Off the beaten art-walk path

Lest it be forgotten, the soaring temperatures and idle youth in wincingly short shorts indicate that it’s summer, and the opportunity for adventure is ripe, and frankly, ought to be had. And fine art surely has its place in this escapade.

Take, for example, a short road trip down Highway 49 to Sutter Creek to the Hanford St. Gallery to discover the work of James Groleau in Salt Granite Spruce. The Bay Area artist’s series consists of detailed panoramic landscapes done with a 17th-century printmaking technique called mezzotint, and as a result, his images often have a classical yet dark feel to them. And in the month of August, the gallery will present another of his series called Gates of Rochefort (August 2-26), which consist of mezzotints of ancient French architecture sewed onto antique deeds from the 1800s, and are infinitely less icky to set eyes on than adolescents in Daisy Dukes.