Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Eileen David: The City Beckons on Saturday, May 16, 2026 from 3-5 pm.  The sixteen recent paintings on view capture her continued fascination and dialogue with the urban landscape. Eileen David showcases her muse, San Francisco, with delicate brushstrokes in small and medium scale paintings.  The exhibition will be on view through July 2, 2026.

Eileen David's love of urban landscapes began in metropolitan New York City with "recollections of soft light on timeworn iconic forms that make up the skeletal bones of the city," as she described.  Since bringing this foundation to San Francisco in the mid-1970s, she has seen the city’s many iterations.  Feeling like an explorer, David searches for a visceral response to what she sees, and these recent small-scale works arranged in a salon fashion are places that resonate with her.  Some of the locations recreated in these paintings will be lovingly familiar to the viewer.  Others will be inspired to find the painted scene and become explorers of our great city like David.

The largest work in this series of paintings is Vertical City, a nod to Wayne Thiebaud's many paintings and prints depicting San Francisco's southern neighborhoods of Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights.  It is the sort of hill that tourists do not think really exists until they brace themselves while traveling up and down the city's vertiginous terrain in a car.  In this show, David takes the viewer for a ride past colorful Victorian houses nestled in trees and vibrant plants contrasted with somberly gray roads. There are pops of color softened by the wind and fog into unmissable pastels in late afternoon shadows.

Born and raised in New York City, Eileen David was educated at San Francisco State University where she earned a bachelor's degree in Studio Art and Art History in 2001. In 2005, she received her MFA at San Jose State University and was awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Award. Throughout her life, she has brought her love of art and prowess to many classrooms and studios throughout the Bay Area. Since 2006, David has taught painting and watercolor at Skyline College in San Bruno, California. She resides in Daly City.

The City Beckons marks Eileen David's eighth exhibition with the Paul Thiebaud Gallery, where she has been a represented artist since 2006.