This painting is a memoir of an Eastern European painter exploring and reflecting on California. The memoir is a off course a visual snapshot of sorts, as well as an intellectual and aesthetical vision of the bay area. Coming from a former communist country what strikes me here is the extraordinary light, sun, color, warmth, nature and general happiness and abundance in California.
California is as close to an artistic promised land as it gets. David Hackney writes about the various virtues of California over Europe in terms of light, scenery, imagery, symbolism and topics. I began to understand this only here, otherwise I would have dismissed this as naïve and banal. A lot of my paintings so far have been an observation of America from the outside. Right now I am on the inside. I am here and want to share what I see and how I see it. Maybe that is, why you might call this painting my vision from San Francisco Bay.
This painting is definitely a lot more then a vision or an interpretation, but a reality. The lush and exotic flowers, plants, scents are what I discovered during house visits with collectors and my walks through Hillsborough, Atherton, Palo Alto, Los Gatos and Burlingame. Looking at the painting you can feel the midday temperature sun, sounds of daily life, hummingbirds and smell of the flowers. A day in California is never just another day, it is a day in sunny California, with potential and opportunities. The colors, temperature and saturation are not accidental here but provide the essence of California. Observation here is important. you cannot be unreflective in California. There is so much going on. Although many places in California have suburban feel to it there is a lot of energy that make this place feel cosmopolitan and well connected. California is fool of tunes. From iTunes in Cupertino to Looney tunes in the studios in Los Angeles.
California is well balanced. Humans respect nature and civilization is kept at bay. Humans respectably transform nature and technology leads back to nature. From flower power to tech and from tech to landscape, nature and flowers. Welcome to iFornia.