Today is the first day in a while that the sun doesn’t look like a burning red dot in an apocalyptic sky. Northern California has been burning all week and it’s not over yet. So many displaced, so much lost. This was our sky most of the week, as seen from my backyard. And we aren’t even near the evacuation zone.
Twice, I picked up simple tools to try and capture what was around me.
These hills are normally a brilliant straw yellow and the trees the darkest inkiest green. But today smoke from two big fires to the east and southwest of us rolls back in as more and more people I know evacuate.
Covid. A heatwave. Rolling blackouts and now these fires. Thinking of everyone that’s lost homes or evacuated suddenly. Stay safe. Take care.
If you live in California, you know we have a new season, one that never loomed over us like this every year: the season we burn. Climate Change is real. That is just science and the sooner we can agree on the overwhelming evidence, the sooner we will do something about it. Before it is too late.
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 
Excellent in all aspects! Thank you, Suhita!
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I live in Palo Alto and you are right. We need to vote line our lives depend on it so we have an administration that actually believes in climate change!
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Yes we need that and we need it now!
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thank you for this – you always find words! And I love the intensity and rhythm of these dirty skies so much – almost as much as I hate those skies these days.
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it is so bizarre. stay safe. I know it must feel crazy to not run or walk all day
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Very well put Suhita. I don’t live in America but I keep you and your country in my prayers during this awful season and for the upcoming elections.
Thank you for sharing your work and blog.
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thank you Theresa
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How right you are. Stay safe my dear. Kkath;sen
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thank you Kathleen
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Climate change is totally for real!
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sadly not everyone thinks so, even now!
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Nice paintings, I hope the wildfires die down soon. I really like how you captured the sun, and the monochrome trees from all the smoke in the bottom painting.
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Yes I hope so too!
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I grew up in California. Lived there for more than 50 years. If you study the state, the history, you will find that every October brought fierce Santa Ana winds and fire to So Cal. I think native Americans had a name for it. California, naturally, was very dry and historically, nature has burned it. It’s not political at all.
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I’ve lived here the last 20 years. Yes, we have forest fires. But never as low precipitation in the mountains and as long a dry season. So the fires that burn are unprecedented in how huge they are. Yes, there has been too little controlled burning and yes, too many people live in zones that should be just forests. But still the curve on how bad the fires are points solidly at climate change being a big part of the equation.
and sadly that science is politicized in america.
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It shouldn’t be political. I looked up an article about Cabrillo the explorer in the 1560’s landing at San Pedro Bay. They called it the Bay of Smoke.
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Sadly, it’s the same here in Washington State. Wildfires were so rare, even on the eastern side of the state where it’s dry. Now, I can guarantee if we get a dry spring, we’ll have a fiery summer. So sad.
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Yes, it’s really sad how quickly the norm has changed in the last decade
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Wonderful paintings, thank you for sharing them.
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