#15 Here, it’s Beautiful – California Life & Art
March 23, 2025
We moved to Marin, California in August 2010 – our home for the next 12 years. I hope you enjoy these glimpses into that golden chapter of our lives!
And golden it was, the light, the grass, it floods my memory. We got pretty drunk on the Cali-Kool-Aid, as they say (though I always thought of it as purple!) and I still can’t quite believe we lived in such a spectacular setting, so easily accessible by bike or foot, yet also so VERY wild that even mountain lions could find a home in the hills above our house, which we considered our backyard.
An art room of my own
We called our house at 60 Woodside Drive The Birdhouse, perched on the side of a valley, small and wooden – but with a pool and hot-tub – surrounded by trees and sunny skies.
For the first time I had a dedicated space to make Glass Cathedrals. Not quite a studio – it was a scrappy, colourful corner of the open-plan living room, with big windows overlooking San Anselmo, and even a view of Mount Tam, if you squinted your eyes slightly and stood on tippy-toes.
Both Ralph and my art blossomed there. Glass Cathedrals had just ’taken off’ in London thanks to their popularity at The Affordable Art Fair with my lovely gallery My Life in Art’. That, combined with the can-do attitude that still energises the still-wild West, gave me the confidence to really go for it with Glass Cathedrals in California.
Lela & Trouvé
I found a home from home of sparkly wonder at Trouvé, artist Lela Shield’s tiny gallery-shop in the equally tiny town of Fairfax down the road. Somehow Glass Cathedrals fitted in perfectly amongst Lela’s other thoughtful antiques and treasures. We became friends and I joined her in hatching many a plan to bring more art and sparkle to our area.
Ah there are so many memories, but perhaps the most fabulous was our debut joint art exhibition for our Virgo birthdays in 2013 – All Things Bright and Beautiful.
Pretty much everyone we knew came dressed brightly and beautifully to the awesome opening night, crammed into the tiny shop and leafy fairy-lit back yard. We had a catwalk where the best costume won a Glass Cathedral, if memory serves! Jane and Val reigned supreme but silver-cloaked Tom put on a pretty good show too. :)
Trouvé backyard | The perfect-shade-of-yellow door | Lela in yellow for The Yellow Party | Me in yellow – going a bit overboard as always wearing a dress made out of a cartoon bedsheet!
The places and people of Marin were a constant source of inspiration. It’s INCREDIBLY strange that I don’t miss it terribly now I’m back in London, which is a blessing of course, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it was a particularly vivid & delight-filled time of our lives.
Crissy Fields | Rachel, my partner-in-many-adventures | Our awesome Mom-Prom | Beach bonfires | El Cajon large and small | View from Marin Headlands | Beloved North Beach, Point Reyes
Swansong
It was early in 2019 that Ralph and I decided to leave California and head back east to the London/Southern African axis. It took a few years to happen for various reasons, and so I, who love LISTS and ORGANISED FUN in equal measure, organised a list of local fun things to do in the time we had left.
It was a brilliant excuse to visit dahlia farms, wander through cemeteries, photograph the Point Reyes coastline and wildflowers, search for bioluminescence in ruins on the Pacific, explore the endlessly fascinating Exploratorium and visit so many places that had been on my Bay Area bucket-list for years…
If you didn’t know by now, I am a one-trick-pony – it was only a matter of time before I decided to make a collection of Glass Cathedrals of these different perspectives of the Bay Area. Secret spots, treasured landmarks, inspiring individuals, groups, public and community spaces.
It became a sort of swansong to mark the end of this precious chapter.
Ralph had made a series of iconic paintings of Marin, called “Here, it’s beautiful”. I loved the sentiment and the phrasing, and so I stole it for a show of my own…
The Here, it’s beautiful collection was exhibited at Rare Device in San Francisco in Spring 2019.
For me, this phrase described the feeling of being in just the right place, like you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, and the world feels full of wonder and possibility.
The Treasure Map
In the weeks before the Rare Device exhibition, I exhibited many of the artworks in the places depicted, to be enjoyed in their natural habitat :)
I made a sort of treasure map of the sites to visit. There were Glass Cathedrals dotted all over my favourite spots in the Bay Area, in the Points Reyes Vistors Center, 826 Valencia, The Moth storytelling night, Creativity Explored, The Exploratorium.
HIB 2019 | Oakland Cemetery | Sutro Baths | The Moth | Aztec Dahlia Farm | Shadowbox (Exploratorium) | Ocean Beach surfer | Opening night with new old friends | Display at 826 Valencia
The Californian chapter ended in 2022 upon our return to London. Luckily I’m still often commissioned to make Glass Cathedrals of people in Marin and its surrounds. I never tire of it!
Well, these 20 accounts have been slower to write than I’d imagined, but we’re getting there. 15 down, 5 to go!
5 seems the magic number – after 5 weeks camping in Botswana, I arrived back in London TODAY. So, I’m back in the studio, raring to get going on new commissions. Drop me a line if now’s the time to commission a Glass Cathedral of your own!
All the best,
Lisa