Carpets of wildflowers appear for a short time in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, in California. Usually in the late March or April time frame and very dependent upon the fall and winter rains, the Carrizo Plain offers endless view of carpets of yellow wild flower or other colors too. At this rock, the flowers were collections of poppies.

A few summers ago I visit Arches National Park. We were there to do mainly photography and we got up very early to capture the sunrise through some of the arches. In the summer, the sun comes up fairly early around 5:30 and we had to drive from Moab and into the park and to the arch area long before sunrise. The sky here is still pre-sunrise.

Just across the bay from San Francisco is the small city of Tiburon and this small park of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary.

Marin county is a magical place. You can drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and jump on to Hwy 1 and head North along a very rugged and natural environment compared to the highly developed communities to the south.

This painting was from a scene at the corner of Hwy 1 and the turn off to Bolinas, CA.

I did a short weekend trip to Marin county and stumbled upon this historic old bay location called China Camp State Park. The light changed from foggy to blue and sun and then back to fog! At this historic landing was this old boat that was meant to be painted!

A small, park like area on Canada Rd in San Mateo County is a grassy little gem. It has limited hours during the week and closed on weekend. This is the termination of the Hetch Hetchy Water system that provides water for much of the south SF bay area.

The bright light and dense trees create these dark and moving shadows in the large reflecting pool in front of the monument structure. The place was busy with a photo shoot going on.

California “winter” is often 68, sunny and calm! Today when painting on the coast in northern Santa Cruz, the weather was just that and everyone was out to enjoy it.

Here is another try at a Provence France landscape on a much bigger canvas! This canvas is about 20×16 inches. The lavender fields were still getting their blue, purple coloring.

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is full of old time city park views. This old bridge built in 1893 at Stow Lake is a classic old bridge that crosses to an island.

As I painting this scene, the light moved and change quickly on this fairly nice later afternoon in SF.

There is some warm and magical about older buildings that are impossible to duplicate. On this trip to Provence region, we spent a few nights in this old village on top of the hill in Lauris France.