Montebello Vista

One of my favorite places to paint is near Montebello preserve.  It offers stunning vistas of the intersection of the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains on one side, and oak covered foothills on the other.  Where the two worlds collide, there are grass-covered hills that remind me of the Sound of Music.  So when my friends Michelle and Nick  commissioned me to paint a landscape that captured the beautiful views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, I packed up my paints and easel at the crack of dawn and headed to Montebello Preserve.  Here is one of the two paintings which came from that adventure.  A ranger stopped me and threatened to give me a ticket for being off the trail.  After he saw my painting, he let me off the hook with the justification that it could probably be considered  “appropriate use of public lands”. (I smiled and thanked him, but it was surreal.)

3′ x 5 1/2′, acrylic on canvas