This year started off with a lot of rain but there were a few dry days in early February. On one of them I had to go to the lab at Pleasanton Kaiser, and when I was done, I went walking in an area just across Foothill Road from the clinic called "The Preserve". It's a residential development and the only things preserved are a few acres of open space land on the lower slopes of the hills. After years of drought, it felt really good to see everything so green again. This scene caught my eye and I took a photo with my phone intending to paint it later.
One day I followed Maureen and Judy as they rode south from our barn on the Goldenrod Trail. I snapped a photo with the thought that I might use it for a painting. I think it worked out pretty good.
It has been a cold, wet winter this year and some of the storms dusted the local hills with snow. Our friends, Norma and Mike, have a ranch up in the mountains south of Livermore, and one day Norma went up there and took a few photos which she shared with us. Some years ago they had a male donkey named Guido on the ranch and they adopted a female, Dolly, to keep him company. Guido got old and died and now Dolly is all by herself, but she gets along quite well.
I had been looking for an idea for a painting and remembered that just about any scene from everyday life could be interesting — like the light coming through the living room window while Maureen worked on her jigsaw puzzle.
