Normally I would put this image on the right side of the column because of the way the woman is facing, but Richard Diebenkorn’s composition of images showed me that this isn’t always right. The point of view of the artist is from THIS side.

I liked this painting the best of all in this show because I felt she was French and I felt I could smell the coffee and hear the almost inaudible sound of her enjoying the first sip. The key is that I felt something. Which was a relief because I HATED the first paintings in the show. They were his early, abstract works and they were awful. And I wasn’t the only one in our group who thought so. Of course, there were others who seemed to have “drunk the kool-aid” and swooned over everything. This show was limited to the work he produced in the Bay Area. He didn’t get famous until he moved to Santa Monica.

In the bookstore we found some books with his “Santa Monica Series” and those abstracts were wonderful. I realized they would look wonderful in the new, modern houses that were being built in the Hollywood Hills by the successful people of the time. I realized that Richard Diebenkorn was a very handsome man with a master’s degree in art who was very articulate about his process and his vision. I liked his quotes which were painted on the walls better than the paintings in this show. He was very social and I suspect he romanced the people he needed to in Los Angeles to get the coverage he wanted. The museum’s descriptions of his work were devotedly pandering.

The best part of the day was lunch at Cavallo Point in Fort Baker. After we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, we took the first Sausalito exit and took a right into Fort Baker and wound around past the beach and the Children’s Museum to find this wonderful resort built into the old buildings. Lunch had enced at Murray Circle, but we enjoyed their upscale Pub Grub on the porch. I had four tiny fish tacos embellished with radish slices and Hollyn D’Lil had the mussels featured on the website. Even the chips and dip was classic yet refined. Made two new friends: Liza who teaches Feldenkrais, and Robin Hale, international midwife to the poor. She told amazing stories of her three visits of Afghanistan.

The view was sensational and the old buildings had those wonderful, old-fashioned second story porches with rockers facing the protected cove of Fort Baker. There were some more modern units behind them, up the hill, with more conventional architecture and probably better plumbing and wiring. The the old-fashioned places were full of charm and featured a cooking school and a full service spa facility. A great place to get away and recharge while being only minutes from the city.

Gorgeous place intentionally kept secret. Don’t tell anyone.