Thank you Steven Kane for this beautiful new photograph: “Foglift, Golden Gate Park.”
Steven writes: “This is new work, and one of my two pieces accepted for a national juried show that opens today at PHOTO, a fine arts photography gallery in Oakland. Opening reception is tonight and the show runs through November 14, so stop by if you’re out on the town!”
Source: Foglift, Golden Gate Park
Snags in Stow Lake (watercolor by Heath Massey)
As both an artist and a naturalist I’m drawn to the dead trees on the islands in Stow Lake. Their skeletal remains stand out dramatically against the sky and they exemplify the natural life cycles in the park. Heavy with ivy, nasturtium and other creeping vines, alive with birds and insects, they are nurturing the next incarnation of the park, whatever that turns out to be.
Dead trees left to decompose in place are called “snags.” They are an important part of any ecosystem, enriching habitat at all stages of their decay. Their cracks and crannies provide nesting opportunities and food storage for many animals, including birds, bats, squirrels and raccoons. Hosting insects, mosses, lichens and fungi, they also offer a rich smorgasbord for feeding wildlife. And the mosses, lichens and fungi help break down the wood and return nutrients to the soil through the nitrogen cycle. Raptors of all kinds love to perch on these snags and survey the hunting scene below. So what’s not to like?
Well, I suppose some might find them unsightly in an urban park designed to look more manicured. And as they decay they could ultimately fall on unsuspecting passers-by or cars. But in the right place, like on these isolated islands in Stow Lake, that potential hazard seems far outweighed by the benefits. I don’t know if these dead trees represent a conscious decision or just a snag in the maintenance schedule. But whatever; I’m sure the local wildlife is grateful for them, as am I.
Rustic Bridge, Stow Lake (watercolor by Heath Massey)
The “Rustic Bridge” at Stow Lake cries out “paint me,” to watercolorists like me. No other spot in Golden Gate Park evokes the English rustic tradition quite so picturesquely as this bridge. Designed by Arthur Page Brown in 1892, it links Strawberry Hill to the mainland on the south side of the lake. Constructed of red chert, the local, sedimentary rock that crowns many of the hills in the city, the bridge blends naturalistically with the surrounding foliage and reflects subtly in the algae-green water of the lake.
Arthur Page Brown completed a remarkable body of work in San Francisco during his brief career. Besides this jewel of a bridge, he designed Trinity Church (Bush and Gough) and the Swedenborgian Church (Lyon and Washington), as well as a number of residences, including the Alban Towne house (1101 California) which was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, but whose portico is now another beloved landmark in Golden Gate Park (Portals of the Past at Lloyd’s Lake). Brown’s most magnificent legacy is the Ferry Building, which he designed in 1892 (it was completed in 1898 after his death).
After graduating from Cornell, Brown worked as a draftsman at the renowned architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White before opening his own firm in New York in 1885. In 1889 he came to San Francisco at the request of Mary Ann Crocker, to design a mausoleum for her husband, the late Charles Crocker, at Mountain View Cemetery. With another commission from Mary Ann Crocker in hand he opened an office in San Francisco, where many prominent Bay Area architects worked for various periods of time, including Willis Polk and Bernard Maybeck.
Arthur Page Brown died in 1896 at the age of 36, from injuries sustained in a run-away horse and buggy accident near his home in Burlingame. I can only imagine the architectural treasures San Francisco might have enjoyed if he had followed the rising trajectory of his early career. But I do think this beautiful bridge in Golden Gate Park would have been hard to top.
http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/b/brownArthurPage.html
La Rose des Vent, a sculpture by Parisian artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, is the newest addition to the gardens outside Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers.
Follow the link below to watch a time-lapse video of the installation, by Scott Enberg.
Tickle the ivories at Flower Piano in the SF Botanical Garden. Photo via Kathryn Rummel
The San Francisco Botanical Garden is hosting Flower Piano, a musical fest that embodies true community and creativity. From July 9-20, twelve pianos will be placed among the colorful, flowering gardens, and visitors are encouraged to showcase their musical talents with anything from Mozart to Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Flower Piano is the brainchild of Half Moon Bay musician Mauro ffortissimo and San Francisco filmmaker Dean Mermell, and is the latest iteration of their Sunset Piano project. The project began when ffortissimo hauled a piano out to the cliffs of Half Moon Bay and played a nightly symphony before sacrificing the grand instrument to the rolling fog (he set the piano on fire once the fog had wreaked too much damage). An extension of ffortissimo’s original seaside concert, Sunset Piano places pianos in unexpected settings all across the Bay Area—along coastlines and in the middle of bustling urban streets.
This rendition of Sunset Piano adds another layer of beauty to the already tranquil and lush SF Botanical Garden. Although anyone can play, Flower Piano promises the talents of professional pianists on select days (make sure to catch Steinway pianist Lara Downes perform at 11am on July 18). Otherwise, celebrate summer with an idyllic stroll among the flowers and see how much of Pachelbel’s Canon you can remember.
Flower Piano is open July 9-20 at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park, 1199 9th Avenue.
via Find the 12 Pianos Hidden in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens | 7×7.
Eucalypti, by Giuseppe Cadenasso (1858-1918), oil on canvas, 48 x 31″
The Cadenasso Group, a grove of Eucalyptus trees on the west shore of Middle Lake in Golden Gate Park, is named in honor of San Francisco painter Giuseppe Cadenasso (1858-1918). Cadenasso arrived in California from Italy at the age of 9 and studied painting at the California School of Design and The Mark Hopkins Institute under Arthur Mathews (1860-1945) and Raymond Yelland (1848-1900). He became a successful Bay Area landscape painter and a leading figure in San Francisco’s artistic community, maintaining a house and studio on Russian Hill until it was destroyed in the fire that followed the 1906 Earthquake. After that tragic event, Cadenasso moved his studio to Oakland, where he been appointed as professor and chair of the art department at Mills College in 1902, a position he held for the rest of his life. He was among a group of celebrated plein air painters in California in this period, who extolled the beauty of the local landscape. Among his favorite subjects were the Eucalyptus trees and, particularly, the varied effects of light on their luminous trunks and dappled foliage.
Golden Gate Park, Giuseppe Cadenasso
Cadenasso was struck and killed by a car at the intersection of Powell and Post in San Francisco in 1918, as he was returning home after seeing his son off to fight in WW I. In 1919, then mayor of San Francisco, James Rolph, requested the dedication of a grove of eucalyptus in Golden Gate Park to commemorate Cadenasso, as he had frequently painted there.
By the Pool, Giuseppe Cadenasso (1858-1918)
Manna gum in Panhandle (sketch by Heath Massey)
These giants in the panhandle must be over a hundred years old. According to Elizabeth McIntock’s pamphlet, Trees of the Panhandle, published in 1973, they are Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) and, in Australia, the favorite food of Koala bears. Sometimes also called Ribbon gum because of the way the multi-colored bark peels off in long ribbons, these trees twist from sturdy, thick trunks to a crown of gracefully contorted branches that brush the sky with light feathery foliage.
Now abundant throughout California as well as Chile and South Africa, they are widely appreciated for their beauty. According to native plant authorities in Australia, this is a promiscuous species (botanically speaking) that readily hybridizes with many other eucalyptus species. Which makes me wonder if we might now have some California eucalyptus hybrids that could rightly be considered native, or at least have earned full citizenship.
Source: http://www.otwaygreening.com.au/fs_euc_viminalis.html
I made this quick water color sketch of a very old eucalyptus in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park a couple of years ago. The bark is amazing; so hard to capture all the nuances of color and pattern. And those twisting branches. I’ll keep trying.
I feel compelled to reblog this post and share these magnificent photographs of eucalyptus trees by Stephen Kane, frequent photographer of Golden Gate Park. Isn’t it strange that admitting the beauty of eucalyptus has become an act of courage (or defiance)? These gorgeous trees not only inspire artists like Stephen Kane, but they are an essential element of the magnificent urban forest in Golden Gate Park.
There, I’ve said it.
Perhaps, indeed, they do not belong in this part of the world. Perhaps, indeed, they will be tinder one day in some terrible conflagration. But I love the eucalyptus trees, their white stripping bark and their dancing grace and their fragrant leaves. I show one here in color, in Golden Gate Park; and in black-and-white, in the southern California community of Seal Beach.
Artist Robert Minervini at a bus stop displaying his artwork “La Poeme de la Vigne (with wine grapes)” on Market Street.
The artist has done six posters about six different monuments in Golden Gate Park, as part of the Art on Market Street series sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission. The posters will be on display through May.
via Painter tells stories behind Golden Gate Park statues – SFGate.
main drive, 1899 (sf public library, historical photo collection)
golden gate park: views from the thicket 