Tending the Garden at Blake House, Kensington

Pleased to have my painting, "Tending the Garden at Blake House, Kensington," selected to be included in the Bay Area Life 2018 show at Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek, California, May 12- June 23, 2018.

Juror, Emma Acker, is the Associate Curator of American Art for the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco.

 Blake House, in Kensington, California, is a University of California property that includes the Blake Garden, which is managed as a teaching facility by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. The garden is a regional resource that is open to the public on weekdays and known for its outstanding collection of plants assembled by the Blake family between 1922 and 1962 and augmented by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning since its acquisition in 1957.

A friend and I painted here not long ago, and I took photos of these women tending to the lush plantings in the garden. Recently, I created this watercolor impression of the garden and the ladies, using the photos for reference.