Driving with no Map

Landscape painters are like landscape photographers—at the mercy of chance. You have to go looking for inspiration, not knowing if you’ll find it. I liken the search for beauty in the world to painting with watercolor. With watercolor, you can’t control what you get; the water does its own thing. Sometimes what the water does is far more beautiful than what you intended.

This past year, I’ve been going on landscape scouting trips with my son, William. We have a mutual love of driving without a map. This Spring, we headed out on route 37 through Napa, and just let the road take us somewhere.

Will has a good eye for composition and often says “You should paint that.” When he says that, we pull over and explore. While I am climbing over fences or standing in the road to get a shot, he is doing his own thing. It’s hard to find a traveling partner who can tolerate random stops all day with no plan, so I’m grateful for his patience. Scouting solo is a lonely business.

We set out in April to find the mustard which grows in the vineyards in the spring. We were too late for mustard, but we did see some lovely winter trees. Just a random lane beside a winery.

We also found the incredible Petaluma Creamery in Petaluma. When I saw the building, lit up by the western sun, I yelled for joy. We pulled over immediately and took a hundred pictures. What a facade! That pale yellow color turns to gold when burnished by late afternoon light. I had a little help from photoshop to put the lettering on the building, which isn’t there in real life.

In September, we wound our way over a ridge from Napa to Sonoma and ran into a great red barn on a sleepy road. It was so hot you could feel the fire danger in the air. Windows rolled down and hot air on our arms. A lovely dinner in the Sonoma square topped off the evening. A random and serendipitous experience. Looking forward to more trips with my scouting partner in the future.