Half Moon Bay Memories & El Granada Observer

[Images above: "Spring Acrylic," and "Kathleen," partly inspired by the beauty of gardens.]

The new work of Miramar Beach artist Linda Montalto Patterson features pattern and movement that will please your eye palette–and look great on your walls. Ms. Montalto-Patterson’s latest paintings can be viewed and purchased at Moon News Bookstore, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay.

For Linda Montalto Patterson’s biography and artist statement, please read on.

Biography

Linda Montalto was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a youth, her visits to the Museum of Modern Art brought her in contact with Abstract Expressionism and the paintings of Mark Rothko. His work so moved her that she made the decision to dedicate her life to art and the pursuit of beauty.

She began her advanced studies in art on the East Coast but moved west, where she received a masters degree in art at San Jose State University under the direction of Frederick Spratt.

Ms. Montalto moved to the Mediterranean coast of Spain in 1976 with her husband, who was studying the Spanish classical guitar. There, by the sea, her palette turned brighter and she began to incorporate the vibrant use of color that remains a central characteristic of her current work. She continues to be inspired and profoundly affected by her love of nature. At her current home, a cottage on the Pacific Ocean in Northern California, Linda has created a resplendent garden that has been featured on television and in the print media. She is constantly working with the color in her garden and using these natural influences in her paintings.

Linda Montalto’s work has been shown in galleries throughout the San Francisco Bay area and group shows have taken Ms. Montalto’s paintings across the continent.

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Artist’s Statement

My abstract work is usually begun without preconceptions. I attempt to let the paintings evolve naturally. When I do begin with set intentions, the creative process usually overtakes them and the influences of my environment, the landscapes I see, my private dreams and emotions appear in the work as a kind of self-discovery.

These paintings use a process of layering, covering and then peeling away selected bits of color and information. There is movement of one color against another, a kind of force of motion that appears again and again in the work. At times, only an edge of previous color can be seen. I make choices to expose areas or veil them with washes of transparent color. The staining techniques create a richness of color and a lush quality resulting from the drips running over the canvas.

In this current series, amoeba like characters flit about the canvas expressing change, movement and the bounty of nature.

I look at many historical photos of the Coastside, including the beautiful beaches. After awhile I can’t help but notice that the beaches have changed dramatically. Most of us have no idea how much bigger the beach at El Granada was in the 1920s, or how many rock arches and caves were once part of the scenery at Moss Beach. Sand dunes covered Miramar Beach and there were nice little beaches at Princeton, too.

When did the change begin? The photos seem to say it began in the late 1920s, 1930s. That made me wonder about the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge was built in the late 1930s. Could it have had something to do with the loss of sand on the San Mateo coastline?

John Vonderlin spends a lot of time exploring the remote South Coast beaches, many of them inaccessible, taking photographs, revering and studying the beauty that he finds.

I asked John, could construction of the Golden Gate Bridge have affected the San Mateo County beaches?

John said: I’m no expert, but here’s what I think is going on with the sand disappearing from our local beaches. First, I don’t think the Golden Gate Bridge has had a significant effect on our beaches. The tower foundations aren’t big enough to interfere seriously with the transport of sediment out of the Bay and possibly into the littoral cell south of the Golden Gate Channel.

This is from a USGS site, click here

Whatever part of that sediment that gets swept up in the Longshore current, along with the sand brought down by our local creeks or eroded from the many local wave-battered sandstone cliffs, ends up feeding and sustaining our beaches.

Dams were probably the biggest factor in the disappearance of beaches, perhaps not here so much as other places. The impoundment of sediment behind the dam on the bottoms of gradually growing more shallow lakes and ponds, surely has had an effect hereabouts. But I don’t think they are the main factor. After all, I don’t know of any new local ones being built in a long time, yet the beaches have seriously diminished using the 1972 California Coastal Records Project’s photos as a comparison. In fact, the general trend has been to remove dams in the various coastal watersheds to re-open ther streams for fish migration. Likewise, the friable, easily eroded, sandstone cliffs that contribute so much raw material to our beaches haven’t significantly changed in that timespan.

There is one plausible reason the sediment load carried to the sea from our local watersheds has greatly diminished. And that is environmentalism. Logging has greatly diminished and been forcefully required to improve the watershed protection techniques they employ. Farming is in a similar position as logging is, both as a shrinking business and one that has learned or been required to practice better land stewardship. Based on some of the pictures I’ve taken of turbid runoff entering the ocean from irrigated coastal fields, there is still more that needs to be done.

All in all, erosion control has greatly expanded in almost every aspect of land use in the county, from road building, home construction, and land clearing, to runoff management protocols and wetland restoration or protection projects.

We’re being skewered by our own success. If we prevent sediment from getting in the water flowing to the ocean we can’t expect much in the way of beaches. Unfortunately, I think it is a classic Hobbesian choice situation( i.e. your money or your life) where the Golden Age of San Mateo beaches has come and gone and there’s not much we should do about bringing it back. Enjoy. John

Here’s my favorite [independent] Coastside painting contractor, Kent Provo

And Kent and Renee’s dog, Ellie, wearing her holiday best

All three are back from Baja where they saw beautiful sunsets

and look at this pretty horse

(All photos, except the one of Kent, courtesy Renee St. Louis.)

something INappropriate to cheer on the Tsunami Rangers.

Dear friends & family,

SINCE ANCIENT TIMES, COASTAL PEOPLES HAVE GATHERED BY THE SEA IN SPRINGTIME TO CELEBRATE THE PASSAGE OF THE WINTER STORMS AND ENGAGE IN CONTESTS OF SKILL & ENDURANCE. HONORING THIS TRADITION & BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND, WE WILL ONCE AGAIN CONVERGE HERE ON MIRAMAR BEACH AT HIGH NOON THIS COMING SUNDAY FOR THE TSUNAMI RANGER/REEF MADNESS ANNUAL EXTREME SEA KAYAKING RACE & FESTIVAL. FEEL FREE TO DRESS IN DASHING SEA GYPSY, PIRATE OR VIKING GARB & BRING ALONG A DRUM WITH WHICH TO URGE THE RACERS ONWARD… & OF COURSE YOUR FAVORITE GRUB & GROG TO SHARE AT THE GREAT FEAST THAT FOLLOWING THE RACE ARE WARMLY WELCOMED! A LIMITED NUMBER OF OFFICIAL RACE SHIRTS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE, & LIVE MUSIC BY TSUNAMI RANGER JOHN LULL’S SOUTH CITY BLUES BAND & MIRAMAR BEACH’S OWN WONDERFUL VOCALIST SUSAN PATE WITH WILL ROCK THE STAGE, SETTING YOUR HEATS TO POUNDING & YOUR FEET TO DANCING. HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE!

Much love, Michael & Nani

Hello June.

Some of your readers interested in the Ocean Shore R.R. may not know that efforts to resurrect it began almost as soon as it was abandoned. Jack Wagner’s THE LAST WHISTLE is the best reference.

I recall several San Francisco newspaper articles during the 1930s; and as a teenager I got up the nerve to go to the company’s office in downtown S.F. to inquire of its progress, and met the President, George Middleton. The office was shared with a mining company–either Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining or Bunker Hill. I can’t remember and don’t know of any relationship with the new OSRR.

Mr. Middleton said the line would re-enter San Francisco by the old, seldom-used Southern Pacific’s Ocean View line. That track was now in the heavily built-up Mission District where people in homes could practically shake hands with the engine crew if a train ever went by. I remember being skeptical that the City would permit it.

Apropos of that time, I have a copy of the December, 1935, issue of “Railroad Stories” magazine and the article “The Ocean Shore Comes Back” by G. H. Kneiss, which told of the expected rebuilding, mainly to exploit the timber resources of the Butano Forest, close to the original route, but never reached.

There are a number of court cases involving the OSRR from that time on the Internet, mainly dealing with the railroad’s suits for incursions on its former right-of-way, some becoming precedents for other cases.

One of the more interesting is a 1941 appeal re an earlier decision about the injury from falling rocks in June, 1936, to a power shovel operator engaged by the railroad to clear the blocked north portal of the Pedro Point tunnel. A few months earlier the shovel had been “almost completely buried” by a slide at the south portal. I find it almost incredible how the shovel made it to the south portal.

This was before Hwy. 1 had been re-routed closer to the coast, and so the shovel had to have taken the long route past Green Canyon and over Devil’s Slide on a roadbed neglected for over fifteen years. What problems the operator encountered can only be imagined. Mr. Wagner’s book chronicled how all these efforts came to naught.

Angelo

A while back I put out a call for novelist Erich von Neff. You can read his novelette about Half Moon Bay here.

The other day I received an email from Walter Ruhlmann and here’s what he said:
I am the editor of a webzine called mgversion2>datura. It has been online since 2002. Before it was online, it had been a print magazine & review of poetry called Mauvaise graine (Literally bad seed = weeds)
I often published Erich von Neff at that time. I came across your blog and found out that you published him in April.
Do you know him at all?
Is he still in San Francisco, CA?
Does he have an email where I can contact him?

Kind regards, Walter

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Hello Walter,

I live in Half Moon Bay and in the 1970s I self-published a local history book. About that time I received a ms from Erich, the novel called “Pete’s Café,” that I put online. He was looking for a publisher but I had no money to publish his work or anyone else’s.

All those years I kept Erich’s ms. and now that I have a blog, and can publish the work of others online, I decided to put his wonderful piece on my site.

I am also trying to find him so that he knows what I have done.

I never met Erich and I do not know his present whereabouts. There was a San Francisco phone number on the ms and I tried it—-it just rings and rings; there is no answering machine.

I am sorry to disappoint you.

P.S. Your site is cool. Where are you located?

June

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Thanks for answering so quickly.
I enjoyed reading you blog. I live in Le Mans, France where I teach English as a second language to teenagers aged 11-15, not always an easy task I’m afraid.

Anyway, I have this snail mail address for Erich: [xxxxx]

I used to publish a lot of Erich’s poems when Mauvaise graine was still called that way and printed. Since 2000 or so I’ve lost contact with him totally. I had some letters two years ago, then nothing. I really hope he’s fine. I’m not sure about hte European poets and publishers or reviewists who used to know and publish his work and whom I know. I’ll try them.

If you want to read more Erich’s work, I have some of it - well quite a lot of it actually… He used to send me huge envelopes with whole manuscripts. He was really appreciated here and widely published.

Regards, Walter

P.S. ‘m going to contact Serge Féray - a French writer native of the same city than me - he translated a lot of Erich’s work. Maybe he knows something…

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First Chapter of Pete’s Cafe by Erich Viktor von Neff

Pete’s Café

Somewhere Near the Grand Khan

In Half Moon Bay

A Novella

By Erich Viktor von Neff

Pete’s Café

Chapter One

The Pierce Arrow

The motor of the Pierce Arrow purred. Walt, my grandfather, let it warm up, engaged it in first, and we headed down the old Coast Highway toward Half Moon Bay. It was a beautiful road overlooking the sea. Salty air blew through the open windows. We sucked it into our lungs. We drove by fields of artichokes and Brussels sprouts. Broad brimmed hats faced us…occupied by Mexicans, Filipinos, and other farm workers. The Pierce Arrow passed row upon row, field after field of ripe green vegetables.

Our lungs continued to drink in the fecund coastal air. Walt turned off at Half Moon Bay. He drove down Main Street and parked in front of Pete’s Café.

“Buon giorno,�? Pete said in a hearty Italian voice as we entered. “Buon giorno,�? my grandfather replied. They laughed and slapped each other on the back. We found an empty table, amongst the tables of men speaking Tagalog, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. Their voices chiming into one another, clashing, then trailing off.

Pete brought us two bowls of minestrone soup, two Dos Equis beers, Larraburu French bread and butter.

Walt cut off a slice of butter, and dropped it into the soup. He also broke off a piece of French bread which he dipped into the soup from time to time as he ate. I did the same. Was there any better way to eat minestrone soup?

click here

Burt and I were laughing this morning, remembering when Netscape started up in Mountain View, and i was determined to explore all the new, exciting stuff on the Internet. The Internet connection was often shaky and sometimes difficult to hold. And, in those days, the early 1990s, you had to know a lot about settings and numbers on the computer.

Although my mind doesn’t work that way, I hung in and when things got rough, and I couldn’t stand to be “down,” another second, I picked up my computer, I think it was a Mac Duo then (ha! barely any memory but very cool looking), and dragged Burt to the Netscape building. Via phone calls I had bonded with a kid who was willing to help me and then I actually showed up a couple of times in person.

I wish I remembered his name. He was great. What’s funny is the vision of me and Burt and the Duo walking into the Netscape office to get this genius kid to fix my Internet connection. It was in the very early days and nobody else seemed to be around.