When my 3rd son was born, I wanted to capture and freeze all my feelings of love, hope and wonder. Knowing how precious and fleeting these early days are, and how fast babies grow and change, I was determined to savor each moment, hold on to each emotion as long as possible, and immortalize each memory in the best way I know: with colors and paint.

Right after my son’s birth, the pandemic hit. Life turned inwards. We retreated into our own family bubble and while everything fell apart outside, we built a haven for ourselves inside. Painting was my sanity.

In the end, I painted 50 paintings, a handful of pieces for each month of my son’s first year of life. Each painting embodies him, his ever-changing personality, how he laughed and played, learned and developed, began to crawl, to walk, to run. To babble, then talk. Things he loved, places he went, things he experienced, how I felt with him. I passionately mixed colors to weave together my memories, my dreams, our experiences, and the ever present passage of time, while also embodying the full range of my emotions over the course of the year.

One day these paintings will be a gift to him. This year they’ve been a gift to me.
—Gayle Midnight, San Francisco, California 2020-2021

This collection of paintings make up my summer series, representing my travels around both Southern California and Northern California, as well as summer here in San Francisco.

Summers are cool and foggy in San Francisco, leaving me constantly yearning for a little sunshine! When I would see even a sliver of sun peek through the clouds, I would rush to get outside before it disappeared back into the swirl of fog, punctuated by the infamous fog horn!

These paintings were inspired by my travels to Lake Tahoe, California. Each one was painted in a different location around the lake.

1. Heavenly
2. Sand Harbor
3. D. L. Bliss
4. Pope Beach
5. Emerald Bay
6. Zephyr Cove

This is a collection of 15 paintings, all created in April of 2023.

“Sugar and Pixie Dust”

“Pure Magic”

“California Girl at Heart”

This 3 part mini series focuses on composition and line-work to convey energy and movement.

The paintings in this collection include: “The Mermaid’s Ballet”, “Breathe” and “Naked in the Sunshine”.

This collection attempts to capture the magic of childhood. Inspired by my children and their creative play, I strove to capture the mood and magic of their imaginations.

“Skate the Tunnel”
In “Skate the Tunnel” I was inspired by my sons’ love of roller skating. I wove together the colors and forms of those first experiences skating. They have intense skates with blinking light-up rainbow wheels and iridescent finishes with hints of purple and turquoise. All of it is so nostalgic and fun, and brings back memories of skating when I was a kid!

“Fairy Dust”
There are magical fairy doors hidden throughout Golden Gate Park and a few other places around the city. My kids and I love to imagine the hidden worlds behind them. I often imagine a chamber filled with heady earthen scents, and illuminated by rays of golden sunlight in which fairy dust floats and shimmers, amongst glittering beating wings and wildflowers.

“Broken Sleep”
Painting in the middle of the night is the main way I maintain my art practice in this season of parenting, as it’s some of the only time I get to myself. All too often it means a night of very few hours of sleep, as my schedule never allows for sleeping in. In the earliest hours, broken sleep sometimes feels like there is a fogged window between waking and dreams that I can slip back and forth between.

This collection of paintings celebrates joy! Those simple moments in life that are filled with happiness. Moments with my kids. Seeing the world through young eyes. Hope. Love. Chasing rainbows.

#1 “Chasing Rainbows I”

#2 “Chasing Rainbows II”

#3 “Moon Bridge”

#4 “Reclaimed Time”

Feeling all the lovely vibes of spring in this little mini series! These compositions were painted together at the same time, weaving shared colors and patterns together throughout all 5 works.

These 3 paintings were inspired by a trip back to my hometown:

A touch of gold—a splash of rose—drops of crimson—aqua pools—charcoal vines.

The paintings in this collection include: “Santa Barbara”, “Foxen Canyon” and “Frozen Garden”.

This piece was the first thing I painted when I moved back to San Francisco from Los Angeles for the second time. My studio wasn’t set up, I was living out of a suitcase and moving from place to place every few weeks with very young kids—everything had changed and my life was utter chaos.

I was sleep deprived, a little sick and possibly a little delirious, but…the art just flowed out of me like lightning bolts, after not painting for a long time. It was the best feeling to let all that creative energy escape, to translate my thoughts and feelings into images!

Chasing Dreams & Shadows was painted at a time of great transition in my life, and consequently led to a huge aesthetic shift in both process and imagery, moving my work forward in a new direction.

Acrylic on Paper
9” x 12”

These 4 paintings were created on site at my live painting art pop-up event at Lululemon in San Francisco. Each painting synthesizes fragments from the experience. For instance, the color palette is drawn from the colors outside the window I painted from, and the line-work embodies the energy in the room.

#1: "California Rose”

#2: "Mint, Limoncello & Rose Petals"

#3: "Strawberry Lemonade"

#4: Saturday Surprises”

Painted in memory of Guro Victor Gendrano Jr, my long time Kali martial arts teacher. When you were around him, the energy he gave off was calm—flowing—meditative. He made you feel like you were almost dancing, but with weapons!

“Amongst the Stars I”
Mixed Media on Paper
16”x12”
(Private Collection)

“Amongst the Stars II
”Mixed Media on Paper
16”x12”

“Cosmic Eruptions”
Acrylic on Paper

Acrylic on Paper
11.5” x 8.25”

I watched my dad take his last breath on a sunny afternoon at the end of January. I haven’t been able to find the words, so I’ve been quiet, in a fog. I’ve begun picking up my paint brushes to process, to think through things, to breathe, to renew. Here’s the first in a new series.

Acrylic on Paper
12” x 9”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic on Paper
12” x 9”
(Private Collection)

Acrylic on Paper
5.5”x 8” 

(A spark, somewhere in space. Just a quick flash, like lightning—a tiny whisper. Then gone, only darkness. Red rivulets run down my vision, encircle my heart.)

Acrylic on Paper
8” x 5.5”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic and Markers on Paper
5.5”x 8”

When I painted this I was contemplating the cycle of becoming, manifesting, withdrawing, and how these conditions interrelate and depend upon each other.

A quote from the zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh spoke to me. He wrote: "When conditions are sufficient things manifest. When conditions are no longer sufficient things withdraw. They wait until the moment is right for them to manifest again."

Acrylic on Paper
12”x 16.5”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic on Paper
5.5”x 8”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic on Paper
7.5” x 7”

Acrylic and Markers on Paper
5.5”x 8”

Acrylic on Paper
8” x 5.5”

Acrylic on Paper, 5.5”x 8”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic on Paper
8” x 5.5”

Acrylic on Paper
12”x 9”
(In the Fog series)

Acrylic on Paper
5.5”x 8”
(In the Fog series)

Tiny wildflowers and little berries hiding amongst colorful reindeer mosses and volcanic rock added a surprising pop of colors to a bouquet of unusual forms and textures. Upon close inspection a rainbow of colors emerged composing a stunning palette among a backdrop of exotic volcanic greens, charcoals, sienas, ochres and umbers. Painted on location in Iceland.

Rivulets of glowing cyan and azure streams sliced across the landscape forming abstract patterns and chaotic forms that were both unpredictable and beautifully graceful. Painted on location in Iceland.

Krafla was painted on location in Iceland. I was very inspired by the Mývatn/Krafla region of north-eastern Iceland, with its bubbling mud baths, bright aqua hot springs, and quiet mossy volcanic terrain.

I traveled to Iceland and painted over 50 watercolors on paper. These are a handful of my “flowering” paintings from the series: paintings inspired by botanicals and volcanic forms.

I painted 50+ watercolors on paper while on location in Iceland. These are a handful of my landscape-inspired paintings from the series, painted along a string of locations from Reykjavík to Akureyri, Myvatn, Seyðisfjörður & Vik (among others) all along the Ring Road that loops the island.

During my time in Iceland, I was constantly inspired by the otherworldly landscapes I saw, full of steaming clusters of plants and land masses. When you gaze across these landscapes, you feel like you have stepped foot on another planet. It was an amazing thing to behold. These are a few of my “steaming” paintings from the series, images inspired by the contrast of sizzling hot volcanic forms juxtaposed with freezing snow and ice.

Tiny wildflowers and little berries hiding amongst colorful reindeer mosses and volcanic rock added a surprising pop of colors to a bouquet of unusual forms and textures. Upon close inspection a rainbow of colors emerged composing a stunning palette among a backdrop of exotic volcanic greens, charcoals, sienas, ochres and umbers. Painted on location in Iceland.

I painted 50+ watercolors on paper on location in Iceland. These are a couple of my “hestur” (horse in Icelandic) inspired paintings from the series.

Watercolor on Paper

Acrylic on Canvas
20” x 6”

Acrylic on Canvas
36” x 24”

Oil on Canvas
48” x 18”

Acrylic on Canvas
36.25” x 18.25”

Acrylic on Canvas
33” x 25”