Art of Charles Beck

Featuring images of Sonoma County, California Contact: [email protected]

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Charles Beck - Studio

I have been going through a collection of past works and when I saw this image again, after 35 years, I was struck by it. It is a woodcut, one of many, I did at that time.

I wish I could continue with the medium but there is only so much time in one's life and woodcuts take a great deal of time to make so painting took over most of my attention.

It is a self portrait of me leaning against a wall with a large canvas before me. Wish my posture were that straight today but alas, I've acquired an age slump. Glad to be alive though and still working.

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Charles Beck - The Creek. Marsh, and Cabins

A very recent painting re-capturing memories of my youth; walking the edges of Salmon Creek and smelling the marshy plants that grew there and looking at the cabins on the hill where my grandmother lived.

This is not an old village like one might find in Europe that goes back centuries. 1919 was the date the land was divided for "summer" cabins and in 1920 or 1921 my grandparents built there and a wonderful spot was provided for the family. Salt air as well as a lot of DIY construction - no permits needed in those days - have left a patina of pleasant weathering on many places, but many have been re-constructed and upgraded as well. I miss the old more than I appreciate the new.

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Charles Beck - Canyon Walls

As you can see from the photo, I did not take it down from the wall. It was in a difficult spot to remove and, anyway, sometimes it is nice just to see works where they are hung with other objects around them.

Years ago, my late wife and I made a trip to Zion. I did a considerable amount of hiking there and, on return home, did a number of southwest landscape pieces which my wife claimed for her office, and there it still rests.

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Charles Beck - Tomales Bay

A very recent painting. I go to Tomales Bay frequently to fish from my kayak for halibut. Often, after several hours of no bites, I pull over on a sandbar on the west side of the bay and sit and rest and look and breath salt air.

My dog, who accompanies me, is always happy to get out of the kayak and stretch and run around and sniff. Fishing is much less interesting to her.

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Charles Beck - View from a Gas Station Lot

Here's gas station I occasional fill up at that is near the junction of Green Valley Road and 116. It was the distant farm building and the geometry of the different paved and poured concrete surfaces that caught my eye, and of course, the gas prices sign. I shall refrain from making a remark about the Iran war and oil costs.

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Charles Beck - Russian River

This painting is from a view just above the town of Jenner where one can see the river bends and the distant points that jut into the ocean. This viewpoint is from cross country hiking through grass and brush but worth the risk of ticks… I think.

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Charles Beck - Salmon Trolling

This is a painting I did in 1992, one of the last years I fished commercially for salmon. Days now long gone for me but tomorrow the commercial season will open for a short period after a closure of two, maybe three years, and fisherman will have gear in the water hoping for at least a few fish to pay off debts and make a few dollars. Hard way to make a living, this I know, but there is often beauty on the waters.

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Charles Beck - Salmon Creek Lagoon

Last month I posted a painting of Salmon Creek with a view looking toward the ocean. Here is one of Salmon Creek looking toward the distant village with one's back to the sea.

I've always enjoyed tromping along the edges of the creek lagoon on the sands that abut the water and looking toward the village where I once lived.

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Charles Beck - Winter Sea and Green Hills

This is an overview from a ridge top looking at a coastal canyon falling toward the ocean while the winter sun makes bright the sea. White glistening water and green grass. A soothing sight for me.

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Charles Beck - Salmon Creek and Sand This painting is recent enough not to be quite finished but close enough to share. The view is from the bend of the creek as it follows the sand dunes then flows into the sea. Once, there were no trees on the dunes. I guess they are a type of cypress that self seeded themselves on the sand. Long ago it was just sand dune and my young cousins and I would run down the slope and dive into a much deeper creek and swim. Delightful time.

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Charles Beck - Surf Sand Rocks

From Blind Beach which is connected to Goat Rock Beach. I often walk the sands to the very end where the beach meets an impassible barrier of cliff then turn around and trudge back to the car while listening to the surf hiss across the gravel and break on rocks.

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Charles Beck - Hills, River, Fog

From a hillside north of the Russian River that gives a panoramic view of the river winding toward the sea and emptying out into the surf.

I am still working on it but decided it was close enough to finished to use as one of this months postings.

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Charles Beck - Fog, Cliffs, Sun

This painting is of the cliffs between Jenner and Fort Ross, a favorite spot of mine, especially when the fog drifts in and out and obscures the distant land shapes.

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Charles Beck - Rock, Cloud, Sea

One of several landscapes I've painted of the area just south of Goat Rock. Nice place to walk around and just take in the winter air and the distant land mass that meets the sea near Fort Ross and watch clouds drift across the sky.

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Charles Beck - Cliffs and Distant Bodega Head

There is a new access trail that begins just on the other side of Bodega Harbor subdivision. One can walk clear to the Estero and across the sandy beach then return back walking the trail on top of the cliffs.

Many nice viewpoints and I chose one that featured the distant Bodega Head with a slice of the inner Bodega bay and the large outer Bodega Bay. Areas which I know well and love.

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Charles Beck - Vineyard and St. Helena

Almost anywhere from Sebastopol to Healdsburg one sees St. Helena looming over the vineyards in the distance. Sort of a lodestone for me when viewing the landscape in this wide area. Ah, there is St. Helena I say to myself and know where I am. I need some directional help from time to time these days.

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Charles Beck - Fishing for Steelhead. Salmon Creek

A painting from a distant memory, when a good run of native steelhead fish would enter Salmon Creek and begin a journey upstream to spawn. Very few fish are left now largely due to increased water usage and the silting up of some of the deep pools upstream where the little smolts could stay cool in summer with over hanging willows providing cool shade.

In the past I had fished there often with a fly and fly rod near the old pilings of the first bridge over the creek. The cabins and land behind no longer looks the same. Memory has changed the present for the past. A gentle sea fog obscures much but the creek and the mud banks and the lone fisherman remain clear in my mind forever.