The California Field Atlas is a 2017 book written and illustrated by Obi Kaufmann. It was published by Heyday Books, a Berkeley-based nonprofit small press. Through passages of nature writing and hundreds of watercolor paintings, the book details California's ecology and geography. Kaufmann, an artist and outdoorsman, was born in California and currently resides in Oakland. He prepared the book over the course of a year, drawing from a lifetime of experience hiking thousands of miles of California wilderness. With the California Field Atlas, he intended to foster geological literacy and conservation of the state's natural environment. The book contains ten chapters spanning more than 500 pages in total. The first eight chapters examine California's ecological system, the ninth chapter is an overview of nature throughout the state's 58 counties, and the final chapter covers the topic of rewilding. Rather than focusing on already-famous natural landmarks such as Yosemite, Kaufmann sought to present a comprehensive overview of the state that included detailed surveys of lesser-known regions. The title combines the phrases field guide and atlas, but the book differs in purpose and function from both categories as traditionally conceived. The term "field atlas" was coined by the author to describe a new genre of nature writing with elements of deep ecology and systems thinking. According to Kaufmann, a traditional field guide describes the what, and an atlas describes the where, of the natural world. On the other hand, the "field atlas" analyzes how aspects of nature interact and function as a whole. Upon release, the book became a surprise commercial success that exceeded the expectations of its author and publisher. It sold out several printings—the first on pre-orders alone—and became a bestseller throughout California. Critics gave it generally enthusiastic reviews and it won several regional book awards. Following its success, Kaufmann signed with Heyday to publish four follow-up books about California's water, forests, coast, and deserts, respectively.
Background
Obi Kaufmann was born in Southern California on March 23, 1973. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was five years old, living in the East Bay town of Danville. He spent much of his childhood exploring Mount Diablo, drawing maps and making up names for its trails. In adulthood he settled in Oakland, California, where he worked as an artist, gallery owner, and advocate for the conservation movement. He provided nature illustrations for magazines and land trust organizations. In 2015, Lindsie Bear of the Berkeley nonprofit publisher Heyday Books expressed interest in publishing his work. Kaufmann replied that he had been waiting for the opportunity to pitch an idea he had envisioned for 20 years and estimated that the project could be completed with a year of full-time work. He presented a full proposal a week later and impressed Heyday's editors, who saw the book as a once-in-a-decade "unicorn" project. Kaufmann worked on the Field Atlas throughout 2016. He spent 4,200 man-hours on the book, working from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. on an almost daily basis. Kaufmann painted every day, sometimes out on hikes. The majority of the paintings were drawn in his studio in Downtown Oakland. While outdoors, he painted natural objects ranging from flowers to mountains by sight. He used photographic models for reference when painting animals. The project was a culmination of Kaufmann's lifetime of observations hiking across thousands of miles of Californian land. Some of the artwork dates back to a decade prior to publication. The initial draft of the book ran over 1,000 pages.
Kaufmann took inspiration from literary naturalists who endeavored "to see things as they are", saying "it may be unexpected" that he drew more inspiration from writers than from his "fellow painters." In particular, he cited the nature writings of David Douglas, John Muir, Wallace Stegner, Gary Snyder, and Joan Didion. He met Snyder, a fellow Californian, in May 2016. After reviewing Kaufmann's work in progress, Snyder asked, "But Obi, what is California?" Kaufmann replied that, speaking for himself in that moment, California felt like both heaven and hell. Greg Sarris's short story collection How a Mountain Was Made (2017) was a source for Kaufmann's depictions of Sonoma Mountain. J. R. R. Tolkien's painted maps were his primary artistic inspiration. Kaufmann declared "California is my Middle Earth" and said he hoped his maps portrayed the state's real environment in much the same way Tolkien had mapped his imagined fantasy realm. Tom Killion, a Bay Area printmaker, was another influence on his art. In preparation for mapmaking, he researched indigenous names of geographical landmarks and, in the process, learned that the Junipero Serra Peak in the Santa Lucia Range was named after Junípero Serra, the founder of the Spanish missions in California. In Kaufmann's view, Serra was responsible for acts of genocide against the indigenous peoples of California. To express his objection to the mountain's formal name, Kaufmann planned to refer to it by its Salinan name, Pimkolam, instead. However, he was persuaded that such a change would be beyond the scope of his project. He ultimately labeled the mountain with the name Santa Lucia Peak, which had once been in use before it became more commonly known as Junipero Serra Peak.
Contents The book contains about 600 of Kaufmann's paintings, divided between maps and wildlife paintings. His watercolors and texts spread across 10 chapters and more than 500 pages. The first eight chapters, with titles like "Of Earth and Mountains" and "Of Fire and Forests", describe an ecological system. The ninth chapter is an overview of the 58 counties of California using geographical markers rather than human-built markers like roads. The final chapter presents a case for ecological restoration and conservation of California through rewilding. Kaufmann sought to depict areas of natural beauty across the entire state, even in comparatively under-studied areas such as Colusa, San Joaquin, and San Benito, while avoiding undue focus on well-known tourist settings.
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