The Most Pleasant Hills

A simple white cloud floats in a vibrant blue sky over shades of green undulating pasture lands. Across from the Centennial Park and Pleasanton Senior Center, the utility box painting, The Most Pleasant Hills, offers striking simplicity to a corner of Sunol Blvd and Mission Drive. This spot places it in the heart of a central area, making the artwork easily visible and accessible to the public. Just up the Sunol Blvd roadway, rusting Corten silhouettes of elk at the next intersection remind passerbys of the rich grasslands and abundant hunting the Ohlone Peoples enjoyed in this area.

Robert W. Heubel is an artist by avocation and an engineer by training. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in English literature and holds 100 patents in the field of haptics. Haptics is the study and technology of touch and tactile feedback, especially in devices that simulate the sense of touch. If you feel a subtle buzz when you receive a notification on an incoming call, that is haptics.  So how did Heubel, a native of San Leandro, California, start a career in painting? In the early 1990s, he turned to painting to help with insomnia.

Simple lines using primary colors and structured patterns dominated his early works. Inspired by hiking and camping, his work evolved into landscape and plein-air painting with travel around the Yosemite National Park. He later studied fine art printmaking at San Francisco City College under Xavier Viramontes. 

In The Most Pleasant Hills, Robert Heubel keeps things uncluttered but meaningful. He uses bold shapes and clean lines to capture the feeling of Pleasanton’s landscape and the history of the Ohlone peoples who once roamed these lands. This minimalistic approach allows viewers to immediately connect with the scene while also inviting reflection on the area’s natural beauty and heritage. By stripping away unnecessary detail, Heubel’s work communicates a strong sense of place with clarity and warmth, embodying the idea that simplicity can be powerful storytelling.

Jan Coleman-Knight