Morning at Green Rock. Measures 48" x 60". Come see the original at The Back Porch Bakery at The Carlton Hotel in Atascadero, CA.
]]>From Cuesta Ridge (30" x 48") Oil on Canvas.
]]>From Cuesta Ridge (30" x 48") Oil on Canvas.
]]>Took a road trip down the Via Appia years ago with my buddy, Emiliano, to visit his family in the suburbs south of Rome. The imagery has stuck with me ever since. As the years go by, those memories twist and turn and maybe get a little more psychedelic. This one measures 48 in x 48 in, and YES! ... It's for SALE!
]]>Did you know that I've got almost 50 of my images available as posters?. Most are in standard sizes that fit standard frames, but if you see an image that you would like in a different size, let me know and I can create it for you as a poster.
]]>Back in Poly Canyon. Go Mustangs! These are the old stomping grounds of cross country glory. I still make it up into those hills as often as my achilles tendons will let me. This one measures 24"x48" and, YES, it's for sale!
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From the moment some Egyptian saw that stinking, stewing mass of bubbling wet flour and decided, “Hey, let’s bake that and eat it!” … to the cult worship of Demeter, goddess of the grain harvest, and her seasonal mourning of her daughter’s finagled relationship with Hades … to Jesus’ peculiar call to “take eat, this is my body” … to the Americas, where civilization flourished around an entirely different grain … to Marie Antoinette’s last ditch effort to “let them eat cake” … to the North’s wheat producing machine during the Civil War … and on and on through the science of mechanization and soil science and war.
This book should be required reading for any bakery. There are no recipes. It’s a history book. But if you’ve spent any time working on making good bread, this book will inspire a sense of purpose and give your task a deep historical significance. And could certainly provide artistic fodder for many paintings to come (stay tuned!).
Click HERE to listen.
]]>Click HERE to listen.
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A view of the California Central Coast from the ridge road at the top of Cuesta Grade looking southwest. Those are the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo trails below. The Amtrak winds through here a few times a day. That's Bishop Peak on the left, Chumash Peak in the middle, and Cerro Romauldo on the right. Yes, it's really that pointy.
And, YES! Fine Art Prints are available here: Summer afternoon over shooters (2019).
]]>The Fire Dance (2019). This is an image I've returned to over the years as a sort of benchmark image for my progress as a painter. It's a group of kids dancing in concentric circles, though it may be getting harder and harder to see the more I twist and tweek it. Here's the original I did back in 1997:
And then this one a few years later:
In the summer of 1996, about a week after graduating from Cal Poly with my degree in Architecture, I moved to Italy. When I arrived at Casa Cares, there was a youth camp staying at the villa and one there activities was this dance. It was an image that was impressed on me ever since, marking the beginning of a new life in a new culture with an exploded mind. An experience that still defines who I feel I am most.
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Well ... maybe not so new. These were pieces that I started just before opening The Back Porch Bakery. They've been sitting unfinished in my garage for years. No more! My first order of business before launching into new work was to finish these two abstract ideas. What do you think? They'll be on display at The Back Porch Bakery in Atascadero starting this Friday, August 25. Now on to something new ...
]]>Time for an art show? I think so! I haven't shown my work in years, but I keep looking up at these big empty walls in this cafe of ours and I'm thinking ... it's about time to splash some color. What better motivation to get going than to take part in the Atascadero Art and Wine Tour. Come on out for some food, drink and pretty pictures. See you there.
WHEN: Friday, Aug. 25 from 5:30 to 8 PM
WHERE: Back Porch Bakery in the Carlton Hotel at 6005 El Camino Real in Atascadero.
]]>The last post to my old webpage was made on October 11, 2012. Half a decade ago. 1/9th of my life ago. I put the brushes down for a moment and it's taken this long to pick them back up again. Not without good reasons, I tell you! Four of those reasons are named Molly, Tessa, Quinn, and Wiley. Raising rascals is not conducive to producing long uninterrupted stretches of solitude at the canvases. As if that weren't enough, we also started a bakery. I little side project at first, the bakery has grown to supply bread to over 70 of the restaurants, markets, and hotels on the Central Coast, as well as to our own cafe, The Back Porch Bakery, located in the Carlton Hotel in Atascadero, CA. So I think I've got a decent excuse for taking a break. But the itch has been there all along, so here's to getting back at it! I've even got my own cafe in which to hang some work ... which is what I'm going to do first.
Speaking of that old webpage - www.danberkeland.com - it no longer exists. I've renamed it www.berkelandstudio.com. In that five year gap the domain named lapsed. When I tried to buy it back, GoDaddy told me it was unavailable. What? Who wants to buy my name? Another Dan Berkeland? I called GoDaddy to see what was going on. The guy looked into and said, "ah, yes. The Chinese bought it". "The Chinese??" What does that mean? I guess it's big business to watch for lapsing domain names and then snatch them up to extort money out of the original owner. (I know that extortion is not the proper term, but the whole thing feels like some low key Jack Bauer scenario) So anyway ... www.berkelandstudio.com!!
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