
Nothing like a morning walk to find peace and beauty.
It’s a pleasantly warm day today – bare feet and a nap on the patio kind of pleasant day. Still, I long for cold and gloomy weather, real winter weather. I know, I know – if I was living in the middle of it, I would think differently.
That said, a gouache in a more painterly manner than pointillism, up in the mountains somewhere, looking on to the distant dusting of snow. Gloom. Snow. Cold. Yeah! Don’t go wading in the river, either! Just enjoy it, and then return home to hot cider and a fire.
Early last summer, or late last spring, I visited a park with a friend. It is in Los Angeles, above the 118 freeway, so if you frequent the area you might recognize the photo (below) and the painting (above).
It is the kind of park I like – open, easily accessible, and then winding away from the city into the canyons beyond. Since my friend cannot get too far, we never have gone deep into the canyons, but perhaps one day I will go further than I have. It has some lovely tended areas and then wilder areas, but what I particularly enjoy are the oak trees.
This is the view from the pathway returning to the city, and this tree never ceases to find a soft spot (hopefully a sharp spot with good focus in a camera!) when I visit. I think we all have trees or buildings or places we enjoy revisiting.
More pointillism, more gouache.
The other day I just had to get out for a bit of a walk, this time without the dogs. I headed out to an area that is reached by a tunnel under a busy road. From there, a school is to the right and a trail heads out to a canyon behind a number of houses. It’s rather wild back there, but it is also a view into people’s back yards. In one spot, I heard the cooing of doves or pigeons, and then a sudden flap of wings. Looking up, the birds were circling around and around. I managed to catch this after a lot of misses.