One day in early February, I went up Mt. Diablo for a hike. A couple of days before, it had snowed on the mountain, but I didn't care about that, I just wanted to do some hiking. I found that the road up was closed at Juniper Camp, and the parking lot was filled with people come to play in the snow. I started up the trail to the summit, and took a few photos along the way, including the one that inspired this painting. I think I did a pretty good job of it. The trail began to be dangerously icy in spots, so I gave up and turned back before reaching the top, but I had a great afternoon anyway.
For the last project for the winter session of my painting class, we painted a couple of toucans. Ron had just returned from a vacation in Costa Rica, and that may have inspired his choice of subject. The birds and branch were masked to paint a quick wet-on-wet background, and for once, I refrained from trying to fix it. That made it a better painting.
