Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

	Photo: Beth Bourland

Strokes of airy watercolor wash over like the very waves to which she is so often drawn. Silent and still, yet somehow breezy, her dreamy pastel interpretations reflect her own sentiments of both the local and slightly more exotic landscapes portrayed.
    “I consider it a serious hobby—an avocation,” artist Beth Bourland says of her work. “Watercolor is vivid and transparent, like stained glass.”
    Bourland, a copy editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has found peace through artistic expression since she was a child, but she began approaching art more seriously about five years ago.
    “I decided to simplify my life and make time for what I really love doing now,” Bourland says, “and not postpone it to some day after retirement that may or may not ever come.”
    Having sketched and painted all her life, she delights in architectural subject matter, an appreciation for which she gained from her father, who designed and built their family home in Michigan; he also paints and sketches. On a recent trip home, Bourland and her father spent most of one day sketching and painting old barns.
    “From him, I learned to ‘see’ objects in terms of light, shadow and shape,” she says. “My work is an interpretation of shape, color and design, not an attempt to replicate the exact scene. I strive to convey the sensation I feel about a particular place.”
    Waterside views also intrigue Bourland, who often finds herself wondering about the stories behind the scenes she captures on paper, such as a cluster of old industrial fishing sheds near Coast Guard Island.
    “Weathered houses and old shoreline structures fascinate me,” she says. “The interlocking shapes of light and shadow on an old white house; the vivid colors of Key West or the foggy tones of Inverness; the pattern of sea-worn pilings against water.”
    Painting both on location and in her Alameda home studio, Bourland constantly totes a sketchbook. While painting, she frequently enters a “zone” of concentration and relaxation and is often surprised when hours pass without her conscious knowledge. She shares this experience with artists of all levels during the twice-monthly free “Paint Outs” she organizes with Alameda’s Frank Bette Center for the Arts. She and other artists gather to paint Alameda and Oakland area scenery on-site, a situation that excites Bourland because it encourages artists to work with simple and bold designs.
    Of her many works, a watercolor of Alameda’s corner market at Lincoln and Willow, “Twilight Run,” is one of her favorites. “To me, it’s typical of Alameda’s unpretentious neighborhoods,” Bourland says of the painting. “It’s that last moment of the evening when kids get one more soda or candy bar and see their friends before heading home.”
    Bourland, who moved to Alameda in 2001, appreciates the shoreline location and varied home styles. In fact, it’s the water views, the shipping industry along the Estuary and the walk-able neighborhoods of diverse architecture that drew Bourland to Alameda.
    “I like the friendly, village-style feeling of Alameda,” she says. “I visited Robert Crown beach and immediately thought, ‘I’m home!’ ”
    Bourland is working on a series of watercolors depicting historical Bay Area shorelines and intends to show an exhibition of the work in the spring.