Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Wilcox Property


"Wilcox Property Shadows"
12x16 Oil on canvas
 Another painting from my visit to the Wilcox Property in Santa Barbara. Actually, this area is now called the Douglas Family Preserve but most call it by the old name. The first name came from the fact that it was the Wilcox Nursery...then the area was going to be developed but Santa Barbara residents bought it to keep it undeveloped.....and that's where the second name came from, actor Michael Douglas donated $600,000 to help with purchasing the property....a good guy with 600,000 reasons why it should be called the Douglas Family Preserve. On a great sunny day, walking in the shadows of these old trees and looking down into the swells of the Pacific ocean below the bluffs it doesn't really matter what name it is called....it just feels good.
The morning shadows were just so cool there that day. I'm glad I got there early. I really would like to go back down there in late afternoon and see what the lighting is like. The cool thing about that place is the nice stands of eucalyptus, pine and coastal pines. There are many other types of trees there and the trails under the strees reminded me of hikes in forested areas in Washington and British Columbia. Very cool place.
A detail of the small coastal juniper.....rough bark and big branches shaped like banana trees.       
   

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You are having great fun with the shadows at the moment. They do make for striking images. This venue is also generating some some lovely rich colours in your work. Another gem.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Mick,

I'm going to need local paintings for the show in Santa Barbara and while painting plein air down there I took a lot of reference to work on paintings here in the studio. I love the area but it's about 40 miles away to keep running down doing plein air work :)

I was thinking of using more of my normal colors for these paintings but why not go with what was there....the whole point of PA work is for the light and color anyway and it is good the stretch the legs a bit with something different...Glad you like the colors because I do too. Thanks!