More Douglas Preserve Painting

So on my way out of the Douglas Family Preserve, (or, the Wilcox Property), Out of the corner of my eye I see a small flash of color. Turns out to be a lady out walking and she has on this bright red jacket or shirt and it caught my eye. All of my painting gear was in my backpack and my camera was in hand so I snapped a quick pic on the fly. I like when someone is near big trees to show the scale of the tree height. Later I was looking through my pics of the area and came across that photo. I took it into Photoshop and zoomed in on that area with the lady and liked how there was this nice gap in the treeline showing the distant mountains in the background....I live on the otherside of those mountains in the Santa Ynez Valley by the way.
I cropped that area and decided to paint it.....nice distance with the mountains while at the same time giving good contrast with the foreground trees. Couldn't do the height because I wanted to go horizontal not vertical....purely a framing decision. Here is my cropped area........

  I cropped about 5 or 6 different scenes based on this area of the photo but this one worked for me. I really like eucalyptus trunks.....nice creamy whites/pinks/gray and a bit of orange on the bark. Long slender trunks with gentle curves and all of that green foliage and skyholes.....they are just too fun not to paint.
Here is my finished painting below. I didn't want the houses in the dip in the landscape nor the lady walking in there....just a personal thing. I also pushed the background more than what's there to give the painting more depth than what nature was offering me. The visibility was awesome that day making the backgroundtoo intense for a painter so I use artist license to grey it down pushing it into the distance.

"View From The Douglas Preserve"

12X16 Oil on Panel

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.