberty Station’s Dance Place!

Artist: Alicia Hourican, Shanna Little.

Many years ago I shared photos of art benches scattered about Liberty Station. See those by clicking here.

Today I happened to walk through the Dorothea Laub Dance Place building at Liberty Station. What did I discover? Seven more artistically painted benches!

I actually found eight, but there was one that I had photographed previously (it must have been subsequently moved into the Dance Place.) I won’t include it in this blog post.

These seven colorfully painted benches include artist names. So read the captions.

Artist: Morse High School.
Artist: Jennifer Peterson.
Artist: Viviana Lombrozo.
Artist: Alfred Ventura.
Artist: Blair Thornley.
Artist: Elizabeth Andrews Zaikowski.

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Changing Terrain at the San Diego History Center.

Changing Terrain: Regional Artists Interpret Our Landscape opened a week ago at the San Diego History Center. The diverse works of art on display are one half of a larger regional group exhibition. The Oceanside Museum of Art is hosting the other half.

Landscapes shown to be undergoing change range from urban to rural. The artists render vastly different landscapes: from the coast to the foothills to the mountains to the desert. Some of the pieces reflect transformations made by human activity, others effected by nature. They provoke deeper thought about our environment. They can inspire a whole range of feelings.

The varied landscapes include everything from a beach boardwalk, to a 150-year old Live Oak at the Marston House, to a streetscape in Logan Heights, to a modern cell tower with ravens and crows, to a merging of ancient rock art with an abstracted landscape, to views of Anza-Borrego from a car’s mirror…

I recognized many of the local artist names–all of them distinguished. They have successfully captured the beauty, complexity, and resilience of a border region where natural and human histories continually intersect.

My photos show the extent of the exhibition. Pay a visit to the free San Diego History Center in beautiful Balboa Park and see this great art with your own eyes!

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

San Diego art at the Courthouse Gallery.

San Diego Waterfront, Olga Freedman.

A new exhibition has opened this month at downtown San Diego’s outdoor Courthouse Gallery!

The theme this time is Artist’s Choice. Entries were accepted from around Southern California.

There are abstracts, portraits and landscapes, but I gravitated toward painted scenes of places in and around San Diego.

If you’d like to experience some great art, walk down Broadway beside the Edward J. Schwartz Courthouse and peer through the windows from the sidewalk.

Ode to Mission Trails, Elizabeth Washburn.
Sunny Day in North Park, San Diego, Olga Freedman.
California Tower, Norma Herrera.
Torrey Pines Del Mar, Terry Orletsky.
Ramona Road, Katie Karosich.

…

If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

Healthcare workers as superheroes street art!

I saw this today and thought you might enjoy it, too!

Healthcare workers as superheroes has been painted on an electrical box in San Diego’s Grantville neighborhood. You can find the fun street art at an intersection near Kaiser Zion Medical Center.

Spider-Man is swinging along holding Boba Fett, apparently taking him to the hospital emergency room!

Did the web-slinging Marvel superhero rescue Boba Fett from the sarlacc? Does that explain the Star Wars bounty hunter’s survival?

We rise by helping others…

Thank you healthcare workers!

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)

Drift into a weird place at the Timken Museum!

At the front desk of the Timken Museum of Art, I learned some visitors really love the museum’s current exhibition Drift, while others hate it. I’m not entirely sure what my own reaction is.

Drift was created by the Timken’s summer artist in residence Margaret Noble. As the exhibition webpage explains: Drift brings together sculpture, sound, and moving images to explore the ways in which space and perception are experienced. Drawing inspiration from François Boucher’s Lovers in a Park (1758), Noble reinterprets Rococo ideals by introducing motion and layered context through reverse glass animation, revealing and disrupting the painting’s serene, ornamental narrative.

During the unsettling video, thick black paint creeps into the frame of Lovers in a Park in unexpected ways. Black birds (crows?) fly through the Rococo painting, as does a drone. A robot, a sinister masked face, ants and a rat appear. Tiny human figures tumble into consuming blackness. The intruding images tend not to be pleasant. The video feels subversive, juvenile, but not entirely so. To me, the effect is mostly experimental and weird.

Does the artist mean to say contemporary thinking is dark and cynical, and opposed to the Rococo ideals of pure beauty and love? Contemporary art often seems that way.

Perhaps the creepiest part of the video was when the two lovers became slowly covered by a big black blob. From it a claw-like hand emerged, reaching toward the passing peasant girl. (Reminding me of the black symbiote in Spider-Man!)

In the Timken Museum’s atrium, people can use black cut-out shapes to create their own altered Lovers in a Park. The figures visitors are provided with are less creepy and include butterflies, dragonflies and dogs.

What does it say about the artist’s intentions and broader human nature–that the video is very different from what museum visitors can happily assemble?

…

To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)