Laura Cunningham Art and Nature

500 years ago: imagine standing on Nob Hill in present San Francisco looking eastward towards the East Bay, Mt Diablo barely visible in the distance. The middle ground Bay shore to the right is the site of downtown SF, since filled in with landfill. Market Street with tall skyscrapers would fill the view today. Treasure Island lies in the middle distance, and Oakland and Berkeley are in the background shore. Sand hills, coastal prairie with diverse bunchgrasses, California buttercups ( Ranunculus californicus ), California sagebrush ( Artemisia californica ), lilac bushes ( Ceanothus thyrsiflorus ), and a shed tule elk antler are visible in this early scene of San Francisco past.  San Francisco View From Nob Hill, 500 Years Ago. Oil on panel, 11 x 21.5 inches, 2003. Private collection. I painted the bay waters with a glaze of verdigris in Copaiba balsam to make a translucent glassy effect that differs from the opaque greens of the grassy hills and flats. The glaze was p...

I have a collection of limited edition prints of various oil paintings, many of which are illustrated in my book A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California (Heyday: 2010). These are printed on a professional press with archival ink on microceramic paper, and each has a label and protected by a clear sleeve, ready for framing. I adjusted each print during the process to match my original oil paintings as closely as possible. Go to this link on my art website to view the prints:   https://lcunningham-art.com/collections/102217 As a fundraiser towards publishing my future manuscripts, such as a possible volume 2 on the ecological history of California and Nevada, I am reducing the price on these prints. Email me to purchase prints and I will ship them to you by Priority mail. You can mail a check to me at PO Box 70, Beatty NV 89003, or drop a payment into my PayPal account . I only have one or two of each, so collect them while you can!