Eucalyptus I and II

While out with Michael, we hiked into a ravine and looked up to find a pair of beautiful Eucalyptus trees. He suggested that I might like to try a watercolor method of painting with oil and thinning it with medium. It is an interesting way to paint. The day gave me a few challenges though. Being quite windy, the clouds were very active. If I looked up one minute, the trees were dark. If I looked up a few minutes later they were bathed in light. That is the dilemna of a plein air painter.
So I learned from the method.
Two days later I went back to the same spot, and gave it another go. This time with a familiar method. I do like them both.





















Funny story... a biker came by and told me to be extremely careful, as he had seen a large cat (not your house kind mind you), in a nearby yard. I could hear the dogs barking madly from where I was painting. I decided not to take any chances, and decided to call it a day. As I walked out of the foothills towards my car, I could still hear the dogs barking. Since I had to walk past their yard, I continued to scan the brush. I did not want to make the evening news. As I came up to the house, where all of the commotion was, I approaced it very carefully. I peered over the fence, and low and behold, it wasn't a cat after all. It was a very frightened racoon, that had been cornered in the pool. He was hanging on for dear life, and everytime he put a back foot over the edge to crawl out the two dogs worked in tandom to move him back into the water. I left a few other hikers there, trying to distract the dogs so the racoon could hightail it out of there. The dogs were having none of that.
So much for painting in the wilds of the San Gabriel Mountains.