I painted the Golden Gate Pavillion peace pagoda (see comment below) today on Strawberry Hill, on the bank of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. There’s a neat virtual tour of the structure here.

According to Wikipedia, a peace pagoda is a Buddhist stupa designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds to help unite them in their search for world peace. Nice. The structure is a gift from the people of Taipei to the city of San Francisco as a confirmation of friendship and cultural exchange between sister cities, and to commemorate the struggles and contribution of the early Chinese settlers in California. UPDATE [9-22] as pointed out by Alan Freebury of the Maitreya Institute, this structure isn’t actually a peace pagoda, but I left the definition here for benefit of my readers. Please see his comment below.
This was fun to paint. A bit of a study in various greens, and balancing with reds. I a complementary color study. UPDATE: There’s interest in my setup above, so if you click the picture, you’ll find a closeup of just my equipment and palette.

18 thoughts on “Peace Pagoda – Complementary Color Study

  1. Yeah, me too! I don’t know why I dig seeing your set up, but I find myself want to stick my nose right down to your palette! What’s up with thaaaat? 😉 Nice to see you posting new stuff, Ed! I check here daily.

  2. Hey Ed . . .thanks for stopping by today. BTW . . .did you ever know a guy by the name of Christopher Schink? You both lived in RWC. Some of your comments reflect his ideas and teachings. Was just wondering. He is sort of a buddy of mine.

  3. Hi Mike, no, the name doesn’t ring a bell. I have come across him, yet.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. Hope you got to see the updated picture with my plein air painting equipment.

  4. interesting to see you painting oriental design, to me it feels like you’ve done a portrait, i’d love to go out and paint but it’s so hot here, unless you’ve been here you really can’t imagine!

  5. Thanks, Ming. The heat is definitely a challenge–and I’ve given up, myself. I always find shade, or I pull out one of my umbrellas. I even have a huge one that uses a large cast-iron base. It’s heavy, and not practical to take too far from my car, but so much better! The sun definitely takes a lot out of you. Oh, the other umbrella I use is called a “Shade Buddy” (Google it). It’s made for artists, and is driven into the ground with a spike at the end. Much lighter, too.

  6. Ed, really nice painting and descriptions with them! Congrats on the award and I’m going to put your site on my blog if that’s OK. It’s a good read! Feel free to do the same. Happy schmearing!

  7. I enjoyed your painting of the Golden Gate Pavillion but it would be wonderful if you could edit
    the web presentation to clarify the confusion about the pavillion being a Peace Pagoda.

    We have been working for several years to place a peace pagoda in Golden Gate Park with the Mayor
    and Board of Supervisors and only recently have seen your site and discovered that you have given
    that name, I think by mistake.

    A pavillion traditionally was a tent and the structure you painted is in that tradition, a site
    for recreation and entertainment although similar to a pagoda’s intention in that it was a gift of
    friendship (from the city of Taipei).

    A pagoda (a late change from the term used in Sri Lanka for a dagoba) was originally a stupa, a
    reliquary tradition transformed by Buddhist tradition over the millenia. There are many
    architectural variations in different cultures, the Japanese and Chinese are generally multistoried but the
    important differences between a pavillion and a pagoda lies in the intention, the contents, and the
    consecration.

    Please visit our website peacepagoda.info or the many sites on stupas and consider clarifying the
    information in your site.

    Thank you,

    Alan Freebury
    Maitreya Institute

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