El Cerrito Then and Now
El Cerrito before it was El Cerrito, from A State of Change by Laura Cunningham
In the course of holiday shopping, I stumbled on A State of Change, a book of paintings of the California landscape as it would have looked before it was filled with towns and cities. Paleo artist Laura Cunningham researches the historic ecology of a site and then paints the specific landscapes as they might have looked like thousands of years ago. I was most interested in the ones with before-and-after views, a painting of the past contrasted with a photo of the same location in the present. They give an interesting perspective on the landscaping job Californians have collectively done for the state.
Halfway up Moeser Street, El Cerrito, December 30, 2010
One painting from the Berkeley hills is fairly close to the view I get on my way home after work, so I took my own photos to compare, one with daylight, the other as I usually see it this time of year, with the sun going down. Albany Hill, prominent on the left side of the painting, is just outside of the frame in the daylight version and at the edge of the frame in the twilight version taken higher from up on Moeser.
Near the top of Moeser Street, El Cerrito December 30, 2010
There is a review of the book at Berkeleyside. Cunningham has a website with some other paintings and before-and-after views of the state.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 31st, 2010 at 2:23 pm and is filed under el cerrito. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 1st, 2011 at 9:29 am
That is a wonderful find! I live in El Cerrito and it’s great to see how it looked before we settled here. Wistfully thinking it would be nice to see more traces of the past today. Thanks for sharing.
January 1st, 2011 at 12:16 pm
This is a fascinating topic and a wonderful theme for a landscape artist. I often wonder the same about our area – before the old redwoods were logged, before the wineries and orchards sprang up, what was it really like where I live?
January 7th, 2011 at 10:28 am
Thanks for posting this. The book really is quite incredible.