Near the end of April, we went to a clinic at Chris Ellsworth's place near Placerville. It was cold and wet much of the time but there was a good group of people and we had fun. At the end of the last day Chris got on his horse, Picasso, and loped around the arena. I tried taking a couple of photos, hoping for something to paint, but they weren't ideal. Then I looked at Maureen's phone and she had taken a video of the ride. I managed to find just the right frame and used it for this painting. The result was not as good as I had hoped. Maybe some more work on the background would have helped, but I didn't feel like spending any more time on it.
In mid-May, we spent four nights at the cabin near Big Sur. It was nice to get away and we did some good short hikes, but my memory of it is tainted by the fact that I somehow lost the cabin key and spent a stressful half day to fix the problem. On the way there, just before the turn off from highway 1 to Palo Colorado Road, there it this great view of the coast and just as I have done many times in the past, I pulled over and took another photo. Back at home, I painted it with memories of our recent trip.
