Muir Beach completed piece

 

Point Arena scene

...first round pen and wash sketch from Point Arena location...

second round painting layers with gouache 

 

100 degrees in WC and the family goes to Roosevelt beach on the Pacifc coast for relief

Digital painting using the Concepts app and iPad. 

The Cliff House Design Proposal to bring it back to Life

 Mark Twain, during an 18-week stint as a full time reporter for the Morning Call, wrote one of his first articles about visiting the Cliff House. In June 1864 he wrote, “If one tire of the drudgeries and scenes of the city, and would breathe the fresh air of the sea, let him take the cars and omnibuses, or, better still, a buggy and pleasant steed, and, ere the sea breeze sets in, glide out to the Cliff House”.

 

A very good friend of mine, Tom Direnzo, posed this question to me last week, "What should happen to the Cliff House?"  Since the 1980's, I often have wondered and dreamed about the settings of the Cliff House and the ruins of the Sutro Baths. What was it like in earlier 1900's? Was the Cliff House a treat for any and all living and visiting the fair city of San Francisco? What were the baths like?

 

And now in the later stages of the pandemic where we are trying to return to our former ways of life and work with caution, I think again about what could one do to the Cliff House to bring it forward into a new age and new use? In addition to the fabulous views, and wonderful sea air, what could we consider?

        

Consider the pandemic as a wake-up call from “Mother Nature“ demanding that we figure out how to: consume less; to clean up our spaces and places and cities; to practice smart manufacture processes; to farm locally and responsibly; to reduce livestock farming; to clean our oceans and remove all plastic; to work with little or no travel by air; to fight and remove toxins; to promote equality; to learn how to respect the earth and recognize that we have to get in synch; to slow down and enjoy life; and to nurture our environment and our delicate ecosystems.

 

With those new guidelines, and measures we should follow, the Cliff House building and the surrounding site area could be considered as a perfect opportunity, a new total Experience, to transform the set of terraced spaces into a new hybrid mixture of functions to include education, research, nutrition, history, tidal and solar and wind energy, and food supply.

Some of these new spaces and experiences could include: 

Once established and running, this Cliff House project can serve as an example where settings for human activity nurtures the ecosystems that we all depend on — a world of sustainable regions; empowered and resilient communities; zero waste and zero toxics and zero regrets; equal access to healthy food; sustainable resource development and use; and a safe and healthy ocean and climate.

 

What do you think?

What would you propose?

Doug Wittnebel
Architect and Artist
2/2021

Mahi Mahi, Dorado, Dolphin fish

Painted view looking south from Terranea cove to Portuguese Bend

Pacific Beach California

Monterey Bay Aquarium visit with a painted view of the Look-down fish

Freshly painted view of Monterey Bay

Virgin Gorda and the Baths with waterspout

On the rocky arrival to Virgin Gorda, the sight of a waterspout brings a memory of a Winslow Homer painting

Surfer, Ocean and lifeguard station, Cowell Beach, Santa Cruz

Wet and rainy Sunday afternoon, Dad and daughter painting time, new sliding door panels for laundry room storage

First a pencil sketch, then Sharpie black outlines and then color infill...

MORI - Forest or woods in Japanese

That is a sea otter in the water, catching fish for lunch...

Ginkakuji temple in Kyoto, sand garden setting..."sea of silver sand"

The Silver pavilion's two stories are constructed in two different architecture styles and within there stands a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy.  The interior of the pavilion is not open to the public.


The Silver Pavilion was never really covered in silver like the Golden Pavilion.  More likely the thought is that the name arose as a nickname more than a century after the building's construction to contrast it with the Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion in western Kyoto, or it might have been that moon light reflecting on the structure's dark exterior (which used to be covered in a type black lacquer in the past, love to have seen that) gave it a kind of silvery like appearance.  A setting in front of the pavilion is an expansive, meticulously maintained dry sand/gravel garden feature known as the "Sea of Silver Sand", with a massive and perfectly formed truncated sand cone named "Moon Viewing Platform". 

On the day of my visit, it was hot, very hot.  95 degrees and the sun was intense.  Around the base of the truncated cylinder and around the base of the whole sea of sand, there were small holes created by digger wasps, creating harbors in the sand for their future offspring.

Weekend at Pacific Grove, California

A painted view of the weekend scene in Pacific Grove, California...always a beautiful place to visit, foggy days or sunny days...